Centraal Beheer is an insurance company sited in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. It is the largest insurance company in the country and part of Achmea. Centraal Beheer is famous for its impressive architecture of their buildings and their campaign of TV commercials that has lasted for over fifteen years now. These are short humoristic commercials, generally without dialogue, in which something goes terribly wrong, followed by a catchphrase; international versions being "Just Call Us."
One of the most controversial commercials by this company that we chose to analyze is now banned:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa8U1j7_Ytw&feature=fvst
It is one of their most famous commercials which involved the Garden of Eden with Eve walking around exploring. She encounters different birds, wild flowers, and exotic scenes that may have been in the garden. This gives the viewer a serene and peaceful feeling that makes them unexpected for the turn of events. Then she discovers a waterfall in a hidden away sanctuary. Just then, Adam, who is told to be her companion in the Bible appears from the bushes. At this point, the viewers make assumptions of the actual Bible story assuming the two are soul mates. Adam and Eve stare at each other with yearn as they are both naked, but covered with a single leaf. Just as they are about to possibly kiss, Adam says in a high pitched voice, "Hi! I'm Adam." This makes the viewer assume that he is gay and Eve immediately loses her attraction towards him. The message that Centraal Beheer is sending is that they will be there for the customer even when things don't go as planned.
This commercial clearly has nothing to do with the insurance company. One does not find out what the commercial is selling until the last 3 seconds of the commercial. This goes against the blue print for most commercials aired today. It also brought up a lot of controversy. Eve was clearly so in love with Adam until he opened his mouth and suddenly his high pitched voice is a turn off. In the commercial there is nothing that actually proves he is gay. However, the message the company is sending implies that Adam is gay because their message was that they will be there for the customer when things don't go as planned. This sends a false message that women only like men with deep voices and that people like Adam are not "true men."
Do you think it's fair that Centraal Beheer incorporated sexuality in this commercial? They easily could have done a scenario where something else goes wrong. How do you think the gay community would react to this commercial? Along with women's rights and fights against racism, do you think prejudice against gays is an undermined debate?
I do not think the gay community would react well to this commercial. There is an obvious attempt to imply this sexuality even though it is not necessary in any way. I do not think women's rights really would care much toward this commercial, however, the gay community would be highly upset. The portrayal of the sexuality was offensive in itself but the pure unnecessary aspect of this commercial would most likely upset them the most.
ReplyDeleteI definitely feel like this commercial wouldn't go over too well with the gay community. Like mentioned in the blog, it is unfair to use the stereotype of gay men being "unmasculine." I would assume that it would be offensive to those who actually associate themselves with the gay community because I took it as offensive and I do not associate myself in that community. It's easy to see where the makers of this commercial would think that this would be funny but it is innappropriate. Something like this would never fly in the U.S. because of the vast amount of diversity that we have here.
ReplyDeleteObviously, the commercial does a poor job of marketing the insurance company's main focus. However, the implied notion of things "not going as planned" in my opinion was decent enough. No matter what commercial a company releases, there will always be some type of controversy regarding, such the idea that Adam is gay in this one. Will it affect the gay community ? Probably, but people should understand that humor sometimes is meant to be crude like this. Overall, it is a bad commercial, but not as terrible as people have led on that it was.
ReplyDeleteThe commercial is very discriminatory towards the gay population and I can see why it was banned. Eve is the perception of natural beauty with her blonde hair and light colored eyes. She seems to be the ideal woman and right as the sexual tension is building she finds Adam to be gay, what a disappointment for the rest of the human race. I do not see how the insurance company expected to gain any profit from a commercial that is so prejudice and irrelevant to the product being marketed. I would only expect negative feedback for the commercial and the company should have chosen a different approach or as stated in the blog, chosen something different to go wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe commercial obviously did a bad job at marketing the product, in this case the insurance company. The main focus was the girl and the commercial had a lot of sexual undertones. The fact that Adam turned out gay went well with their slogan of "not going as planned" but I think they took it a bit too far. I can see how the gay community would be upset and especially the Christian community. I think, like a lot of bad commercials it was just lack of sensitivity towards a group of people. Either way, the commercial was not effective in advertising the company nor was it appealing to the majority of the public but rather I think it could be taken quite offensively to many people.
ReplyDeleteThis commercial is extremely stereotypical for gay males. It is promoting a stereotype of feminist character for gay males and I definitely understand why they would be offended by this. I also agree with the above comments that it is also offensive to the Christian community. It is taking something very meaningful to them and making a joke about it. I think the commercials goal was probably to make a commercial that stands out, which this does. But overall I do not like this commercial. I think the company could have conveyed the same message in a much better way.
ReplyDeleteI thought this commerical was offensive to two different groups. One, obviously the gay community would probably not be too happy with this commercial considering "being gay isn't going as planned" so there are obvious reasons there why the gays would be offended by this. The second group of people who I think could potentially take offense to this commercial is Christian, Bible-believer people. Sice this scence obviously does not portray the real scene of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, I think some Christians could be offended by this because the company is sort of changing and almost making fun of Adam and Eve. This commercial was a horrible way to advertise their insurance considering it relayed almost no information about their product itself.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what others have posted that this commercial would obviously be offensive to the gay community. I also believe that this company has done a poor job of advertising with this commercial. The entire commercial had nothing to do with an insurance company and was completely irrelevant to what they are trying to sell to their audience. This commercial also could be offensive to people who are religious, as they are almost poking fun at the story of Adam and Eve. As a whole, I would have to say that I did not find this advertisement effective for an insurance company.
ReplyDeleteI believe that a lot of society today aims at making fun of different types and groups of people. I don't think it is necessarily trying to be offensive to a certain group of people but instead using those ideas to make a joke and get people to laugh. I feel that people are so wrapped up in equal rights that nobody can just sit back and have a good laugh about themselves. I am all for the gay community but I still found this commercial funny. They used a stereotypical gay guy in a humorous way; most people know that it is very exaggerated and not how most gays act. However, as far as the commercial goes, I don't think they did the best job advertising it because they used so much controversy especially because it is changing a Bible story around, but I didn't find it necessarily offensive.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the gay community would react to this commercial. We can't assume he is gay because of his voice. Then how about other men who have high voice? They are all gays? I think this commercial can be criticized by men who have high voice rather than gays because it gives prejudice which men who have high voice are not attractive. However, it was interesting. I can't notice this commercial is made by an insurance company until I see the last message. The company wanted to say our company can compensate when you have unexpected situation. In the process of conveyance, the company made a mistake. It was funny and interesting but it can hurt some people. So I think the company should be aware of this thing when making commercials.
ReplyDeleteNot only does this commercial confuse me due to the lack of correlation to the product it is advertising, but it is very offense to several different people. It plays on negative stereotypical ideas about gay men and it critiques and mocks the Bible story of Adam and Eve.
ReplyDeleteThis commercial is not very good advertising the product that it is attempting to market. I can understand why this advertisement is banned from TV.