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South Africa Bans Santa Letters
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| quote: | South Africa bans Santa letters
From correspondents in Cape Town
December 12, 2003
SOUTH Africa's Advertising Standards Authority has banned the Post Office from inviting children to write to Father Christmas, on the grounds that it would mislead them, the SAPA news agency reported Wednesday.
A Post Office commercial gave children an address to which they could write to Santa Claus with their Christmas lists, but Cape Town journalist Andrew October told the authority that unless the Post Office intended to give the children the gifts they were asking for, the commercial should be canned, SAPA reported.
October said the ad encouraged "a falsehood that could break the fragile spirits of the already disillusioned youth of South Africa".
The authority ruled that the commercial was in breach of a clause in the advertising code of practice which says advertisements should not exploit the "natural credulity" of children.
It added: "The directorate was of the opinion that it could conceivably be extremely upsetting for a child who does not receive the requested presents to believe that s/he has been too naughty during the past year."
Agence France-Presse |
http://www.news.com.au/common/story...5E13762,00.html
What do you think? PC gone too far, or do they have a legitimate point? Is it wrong to falsely advertise to children like this, or are we all merely perpetuating a harmless myth?
Thoughts?
(btw, somethingawful.com did an article on this on their Dec 14 update for those who like their style of humour as I do. ;)) |
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| occrider |
Oh christ almighty (sigh) ...
'October said the ad encouraged "a falsehood that could break the fragile spirits of the already disillusioned youth of South Africa".'
So instead of addressing the the problem of why the youth in S. Africa have disillusioned fragile spirits we are to attack this insignificant supposed straw that is to break the camel's back? Oh by the way folks ... video games and hollywood make kids shoot up schools. |
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| NYCTrancefan |
| Hey you gotta love it Occ, instead of dealing with the issue of disillusioned youths who live on the streets and sniff glue all day, and have no hope they choose to ban letters to Father Christmas (big deal), what next maybe some proactive steps, of course this is the same nation whose leader chose to claim that HIV doesn't necessarily lead to Aids and he knew no one with Aids when South Africa has one of the hightest rates of infection, go figure, thankfully intelligent people put pressure on him to come to grips with reality. |
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