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knee jerk reactions...

  • 11-01-2004 3:48pm
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11


    http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1106001&issue_id=10286

    This is an ad for Nip/Tuck the new drama series on Sky about plastic surgeons.

    I really find it hard to imagine that anyone could think that the quote from the ad 'Sometimes a boob job is the best cure for depression' is meant to be taken seriously. I haven't seen it yet, but from the trailers it looks like the show takes a very negative view of the plastic surgery business.

    From the reactions from Ms Clare and that TD in the article it looks like they are taking the ad at face value, as if Sky were really suggesting that boob jobs were a cure for depression.


    I hate stupid, self righteous people.


    Mental health charities slam Sky One's dire billboard boob


    BILLBOARDS featuring busty women often stop the traffic, but an advertisement showing an attractive young woman with a serious demeanour and the caption, 'Sometimes a boob job is the best cure for depression' caused fury from all quarters when it was emblazoned across Ireland last week.

    The advertisement for Sky One's new drama series Nip and Tuck, which starts this week, was branded "obnoxious" and "extremely dangerous" by charities and support groups working with depressed and suicidal people, and was even slammed by Ireland's leading cosmetic surgery company.

    Just three official complaints have been received by the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland, but the charity Aware has also been contacted by a number of people calling for the billboard to be banned.

    Such is the level of offence caused to members of the charity, CEO Geraldine Clare has called on Sky TV to remove the billboards immediately, and to make amends for the damage she feels has been done by spending a similar budget in putting out the message that cosmetic surgery is not a cure for depression.

    Ms Clare said: "This is the worst advertisement I have seen to date. I was very shocked by it and everyone I have spoken to about it has been horrified.

    "The advertising men who sit down with their big budgets and dream ads like these up think there is no such thing as bad publicity, so withdrawing this ad is not enough. I want to see Sky compelled to spend the same amount of money making restitution to reverse the impact this ad has already had."

    Even those most likely to benefit from the suggestion that buying a set of bigger breasts could cure depression blasted the Sky One billboard as "very irresponsible". Advanced Cosmetic Surgery performs more than 1,000 breast enlargement operations each year at a cost of approximately €5,000 each, but say it is "very rare" that women approach them in the belief that cosmetic surgery will cure their depression.

    A spokesman said: "Everyone who has a procedure done will have a consultation first, and if the surgeon feels they are not in the right frame of mind they will be asked to go away and come back after having thought things through for at least a year.

    "Women might come in feeling they are lacking in self-confidence, but that is very different to acute depression. They need to tackle their mind before working on their body. The programme Nip and Tuck is a sensationalist American soap opera which does not reflect reality. I think people will realise that when they see the show, but it is very irresponsible to put up a billboard with that message as depression is never an appropriate reason for seeking cosmetic surgery of any sort."

    Sky has pledged to continue with the advertising campaign, which is scheduled to run until the end of the month, but apologised for causing offence.

    A spokesman said: "The advertisements are meant to be true to the programme and do not portray the views of Sky. The intention of this campaign was to be attention-grabbing and thought-provoking, and the messages were tested in qualitative research groups where the irony was understood in all cases.

    "Sky certainly did not mean to cause offence and the advertising message was not intended to advocate the use of cosmetic surgery, nor is it meant to promote a world of beautiful people.

    "The tone is meant to be one of irony and should be interpreted within the context of the programme."

    Low self-esteem and a poor sense of self-worth are symptomatic of depression and Aware argues that the Nip and Tuck billboard advertisement exploits the vulnerability of women in this position. Ms Clare said: "It is disappointing that Sky One are choosing to ignore their responsibility to educate the public by exploiting the vulnerable for their own gain. This type of message leads to a general misunderstanding of the illness and fosters the stigma in society towards people with depression."

    Ms Clare also branded the advertisement "sexist", as women are twice as likely to suffer from depression and are under more pressure to look good.

    President of the Irish Association of Suicideology, Fine Gael TD Dan Neville, said: "To say to someone who is depressed that their best cure is breast implants is wrong and trivialises the whole area of mental illness to an obnoxious level.

    "A severely depressed person could take a statement like that as fact and that could be extremely dangerous. Cosmetic surgery is not asolution."



Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,120 ✭✭✭p


    Indeed, But you have to worry if they did say that at all.

    Sometimes what can happen in situations like this is that journalists see a 'story' and ring up someone telling them what the ad said & ask them to comment.

    Then people say comments based on the journolist's (if you could call them that) presentation of the advert.

    Assuch, beware of reports like that, cause they're not always fully representing the truth.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,105 ✭✭✭Tommy Vercetti


    The ad is dangerous because it fails to distinguish which gender it is referring too.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 650 ✭✭✭dr_manhattan


    Heh, well, I dunno, but I have suffered badly enough from depression in my time to have been hospitalised with it, and to be honest, the idea of a billboard being an influence on me when I'm depressed seems absurd.

    But that's just an opinion: it is a good point that it doesn't specify which gender...

    All the same though, this may sound ****ty but I've always thought that someone who's gonna shell out six figures in the hope that surgery will make them happy... deserve what they get...

    okay that's a bit extreme. But I do find it hard to feel sorry for someone who has such a huge amount of cash to fritter away on 'impulse surgery'

    Guess that makes me a heel ;-)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 200 ✭✭sanvean


    Originally posted by jarmstrong
    I really find it hard to imagine that anyone could think that the quote from the ad 'Sometimes a boob job is the best cure for depression' is meant to be taken seriously

    I would think any offence at the ads would be from making light of depression. It's interesting that any of the more acceptable mental illnesses probably wouldn't be subject to advertisments of the sort.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 650 ✭✭✭dr_manhattan


    "making light of depression"

    This is an interesting issue, and perhaps deserving of another thread, but I'd just like to point to the paradox in volved in the above sentence - surely the point is the 'make light of' depression?

    Being very serious about this, one of the biggest blocks in front of the depressive trying to get a level (or at least in my experience) is the fact that one gets comfortable in a state of misery, and it's actually quite frightening taking ones life back again and being happy about stuff.

    So in the case of depression, at any rate, I do honestly think there's a case for letting go of the 'seriousness' of the situation. And I don't think there's many non-depressives who think depression is a joke or a laugh, to be honest.

    Now, the above may be read as sarcasm but it's not, as I say above I have a history of depression, but I do find this kind of preciousness absolutely galling: plus it's giving Rupert Murdoch free publicity for his poxy programme and even poxier channel.

    My 2 cents anyways

    And btw seanvean:

    "It's interesting that any of the more acceptable mental illnesses probably wouldn't be subject to advertisments of the sort."

    Just curious as to what you mean by more acceptable mental illnesses: again, this could read as some kind of attack, it's not. Personally I've always regarded depression as the most socially accepted mental illness around: certainly people know most about it, and accept it more readily than (forgive me if I'm leaving anything out) anorexia, schizophrenia, phobia, OCD, bipolarity, whatever...

    anyone got an opinion on this?

    Personally speaking i think that those who care for the mentally ill should lighten the **** up: and again, this may sound flippant and designed to offend, but it's not. IMHO, a lot of damage is caused to the mentally ill by the sheer seriousness of theraputic institutions, and their basic scariness.

    Again, my 2 cents


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 200 ✭✭sanvean


    Originally posted by dr_manhattan
    Just curious as to what you mean by more acceptable mental illnesses: again, this could read as some kind of attack, it's not. Personally I've always regarded depression as the most socially accepted mental illness around: certainly people know most about it, and accept it more readily than (forgive me if I'm leaving anything out) anorexia, schizophrenia, phobia, OCD, bipolarity, whatever...

    By more acceptable, I meant more accepted as mental illnesses. There seems to be a tendency (maybe specific to Ireland, but I would think not) to treat depression as 'something to get over'. Depression needs to be addressed within these areas. And while I think it being discussed openly and increasingly is a good thing, I don't think that it should be treated lightly. I believe this could lead to the same treatment which depression gets at the moment (ie, 'something to get over').


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 650 ✭✭✭dr_manhattan


    Aha, I get what you mean:

    thing is, it's always been my personal opinion that the changes as regards mental health diagnosis should work both ways: while people should accept the seriousness of conditions such as depression, there is also a lot of mental health stigma that has to go, and the idea of a 'normal', aka functional person has to change.

    Fact is, as far as I can observe and of course a huge generalisation, but nonetheless true to a degree: many 'healthy' people are just as sick, or sicker, than many who acknowledge their illnesses and thus get treatment. Many people have learned to take advantage of illnesses to get ahead in life, and are unaware they suffer from them.

    There's also the fact that religious people can often suffer from mild forms of schizophrenia or temporal lobe epilepsy, yet often the religious are seen as pillars of society, which can expose a lot of perversity in the way we view mental health: very often mental illness can be a boon to people rather than a bane.

    This is kinda heavily off topic, and may sound like I'm saying 'ah the mentally ill can take care of themselves': I'm not. All I'm saying is that very often mentally ill people can become institutionalised and depend on others for solutions that, eventually, must come from themselves... and my point as regards this thread is that, expecting the world to tiptoe around the fact that you're depressed is the wrong way to go, I think.

    I mean, sure sky is a crass, tasteless channel. Sure the ad is bit objectionable (but not as objectionable as the fact that sky, sky news and the beeb are running 'documentaries' about plastic surgery to curry interest in the new series), but the fact is that as a depressive, when things are bad I find myself surrounded by the most obnoxious, commercialised, depressing, despicable material imaginable - from hard-sell beer mats to banner ads fro porn sites.

    And I can't change them. All I can do is work on myself, what other people say and do are not part of my disorder, and to blame them for it is to waste my time and energy: this is the reason why I think that things should not be banned or censored because it may or may not affect someone's illness: should the catholic church change its imagery because it's so attractive to schizophrenics? Should people no longer talk about the JFK asassination or UFO abduction because it upsets paranoids?

    I dunno, my 2 cents anyways ;-)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 489 ✭✭Faust


    Damn this politically correct world!
    I think the quote was from the show and just there to grab people's attention. I heard it was quite good actually. I doubt it's actually saying that it DOES cure depression, I think it is more likely that someone in said show remarked so and the purpose of the campaign is to draw people in to see who said this in the show and in what context.

    This is an example of people taking stuff too far again because they think people are idiotic sheep who get offended and traumatised by billboards.

    But thats just what I think...Denounce it i say!! :D

    Faust!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 650 ✭✭✭dr_manhattan


    " This is an example of people taking stuff too far again because they think people are idiotic sheep who get offended and traumatised by billboards."

    Harshly put, but I completely agree here - however I'd go a bit further than that: what I'd say is going on is people being lazy, and following a trend of *expecting* everything around them to not offend or upset them in any way, or else they sue. It's people looking for reasons that they feel bad, and blaming everything except themselves.

    Which, IMHO, is one of the most dangerous trends in our society: I mean, think of all the real and tangible reasons that Sky should be sued, LOL.

    As I say above, if you're depressed, it's nobody's responsibility to make you feel better - why don't these people sue Sky because their news service makes light of depression by showing kids with their arms blown off and showing them that it could be worse?

    ahem....


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 489 ✭✭Faust


    I agree, It's a damn response to all the political corectness that arose out of good intentions a while ago.It makes me quite angry and is linked to people being sued all the time which is ridiculous. It makes me so angry i will have to end thispost now before i go on some crazy rant!


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