Textappeal Blog

THE NEWS:

Have you ever heard a child tell you that he will cut mean people into pieces, put the bits into bags and hide the corpses so that nobody will find them – just like his daddy does? This is how an ad on French radio begins, for the American drama series Dexter and Canal +. It was adapted from what was initially a successful print and outdoors campaign. Dexter, broadcast in France by the TV channel Canal +, features a sexy policeman during the day who is driven by an uncontrollable urge to kill murderers at night.

BEHIND THE NEWS:

Canal+’s intention with this ad may have been to trigger a sarcastic “not enough to shock me” reaction with a target audience that already knows Dexter, via content that mimics the black humour of the show. For those who didn’t know Dexter however, the sarcastic codes and references of the series were missing in the radio spot, and many listeners were genuinely shocked. Justifying death and violence by the fact that the victims are “mean” goes against the French law. A child’s voice talking about reproducing violent acts could contribute to the underlying minimization and trivializing of violence. At least that is what the Court held. The ad is now banned in France. Pushing local cultural limits is often an effective tactic for edgy brands to get attention, but pushing too hard can backfire.

The News:

Venus Williams, the world’s No.2 women tennis player, has successfully gained attention from all over the world by her appearance at this year’s French Open, not by her tennis playing (even though she won the match), but because of the outfit she was wearing. Williams, who also designs tennis wear, wore an original lacy corset-like dress in the spirit of the Moulin Rouge with flesh-coloured underwear underneath. Gasps of shock were to be heard from the courtside viewers each time her skirt flipped up during play, wondering if she was wearing underwear or not.

Behind The News:

Many of the news stories surrounding the infamous outfit have varied in their stance, but the same opposing opinions have turned up on news and sports website blogs. They mainly centre around Venus being a bad role model for their children. This is an odd viewpoint when the skin coloured underwear actually covered up more skin than the underwear that the majority of female tennis players usually wear. Even odder is that it is known now that her nakedness was an illusion and yet she is still labelled obscene.

Culturally, Venus has already broken conventions of the tennis world by becoming the first African-American No.1 tennis player. Even though she is now out of the French Open, after her subsequent loss to Nadia Petrova, Venus has had the personal victory of creating debate. Now people who may not have had any interest in the French Open or the sport of tennis before now have something to say about it. No one can deny that the whole incident can be nothing but a more interesting outcome than a strict win or lose result.