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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not find this funny?

75 replies

KnowItNo · 15/12/2017 13:18

Got a spam/marketing email today from an online site to find local professional services with tips on how to avoid stress over the festive season (e.g. use our service to find x, don't go shopping in department stores, don't bother with wrapping presents in the guise of being environmentally-friendly etc.)

I would never normally read these emails and go straight to 'unsubscribe', but they have put a gif at the top of the email to catch your attention. It's a gif of a woman throwing bits of popcorn at a man and as she doesn't stop when he tells her to he smashes her in the face with the Christmas tree.

Although you don't see this in the email, turns out It's staged and there seem to be a couple of other scenarios (same actors, same outcome) on you tube.

Obviously I'm going to unsubscribe as normal from their marketing mail list, but feeling tempted to send them a message too... Just don't appreciate the "joke" of a festive comedy sketch about DV Xmas Confused

OP posts:
LuckyBitches · 15/12/2017 15:27

This is deeply disturbing. What has it been created for?

Original poster
KnowItNo · 15/12/2017 15:30

Yes Labrador - I state in the opening post that it is staged and on YouTube. I don't appreciate opening an email with it in though, and will not be using a company whose marketing team think it's funny and appropriate to send to me.

OP posts:
Littlefrogletx · 15/12/2017 15:31

Yeah that would have still hurt even though it's staged.

NotAgainYoda · 15/12/2017 15:34

Happy

Ah, but that presupposes it's funny

I'm not sure who'd find that funny. I'm not sure I'd like to be their friend

HappyLabrador · 15/12/2017 15:35

Some of the responses on here suggest the posters think it’s real.

NotAgainYoda · 15/12/2017 15:36

Happy

No, we are not that thick

HappyLabrador · 15/12/2017 15:38

It’s not funny, no Yoda. But it’s not real either. I wouldn’t call it deeply disturbing.

There are lots of stupid, unfunny videos like this on YouTube.

NotAgainYoda · 15/12/2017 15:42

Man overreacting totally and hitting/pushing a woman, is a bit disturbing.

MissionItsPossible · 15/12/2017 15:43

Who on EARTH approved that? Shock

This is one of those stupid videos that makes me glad that Vine has gone as I don't find things like this funny, but to think an advertising company thought this was a good idea? Speechless. What's it advertising? Mixed gender boxing (with weapons allowed)? Confused

wasonthelist · 15/12/2017 15:46

What kind of marketing is this? I can’t imagine a universe in which any marketing person using those YouTube clips wouldn’t get fired

Original poster
KnowItNo · 15/12/2017 15:47

What's it advertising? Mixed gender boxing (with weapons allowed)?

Actually it seems that the guy who made the videos does feature convicted rapist and former boxer Mike Tyson in his You Tube sketches.

OP posts:
wibblywobblywoo · 15/12/2017 15:49

Some of the responses on here suggest the posters think it’s real.

Confused They really don't........

And for the record I too think it is appalling - I assume the 'internet sensation' is the Anwar Jibawi named in the Youtube ref.? Twat.

ferntwist · 15/12/2017 15:49

YANBU. Glad you’re going to complain. What a marketing fail.

HappyLabrador · 15/12/2017 15:52

I suppose I don’t find it disturbing because I know it’s all staged in an attempt to be funny. I’ve seen similar with women bashing men in the same way.

There’s an American couple who ‘prank’ each other. In one the woman sneaks up and smashes the man over the head with a baking tray as hard as she can. He does equally horrible things to her.

I think that’s worse because they really are hurting each other and they never know it’s coming. It’s bizarre.

ReanimatedSGB · 15/12/2017 15:57

The first link shows a collection of clips of the same couple - in each one she does something 'annoying'; he tells her to stop, she does it again and he attacks her, really violently. OK it's obviously all staged, but I don't see the point in the least.
I wonder what the target market is of the people who sent it to OP.

MissionItsPossible · 15/12/2017 15:58

It's not Youtube, by the way, it's originally from Vine, you can tell because the clips are both 7 seconds in length. It's just been uploaded to Youtube. I know it makes no difference but Vine was full of this kind of crap

Doingthebattybat · 15/12/2017 16:01

That is really shocking. I have no idea how anyone thought this was ok to use in a marketing campaign. It’s so wrong.

MrsLupo · 15/12/2017 16:06

That's appalling. People find this stuff funny? What the fuck is the world coming to?

Original poster
KnowItNo · 15/12/2017 16:18

I wonder what the target market is of the people who sent it to OP

Bizarrely, it's Mumsnetters I think!

Underneath the comedy domestic violence clip, there are intended-to-be-funny tips to avoid Christmas stress (e.g. give away all the unused tat other people have given you as presents), become an eco-warrior so you don't have to bother wrapping gifts etc....

and the last tip is [use our service to help you]...

Hire a Father Christmas to "scare the kids" (must be a French thing I don't quite get?!), hire a nanny to get the kids off your hands, hire a caterer to avoid being food poisoned by the MIL...

Guessing perhaps written by a young YouTube/Vine generation marketing bod who's not of the target market?

OP posts:
Footle · 15/12/2017 16:33

I've emailed them. I'll come back to thread if I get a reply to share.

PassiveAgressiveQueen · 15/12/2017 16:39

Slapstick is fujnny because it is an accident, the person turns round and wap ladder in the head. Turns back wap somebody else gets hit. Rope brakes piano lands on somebody.

This is somebody hitting somebody hard on purpose, that is not slapstick that is beating somebody up. As some people don't seem to know the difference.

Here is a link of classic clips.

PuppyMonkey · 15/12/2017 16:47

Happy just because something is staged and "not real," that doesn't mean the thing is not disturbing or not funny.

PuppyMonkey · 15/12/2017 16:49

I think I mean not not funny actually. Grin

Jux · 15/12/2017 16:53

Is the message that Stop means Stop, no matter who says it, man to woman, woman to man, etc?

Doesn’t excuse his reaction at all though.

Furiosa · 15/12/2017 17:00

God I hate videos like these. I know they're staged but these two morons are not professional stunt actors and there have been instances where people making "prank" videos have been seriously hurt. A woman just got sent to prison in the US for accidentally killing her boyfriend (and father of her unborn child) while making a video for youtube likes.

However I don't think the intension with this one was about trivialising DV but it's obviously going to look like that to some so it's an bad choice for a marketing strategy.

I've seen lots of videos like this, grown adults who act like teenage boys and it always surprises me that their wives/girlfriends/female fiends go along with them.