:: adgruntie :: Wednesday Ad News Blurbs

+ A New Zealand woman is asking toilet paper maker Purex to change its advertising after her four-year-old was mauled by a shar pei dog. A shar pei also happens to be the type of dog used as the Purex Rolly mascot.

Jacob's mother, Racheal Stark, said yesterday her son had approached the dog to pat it because he had been lured into thinking shar peis were a safe breed through the Purex advertising.

"I've already phoned Purex and put in a complaint because the way I see it, it's almost false advertising," she said. "Jacob thought this dog was a cute, cuddly little thing and it attacked him."

[...snip...]

Purex spokesman Grant Freeman said last night the company sympathised with the Stark family but could not be held responsible for the behaviour of all shar pei dogs. "Any animal, if you approach it in the wrong way, will attack. And a lot of companies use animals in their advertising, and most of them can be vicious as well."

Purex would continue using the dog. "Our intention is not to promote the dog but purely to emphasise the softness of his rolls and his fur."

Oy! First off, what happened is bad. But, the advertising is to blame? Huh? I guess advertising is to blame of all bad things that happen. *smirk*

+ In the UK, O2 is threatening legal action against UK telco Liquid Telecom for using bubbles and the colour blue in its ads.

+ CreativeMatch reports that the The Financial Times Creative Business section has launched a new competition in association with OpenAd.net. Once a month a ad brief is published and readers have two weeks to submit their entries at OpenAd.net. The first brief was put up yesterday and is for the Make Poverty History Campaign. You can view the brief here. They seem to have a decent list of judges too, including Peter Souter - CD from AMV BBDO and Greg Delaney of Delaney, Lund, Knox Warren & Partners.

+ A rant on how the advertising industry shoots itself in the foot when it comes to budgets and touting award wins.