my considered reply to the 8Dio ad

[updog]

^gotta agree here... i sometimes wonder how people have the time to actually get offended by the most insignificant things

People, like me, with cancer, give a shit.
Go f u c k yourself as well.

i didn't mean to imply that cancer or people who happen to have it are insignificant. but i've seen far worse cancer-related jokes, almost direct stabs at that, while i think this one wasn't really all that intentional.

i can see now why you'd find it offending though - there are a lot of people on this world who get offended by things that really don't have jack to do with them or anything they go through, but unlike what i thought to be the case here at first, you aren't one of those people. sorry about my comment, i'll hope you the best.

[koalaboy]

Like the erudite Stephen Fry's short of a f'ckin' word or two? He's an absolute arse bastard of the vernacular and can probably swear you under the table in Latin and Greek as well!!

Dear Mr Fry doesn't quite count under my classification of 'generally'

Besides, he is one of the few (including Bill Nighy as another example) who can manage to sound so eloquent and civilised when they swear.

As it is, I am currently reading the advice of his good wife, Edna, whom I am sure would offer some further suggestions on this type of language

(As an aside, my favourite writer who is known to use such colourful language, is the wonderful Chuck Wendig: http://terribleminds.com/)

It's interesting to see how much of a moot point the usage of the 'C' word is though, considering it's been around for over 2000 years.

[hollowsun]

It's interesting to see how much of a moot point the usage of the 'C' word is though, considering it's been around for over 2000 years.

Indeed - very 'quaint' (the origin of the dreaded 'C' word)

I find the use of language (and peoples' offence at it) fascinating...

Replace C with P and you have an innocuous word ... one of summery leisure in sunny Oxford with strawberries and possibly some bubbly in a nice hamper .... or F with D...

And it's perfectly acceptable to have a film where 158 people are shot to death horribly, blood everywhere ... and there's a torture scene where someone's fingers and toes are smashed with a hammer and/or their head is put in a vice, all shown in brutal detail - that's ok... or some schlocky sci-fi movie where heads and limbs are ripped off by some alien, whatever - all ok...

But mention the 'F' or 'C' word and people write to anyone and everyone to say how offended they are.

All very silly really ... and WAY beyond the confines of this area of KVR so I'll shut up!!!

Cheers,


Stephen

[monkeyweasel]

a friend has just recovered from cancer, he's only 30. I'd say a large part of his success in beating the illness came down to him remaining so damn positive the whole time. in fact so positive that it put us "healthy" people to shame.

Getting worked up about an advert that makes no negative judgement about cancer sufferers but just the illness itself is probably NOT in your best interests.

or are ppl suggesting here that cancer is actually a positive thing? is that why ppl are so offended cos the advert portrays cancer as evil? maybe someone would like explain why they find this inaccurate?

[thecontrolcentre]

^gotta agree here... i sometimes wonder how people have the time to actually get offended by the most insignificant things

Having lost 2 good friends to cancer, and after spending much time in "asylums" visiting a dear family member with mental health problems, I have to disagree. There is nothing insignificant about using this type of language to advertise a product. It is both thoughtless and offensive.

[monkeyweasel]

It is both thoughtless and offensive.

Please don't take this as an attack - I'm genuinely curious, nothing more - but can you actually explain why you consider this advert offensive?

I can easily get worked up about advertising that portrays women as air-heads, sex-objects, or bad drivers for example, or that contains racial/national stereotypes, because in those types of cases there's a perpetuation of negative imagery which can have a genuine effect on viewers (i.e. making men think that this is really how women are, or that its acceptable to talk about women in this way, and on the flipside making women feel that the world is a hostile place...or whatever), but I'm completely at a loss to see what negative effect the above advert actually has on the world. Is it that it reminds people who have cancer (or whose loved ones have cancer) that cancer exists? Cancer does exist, and it isnt nice, so where's the inaccuracy?

While I'm not particularly convinced this was a such a good idea for an advert, I dont really see how it is offensive either (though I'm happy to hear counter-arguments), as it doesnt in any way suggest that someone suffering from cancer is somehow a lesser being, or spread inaccurate information about cancer/cancer patients.

During the first Iraq war Massive Attack were forced to change their name to Massive. Why? They werent the ones attacking Iraq. And the same number of people died regardless of the name change. Likewise, this guy's adverts do not cause cnacer and nor do they make any difference to how effectively people will recover from cancer. If you can make a convincing argument that we will treat cancer patients in a worse manner, or that they will be in some way stigmatized after reading this ad then I'll admit I'm wrong, but for now I dont get it.

Just the fact that the advert reminds people that cancer exists, and isnt nice, does not in itself strike me as cause for offense.

For what its worth, my father recently recovered from cancer, but the treatments have just about killed him (he's not young). Yet I am not even slightly upset by this advert, it wouldnt have even entered my mind.

[thecontrolcentre]

It's not about the words ... it's about the context. It's a tasteless way to advertise a sample set.

[djshire]

When political correctness go too far....

[Sampleconstruct]

8Dio seem to be a bit desperate lately - one receives about 3 Newsletters a week, everything is constantly on sale and when visiting their site one gets blasted with a terrible noise attack from that cancerous sample set - I unsubscribed from their NL, I've had enough.

[monkeyweasel]

other words we should immediately ban from all KVR advertising:



"killer" - insensitive to families of murder victims

"cool" - some homeless people don't have enough clothes to wear tonight

"dirty" - not everyone can afford soap

"thick" - people in the UK might assume we're talking about them

"phat" - heart-disease being the greatest killer of all

"heavy" - your mom

etc

[thecontrolcentre]

Now you're just being silly.

[monkeyweasel]

yep