RSSBenQ Pulls Questionable 9/11-Themed Ad
By the Betanews Staff | Published December 8, 2006, 1:46 PM
Taiwanese electronics manufacturer BenQ has sent letters of apology to those who contacted the company over its use of the wreckage of the World Trade Center in a recent ad for its MusiQ line of MP3 players. Although an official apology has not been released, BenQ Americas president Ben Chu replied to those who did complain, saying it "apologizes for the feelings this regretful incident may have caused."
The ad, which says "I believe, music makes hope" with a Chinese teenager standing in front of imagery of the WTC ruins, has since been pulled. Chu says that the company is taking steps to prevent such an incident from happening again. BenQ could not be reached for comment as of press time.
That "Chinese teenager" is the 31-year-old lead singer of Taiwanese rock band Mayday, who also designed the mp3 player advertised (but not the ad, I imagine).
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|Germany can say all they want in protest, but they lost, so we don't listen! HAR!
Actually Germany has been very heavy with censorship in regards to such things, within their country. From media, to games, to films.
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|Why are any images of WTC off limits? Who decides this? What if Germany had said that any depiction or archival footage of their concentration camps — in any ad, game, video, or movie — was off limits? Jeez, lighten up. Two commercial buildings fell down. It's not the end of civilization, unless you think all things worthy are dependent on steel and concrete.
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|Umm, I think it might have something to do with the nearly three thousand souls that perished in the towers.
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|I don't ever remember images of concentration camps being used to sell mobile phones.
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|It won't be 'acceptable' until probably another 1/2 generation, really. I mean you don't do that. This is an instance of using a disaster in attempt to gain another buck, and it smacked BenQ back right in the face.
To an American, this is completely idiotic. To other nations it may be OK, though, so I guess I can see how that made it through the pre-screeners. If this was an American company or if they had American pre-screeners that were honest, they'd nearly definitely have had that portion on the cutting room floor.
Unfortunately they didn't use their heads on this one, and whatever the product was that they were selling may be badly marred by this marketing ploy.
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|humans, animals, whatever you want to call them. not souls.
Preaching about peace may sell, but whether you like it or not death also sells pretty damn well, look at Xianity.
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|It can only be a matter of time before Gieco starts using "Global Warming" to peddle their wares.
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|its possible
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|ok, i dont understand america at all, they can make not 1, not 2 but 3 different movies, worldwide releases, of the world trade centers, 1 of the firemen, 1 of a few ppl in the buildings, and 1 of the airplanes, now this is natural for the states to do...
what u ask? theyve never done this before noooo.. not with the titanic, not with peral harbor, torra torra torra, not with anything ever before.
the states does not make money over and over again from their own ppl in times of greif.
and if the states does not do it then no one else should.
after all whats good for the goose, is good for the gander. (anyone who does not know what those are they are geese)
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|the movies, flags, s***s, and everything else I've seen are "acceptable"? America is the home of capitolisim and the freedom of speech.
However it's society that dictates what is acceptable and what isn't. Businesses don't like to get into the habit of alienating customers.
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