Back in 2006 when comedian Sacha Baron Cohen released his film, “Borat. Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” the authorities in the real Kazakhastan were infuriated. The film was banned there and the government threatened to sue saying that the film portrayed their country as racist, sexist and a primitive country. Sales of the DVD were also banned and web users were blocked from visiting the Borat website. Six years later, officials are singing a different tune. Today they praise the movie for boosting tourism. Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov said on Monday, “With the release of this film, the number of visas issued by Kazakhstan grew tenfold. I am grateful to ‘Borat’ for helping attract tourists to Kazakhstan.” This turn of events makes me think of advertising in Trinidad and Tobago and the constant fear of offending someone in the public.
Many years ago, before I entered the advertising arena as a copywriter, I was approached by an agency to be the main talent in an ad for one of our major restaurant chains. The concept which used a corruption of the famous Martin Luther King “I have a dream” speech, was loved by everyone, agency and client, when the voiced Power Point story board was presented. Although EVERYONE loved it, there was reservation, fearing the possibility of offending someone in the Trinidad and Tobago public. The concept was changed and a very generic ad was produced. To this day, I cannot understand.
I am sure that anyone who has spent at least two months in advertising would have encountered some internal censorship because of the fear of offending someone. Now, certainly, I am not referring towards work that is as extreme as Borat. By all means, stop that train and avoid a lawsuit. However, I have seen some milder stuff that got buried in the cemetery of creativity before the umbilical chord was cut. But who knows? Nobody might have taken on the ad as much as we thought. Maybe a few feathers might have been ruffled, however if we were willing to take that risk, we might have produced ads like those we look at on cable and say, “Why can’t we be creative like that?”
