Luke Armstrong's Blog

Norwegian Commercial about the blind

Several emotions arise after watching this ad. First I found myself laughing, thinking what I was watching was rather humorous. When I realized what the ad was for I began to ask myself if the ad would really help blind individuals obtain a job; perhaps they may be making the situation worse for them. I’m sure no blind individual would like to know that someone thinks that it is funny to change in front of them, because it doesn’t matter right? They are blind. On top of that, many individuals that are blind are not completely blind either, they can make out shapes, and I’m sure they would know something was up if they entered a copy room and at the very least heard people hooking up. I realize that it is just a commercial and that it shouldn’t be taken to serious because it is just a joke. However, is it okay to promote such advertising that pokes fun at a marginalized group of people, regardless if they are trying to help or not? I think this ad may cross some lines. A better ad may show that blind individuals can work just as well as others, not showing that the only benefit is you can do stuff around the office that you couldn’t do when individuals that could see were working their. Regardless of the reaction or insensitivity to those that are blind, the ad is pretty effective in catching your attention. It begs the question, is any press good press?  This question is addressed in the Canadian Marketing Blog.  I’m not sold on that argument, we need to be careful what people might be getting out of our ads.