Leave Your Worries Behind

I wanted to write up this little story in response to Raymond Taylor's "Whole lotta nothin" unofficial challenge and hope it's not too late.

I've been using this case study in my ethics of communication classes as an example of insensitive, crude, and sexist advertising that went viral against the creator's intentions. It's a great case for discussing the ethics and consequences of messages the spread of which you cannot control on the Internet.

So, here's the story: in 2013, Ford of India was experiencing declines in sales of Figo - a smaller hunchback with a large capacity trunk developed specifically for the Indian market, where many families need a compact car to maneuver densely populated streets and heavy traffic roads. It was in demand especially by small family businesses that need to transport a lot cargo to food and other local markets. Great idea, right, a car specifically tailored for a local market needs? But in 2012, Ford saw a 14% decline in sales of the car in just one year.

A group of young ad creators for Ford thought they could help the company out. They decided to highlight the car's spacious trunk with a series of three print ads for an online competition featuring then famous public figures packing their "enemies" or victims into the trunk, thus "leaving their worries behind."

It was a boutique advertising competition where the ad artists hoped they'd score points for a creative idea and execution of it in the cartoonish punk-rock style. They thought it was funny, too: the first ad featured former Italian PM Berlusconi (allegedly) transporting young sparsely-clad women for his notorious bonga-bonga parties. I've put that image as a cover for this story as Silvio is no longer with us. I hope he was not able to use his charm and influence to find his way out of Hell.

The second ad featured Paris Hilton with the three Kardashian sisters in the trunk. The third one - racing legend Michael Schumacher toting his competitors Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, and Lewis Hamilton. You can still find those ads on the Internet, I'm not going to display them here.

Even though these ads may seem quite funny for a western audience, they created a huge backlash in India after they were leaked into public Internet spaces. At the time, India was struggling with misogyny and gang-rape, shocked by December 2012 Nirbhaya case (faithfully and respectfully featured in Netflix series "Delhi Crime"), and saw huge women's protests sparked by the global MeToo movement demanding anti-rape legislation.

Given that context, the ads were deemed not only insensitive but extremely sexist and misogynistic. An executive for Ford of India had to come out with a public apology. He seemed sincere in not knowing anything about the ads and not giving them a green light. "They should have never come out," he said, and I fully agree with him.

The three creatives of the ads lost their jobs (although they did land back on their feet in other advertising agencies because, you know, the talent, wink wink). It is hard to say if the ads had an impact on already declining sales of Figo, but Ford eventually stopped making Figo altogether in 2021, focusing on SUV production instead.

So, sometimes the ad slogans may have too much meaning that can be interpreted quite differently by the creators and the various audiences exposed to the ads. The major lesson here for young creatives: don't let even experimental ads for limited consumption and competitions get out without thorough copy-testing with various audiences. In the age of the Internet, people will find offensive messages, make them public, and shame you do death for them.

Here's Raymond's original story: