A controversial ad at an Edmonton hair salon went unnoticed for over a year, then suddenly an online firestorm erupted against the company that escalated into an international discussion about domestic abuse and accountability in advertising.
The ad features a fashionably dressed woman with a black eye sitting on a couch. Behind the couch stands a man, her apparent abuser, holding a diamond necklace—obviously a make-up gift. The ad reads: “Look good in all you do.”
Although the commentary evolved in the social media sphere, it soon translated into the real world. After the story was featured in major media across North America, the salon was vandalized.
Fluid was splashed with bright pink paint and a scrawled message referring to the ad that read, “that was violence wrongly named Art.”
Other controversial ads in the “Look good in all you do” campaign feature a model unloading a murder victim from the back of a hearse in a forest, and a young fashionista portraying a homeless prostitute.
The ads were first denounced by a New York City copywriter and then spread like wildfire across the blogosphere, igniting passionate responses from the public and a heated discussion about accountability in advertising.
“This is not ‘igniting’ any kind of debate. It is simply glamourizing spousal abuse while overlooking the seriousness of the issue, all in the name of getting people in the door,” blogged Fiona Farrell, creative director at Donovan Creative Communications.
