ASA response to my Dr Pepper Facebook Status Takeover Campaign

[ASAareTwats]

namechanged because I don't want ASA/media/Dr Pepper to link me back to my regular profile

I've had a reply from the ASA regarding the Dr Pepper Facebook Status Takeover.

Basically as the promotion is no longer active "there doesn't seem to be grounds for further action".

This doesn not surprise me and indeed the ASA's remit is to ensure that ads breaching the Code do not continue to appear.

However I am shocked by this paragraph in their letter:

"We understood that the film referred to became more widely known after a trend fo people showing a one minute trailer to friends and filming their reaction to it, sometimes uploading those "reaction" clips to the internet, and that the term "Two Girls One Cup" was actually a colloquiol name for the trailer rather that the title of the film itself. People who had not seen the film or the trailer might have been aware of the "reaction" videos. Without wanting to excuse the inclusion of the reference it is worth bearing in mind that it had a wider cultural context than a straightforward reference to pornography alone."

Why are they trying to persuade me that this wasn't a pornographic reference? Why include this paragraph?

That is total bollocks isn't it?! They clearly, don't get it.

Bollocks , "a wider cultural context than a straightforward reference to pornography alone" ie: also a a reference to pornography!

Well, they are right that "Two Girls One Cup" is a colloquial reference to the trailer rather than the title of the original film, but the trailer (a) is a film, albeit a short one, and (b) is itself pornographic.

They seem to be either not grasping that fact at all or wilfully ignoring it. The status, after all, wasn't "Just watched some of the 2G1C reaction videos and marvelled at the way they capture the cultural zeitgeist".

Doesn't surprise me TBH.

Why would they try to defend/excuse this?

Doesn't make sense to me apart from you've obviously trodden on some male toes.

If you want a logical reason though - sorry, I have no idea.

Blimey.

Can you forward your mail to some sort of action group or go a little higher up the food chain? What's the history of responses to complaints from the ASA? And what has previously been complained about?

Do you think Pepsi is big enough to buy that response from the ASA?

I've just looked at their adjudications and responses, all they seem to do is ask people to change the ads. What were you expecting?

Can't you ask what the wider cultural context of 'two girls one cup' might be?

I like the way they say 'without wanting to excuse the reference', in a paragraph which is basically trying to do exactly that. Pathetic! The ASA is a joke.

Is there a next step? To whom can you complain about the ASA?

Just goes to show - the only real action you can take is not to buy their products, and to spread the word so that others don't either. Regulation? Ha!

/eighties they only seem to have the power to make companies change ads anyway. Who can you complain to about a company being socially irresponsible? Who cares anyway?

One wonders what is the point of it anyway, so an ad gets pulled, so what? Surely if they uphold a complaint the company have done something wrong there should be a penalty. Isn't that what happens on TV? I'm sure I've seen apologies announced.

What posie said - of course there should be a kind of penalty, it's far too easy to begin massively offensive campaigns to have them pulled after aaaaages with no comeuppance.