Ads get Down and Dirty to Grab Attention

ADS GET DOWN AND DIRTY TO GRAB ATTENTION
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Theresa Howard]
FCC rules ban profanity on broadcast radio and TV from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. It levied nearly $4 million in fines last year and took 327,198 decency complaints (vs. 233,531 in 2004). But that hasn't stopped Dodge, Comcast and Volkswagen from flirting with language limits, which are the same for ads as for the shows in which they air. They have created ads that make obvious from the context that a character said a banned word -- particularly the “s” word popular in slang -- but trail off or “bleep” so the actual word is not heard. “We ad people try to find ways to call attention to what we're doing,” says ad expert Suzanne Powers, chief strategy officer for agency TBWA/Chiat/Day. The “bleep is unexpected. It's an interesting way to disrupt the viewer and do something out of the ordinary.” FCC spokeswoman Rosemary Kimball would not say whether there have been complaints about these ads, but networks have been cautious.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20061031/1b_curseads31.art.ht...