Great Year for Bad Ads, Say Sponsors of ‘Lemon Awards’
When times get bad, advertising agencies will go to nearly any lengths to pump up sales. That’s the path that many advertisers took in recessionary 1991, contends the consumer lobby Center for Science in the Public Interest.
The group handed out its annual “Lemon Awards” for the most misleading and irresponsible advertising of 1991 on Tuesday in Washington. Picking the 10 worst offenders was more difficult than ever before, one organization official said, because “there were a lot of candidates in all categories.”
Among the most familiar advertisers to receive the lemon-shaped statuettes for what the group called “irresponsible” advertising, were Stroh Brewery, for ads featuring the scantily clad Swedish Bikini Team pushing Old Milwaukee beer, and R. J. Reynolds, for marketing Camel cigarettes by using a cartoon character that “appeals to children.”
“The economic pressures from the recession are pushing some advertisers over the edge,” said Bruce Silverglade, legal director of the group. He said the center presents these awards as a means of pressuring advertisers into running more truthful advertising.
Realistically, ad executives point out, it is not under-funded consumer groups but pressure from the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Drug Administration that will force advertisers to be more honest. But while most advertisers and their agencies hate to admit it, it is still a public relations nightmare to be singled out for creating untruthful ads.
“I’d be embarrassed as hell to receive one of those things,” said Jerry Siano, chairman of the giant New York agency N W Ayer. Ayer did not receive any dubious ad awards from the group. “If anyone did deceptive advertising at our company, I’d be humiliated,” he said. But Siano was quick to point out that he believes that the vast majority of advertising is truthful.
The center sees things differently. “Widespread deception continues to plague everything from airline to beer advertisers,” Silverglade said.
Perhaps no ad campaign has received more wrath from consumer groups during the past year than the TV spots for Old Milwaukee beer that feature five blond women in bikinis who cavort around beer-guzzling men. The ads dub the women as the “Swedish Bikini Team.”
In one ad, a mountain climber perched on a mountaintop tells his buddies, “Guys, it doesn’t get any better than this.” Suddenly, the women descend down ropes to the astounded men--just as an Old Milwaukee beer truck arrives. “It most certainly got better,” he says.
In November, five female employees of Stroh Brewery Co., which makes Old Milwaukee, sued their employer for sexual harassment on the job. They cited the ad campaign as an example of the company’s “sexist” attitudes. But the center said the campaign is not only sexist, it also perpetuates the connection between beer drinking and risky activities--such as mountain climbing.
Officials at Stroh’s declined to comment Tuesday, as did executives at the San Francisco agency that created the campaign, Hal Riney & Partners.
The three major networks--ABC, CBS and NBC--were chastised by the consumer group for “lowering their commercial advertising standards” to boost revenues. ABC responded in a statement by insisting that in some cases, it has actually tightened its ad standards.
Johnson & Johnson received two Lemons for its ads. The center said a print ad for the firm’s Monistat 7 yeast infection medication failed to warn women to see their doctors if they had symptoms for the first time. In a statement, Johnson & Johnson apologized, but said the warning was “inadvertently omitted” in a one-time newspaper insert.
But the organization also criticized Johnson & Johnson for its ads for Serenity Guards adult absorbent pads, which it said equates poor bladder control with “being a female.” Johnson & Johnson, in its statement, said the ad did not mean to suggest that “incontinence is a consequence of being female.”
For the second time, ads for Camel cigarettes that feature cartoon camels were criticized by the center.
J. Reynolds is engaged in nothing less than commercial child abuse by luring preteens” into smoking, said Mark Green, commissioner of consumer affairs for the city of New York, who spoke at the awards ceremony. He has petitioned the FTC to ban the ads.
In a statement, R. J. Reynolds said it uses the cartoon camel to “stand out” from the 400 brands on the market and to reverse the impression that Camel is “a tired, old brand.”
Worst Advertising of the Year
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has bestowed the following “awards” for what the group termed “the most misleading, unfair or irresponsible” ad campaigns of 1991. The “winners” include:
Category: Tobacco Company: R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Complaint: “For irresponsibly advertising Camel cigarettes in ads that appeal to children.”
Category: Pharmaceuticals Company: Johnson & Johnson Complaint: “For Monistat 7 yeast infection medicine ads that fail to inform women to see their doctors if they are suffering symptoms for the first time.”
Category: Women’s health Company: Johnson & Johnson Complaint: “For Serenity Guards ads that misleadingly claim incontinence is ‘part of being female.’ ”
Category: Alcohol Company: Stroh Brewery Complaint: Swedish Bikini Team campaign pushing Old Milwaukee beer “links alcohol consumption with violence against women.”
Category: Networks Company: ABC, NBC, CBS Complaint: For “lowering their commercial advertising standards” to boost revenues.
