Ford SportKa commercial shows graphic image-

blondiecat

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So far out in left field I got lost
A friend of mine sent that link to me thinking it would be "funny" I was not amused at all in fact I was quite upset and disgusted that he would even think that is funny. I am writting Ford a letter to tell them just how distasteful that is
 

uncle fester

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Originally Posted by Scott77777

I disagree. I think donating vehicles or money is an act of good faith. "Business is business" and Ford and O&M just sent a worldwide message that portraying animals getting killed is a cute and funny way to promote Ford's product.
But therein lies the rub, Scott. When companies cave to this kind of pressure from any group, it means that any group that has "issues" will see this as a means to get freebies.
By Ford doing this, they're just letting the inmates run the asylum.
When do the "acts of contrition" become nothing more than extortion?
Where do you draw the line?
Who get's the free vehicles?

So it's not enough that people vote with their wallets, Ford has to give out free cars because they offended someone?
Where does it stop?

In case you missed it, in this hyper-sensative world, all you have to do is THINK about someone who feels put upon in a way that they don't like and they immediatly claim victim status and have their hands out.
 

scott77777

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To be honest, Ford can handle the situation however it likes to its own benefit or detriment. I simply think it's a good public relations move for them to put a positive spin on their "accident."

Let's use another example: Ford does big business with the healthcare industry. Ford hires a Ogilvy & Mather to create an ad campaign for them. O&M releases a "funny" video showing a guy in a wheelchair getting run over. The healthcare industry is appalled and says, "that's really offensive...we're going with another company...Dodge would never stoop so low."

The reality of business is that Ford would then try to court those people back as customers, either through pricing, benefits, a profuse apology, some sort of public relations act (donation to a charity), etc...

Or....they could choose not to. If their sales dip, C'est la vie. They had an opportunity to turn things around and they chose to sit on their hands. Or they could issue a press release and say, "we had nothing to do with this; to show how much we truly do care, we've decided to donate five ambulances to rural areas. We care about these people and would never be so callous...please accept our apologies."

And...now they've gone from a "public relations nightmare" to a "public relations success."

People buy products because they're good products, but also because they respect the brand. That includes the ideology of the company.

Companies are inherently selfish vehicles. They exist to provide a living for their employees and profits for the investors and corporate brass. So why do they donate to charities? Because it's a good public relations move for both their consumers and [to a certain extent] their own workforce.

They're selling themselves. As such, there's no extortion. There's only an incentive for them to establish a good relationship with their cat-loving public.

As for a petition (which is the act that would probably be compared to extortion) -- I started off suggesting that because I think that videos such as this encourage people who are abusers or apathetic about animals to begin with. Since I feel it encourages or reinforces callous attitudes, I think there's a certain responsibility on the part of the company to make amends.

Now CERTAINLY, a video like this *doesn't* make someone an abuser or abuse animals, but I think it's just another drop of water in a big lake of anti-animal attitudes.
 

scott77777

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Incidentally -- regarding that last part -- an acquaintance who thought this video was very funny happens to be a person who decided to mock me last year when I was trying to get some donations for TNR and kitten adoptions. He's also someone that likes to joke about shooting animals. It's kind of sad that these people use such "jokes" as a reinforcement of their own bad attitudes towards animals, but I truly think they do.
 

spotz

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Personally I think the more attention this gets, the more likely we are to see similar ads in the future.

Word of mouth has always been the best form of advertising...and the cheapest.

The most effective campaign would be to get people to threaten to boycott ford for their potential advert campaign, with a single demand: A public apology and commitment to not sensationalize pain/suffering in future ad campaigns. There should be no demand for any form of monetary compensation, that's tantamount to bribery IMO.

It was a poor choice, if they continue to make these choices then their customer base will dwindle (significantly? unlikely, but a sale is still a sale).

The sad part is that it is human nature to find suffering/pain to be funny. Just watch Americaâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s funniest home videos once...you have all sorts of calamities, where people obviously got hurt...and society finds this amusing?

Compensation through buying incentives or otherwise is simply bribery. A public apology, and a commitment to preventing similar instance from happening in the future...that means something. Too many people are finding that they can bribe their way out of trouble. What kind of precedent are we setting by encouraging ford to buy their way out of trouble?

Spotz
 

scott77777

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I should say - for the record, I was probably overzealous with going the "petition for $1 million" route.... LOL....
I would rephrase that now if I could.


My feeling was moreso that it would be good PR for Ford to do something proactive for the animal community to show that they actually cared more than lip service...

I get a bit annoyed at this stuff, because I feel like it reinforces and mean attitudes already present in society.
 

spotz

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Originally Posted by Scott77777

...I get a bit annoyed at this stuff, because I feel like it reinforces and mean attitudes already present in society.
Couldn't agree with you more!

This is why I would not be satisfied with anything other than an apology and commitment to avoid this style of advertising in the future.

Spotz
 

9katz1poodle

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i'm ashamed to say my husband and I both own fords. i have a mustang and he has an f150. Don't know about him, but I'll never be able to buy another Ford without thinking about this....
 

uncle fester

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Not seeing a commercial to reinforce someone's depraved behavior isn't going to stop animal crueilty, only arrest warrants, handcuffs and spending the next 10 years as another man's "wife" in a state prison will do that.

My point is, sure, Ford is going to have to kiss some major butt to get past this one, but the commercial was never aired and who knows, this ad campaign might never have gone on the air anyway.

You're punishing Ford for someone else's lame-brained idea, now have Ford gone ahead with it and stood by it, then I'd have a problem with them.

As far as your aquaintence goes, if he's bragging about shooting animals, I'd start asking animal hospitals and law enforcement if there have been unsolved cases of animal shootings. If someone is dumb enough to talk about it, they might just be dumb enough to do it.
As far as his ridicule goes,
on him!
 

scott77777

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I'm going to join the conspiracy theorists and say that Ford probably knew about it or allowed it to be released.

I work in photography, and although my focus isn't commercial projects, I do work on them occasionally. Whenever I've done a commercial project, there was always an art director, company rep, or someone along the line who had to approve layouts, approve the direction, etc... I believe O&M has enough money and staff to generate this sort of thing on their own without Ford's oversight, but I find it hard to swallow that someone in a position of responsibility was completely ignorant of the whole thing.

Where did they film the car? Who gave them the car? Where did they get the footage? Ford didn't provide it for them? They must have, and if they did, then they must have had an idea about the direction of the shoot as well. Or did they just hand a car to O&M with a blank check and say, "here's the car, the budget is open, we trust whatever direction you want to take the campaign -- just call us when you're done?" I can't believe that.

The digital work may have been done at someone's desk, but somebody had to know about the setup.
 

feralwhisperer

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I've talked to several people at PETA and today I got an official response from them. They say and I believe them that no cat was killed making that commercial
It is clear that no cat was killed in the making of this ad. What is not clear is how many cats will be killed because of this ad, and how many will be killed in the style of this ad. It is not extortion to hold Ford and Ogilvy & Mather responsible for this ad. In my view we need to let them know this is NOT acceptable. It needs to be done in a manner that doesn't give them more and free advertisment.
 
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