Satiric radio commentary for the 90s from the man who drained Lake Michigan and filled it with hot chocolate!!!
STAN FREBERG HERE...


You Call Those Offensive Ads?

Stan Freberg here. Calvin Klein took a lot of heat for a series of jeans ads using what looked like underage models in supposedly suggestive poses. He finally pulled the ads. But I say, "You call those offensive ads?" More, when I come back. [:60 SPOT BREAK]

Freberg here. The ruckus created by watchdog groups over the Calvin Klein ads pales next to some of the ads that ran over the years, and nobody said anything.

For example, how about this ad, featuring a young black boy, grinning as he peeks over a slice of watermelon? Poor taste? Racist? The Shell Oil Company didn't think so in 1941.

And how about this fur ad, showing a woman nude, but with her back to us, and a fur coat slipped halfway down her backside? There's a logo stamped on her fanny, and the headline reads "Look for the EMBA stamp on the skin." It was for the Mink Breeders' Association. At least the Calvin models have clothes on.

And would Phillip Morris run an ad today showing a mother cuddling her baby next to a big pack of Phillip Morris cigarettes? The headline reads, "Born gentle."

But my all-time favorite cigarette ad showed doctors saying, "More doctors recommend Camels than any other cigarette." Also, "Not a cough in a carload" is laughable today, but a real cigarette ad in the 40s.

If you want to see some of these beauties, drop by The Nostalgia Factory in Boston, which is having a show on some really tasteless advertising.

Stan Freberg here.



Copyright (C)1996, Stan Freberg/Freberg, Ltd. (but not very) Distributed by Dick Brescia Associates and Radio Spirits, Inc.