Every year, at least one advertiser somewhere in the world is guaranteed to exploit the 9/11 attacks with a tasteless ad.
French newspaper Courrier International gets the “honor” this year with an ad suggesting that we could have avoided 9/11 if we’d simply built the twin towers a bit shorter. The ad shows two jets flying over a substantially shorter World Trade Center along with the headline, “Learn to anticipate.”
MyFoxLA has the tasteless details:
The website Ads of the World reported that Saatchi & Saatchi France is the agency behind the ad.
The Montreal Gazette reported that the campaign is an attempt to imply that the newspaper’s coverage will help readers anticipate major events.
The 9/11 terror attack are only one of the events used in the promotion. The campaign also uses the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy and the 1969 moon landing.
Many who have posted comments about the ad on various websites are upset about its insensitivity.
“Stupid beyond belief. There will NEVER be a right time to reference 9/11 in advertising,” reads one comment on the website AdFreak.com. “Oooh, I know, perhaps the Saatchi creatives could do one on the deportation of gypsies from their country,” quipped another post on the site.
Considering that the campaign features three American news events, perhaps the campaign should feature a new headline:
France. Where you can anticipate that nothing of any significance will ever happen.
Source: MyFoxLA.com
This post was last modified on September 11, 2010
View Comments (29)
Anyone remember the John Cleese line from Fawlty Towers - "He's from Barcelona"? ( All 12 episodes available for download at isohunt.com )
This whole affair can be explained and summarized in two words - "They're French".
'Nuff said. ;-)
Those french fags that made the ad were dimitized and sodomized by the muslims and in thier own eyes young, hip and edgy liberals. Which translated to my language means dumb ass effeminate collaberators.
Anthony Bourdain makes my skin crawl, he thinks he's such a badass.
I think he's just an ass.But he kept his nasty comments to himself when Nugent was a guest..
If bourdain would have been stupid enough to say something anti American to Ted he would have been bitch slapped and they would have to edit out all the rightious Ted Nugent comments at bourdain.
You don't want to be badmouthing America when Ted's around. I bet he'd curb his foul tongue around Chuck Norris, too.
Screw the french
Oh, those silly French, the end-product of the Rationalists. How's Voltaire working out for you now?
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity........under Shari'ah ;-)
Saatchi & Saatchi can blow me! As can the French(though they would probably enjoy it, so I take it back about the frogs).
What kind of moron does it take to run an ad like that? I will tell you-the same kind of editor who puts a headline behind John King on CNN yesterday asking the question "Did the US overreact to 9/11?". I SEE DUMB PEOPLE!
This is especially screwed up since their HQ is in NYC.
Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide•Headquarters: 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014, USA•Tel +1 212 463 2000•Fax +1 212 463 9855
do they even realize the terrorists were AIMING at the WTC?? building them shorter wouldnt do much good!
I hope some bright person over there organizes a boycott of products featured in ads done by Saatchi & Saatchi. They would lose their business rather quickly.
Bet they didn't anticipate THAT!!!
The french did this design , huh? Wheres the one with the maginot line?