Commercials: love ’em or hate ’em , they’ve been a part of the television viewing experience forever. They’re even coming to formerly commercial-free streaming platforms .
Some commercials are catchy, some are iconic and many are forgettable and annoying. But occasionally, a commercial defies all of these categories and causes offence. That’s what’s happened with the latest ad from a ( checks notes) British paint manufacturer.
Paint: it’s not controversial.
Whether you’re rich or poor, old or young, you probably live somewhere with paint on the walls. It’s universal. In fact, I can’t recall the last time I saw a paint ad on TV. I sort of assumed it was the kind of thing that sold itself and didn’t really need to advertise itself.
Crown Paints just rolled out this ad.
This TV ad (my bad — it’s British, so they call it an advert) from Crown Paints is called ‘Life Stories.’ It’s based on the idea that a young couple — Hannah and Dave — are expecting a baby. Presumably, they’ll need paint for the nursery.
Seems simple enough, right?
The humorous commercial shows Hannah and Dave in the foreground while singers in the background detail their relationship. Apparently, they met at an ‘illegal rave’ four years ago. Now they’re together and Hannah’s pregnant. So far, so good.
It’s record scratch time.
The carefree, bouncy lyrics take a weird turn when the singers say:
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Hannah’s hoping for a girl, Dave’s just hoping that it’s his
Things took kind of a weird turn there. Hannah and Dave seem like they’ve had a pretty good thing going for four years. Why would Dave need to hope that the baby was his?
Crown Paints proudly rolled out the ad.
Seemingly oblivious to the backlash this ad would cause, Crown Paints unveiled the ad — a brief story of a couple who loves mustard tones and illegal raves, but may be unfaithful — to the public on Twitter.
Twitter was not having it.
Twitter users were understandably baffled, and a bit offended, by the ad. What could have been a cute story about an average pregnant couple was tainted by the implication that the average woman is unfaithful.
The cheating thing doesn’t even make sense, really.
According to a study , people in England — remember, Crown Paints is an English company —are some of the most faithful people in Europe. And those who do cheat in England are predominantly men, not women.
Crown Paints didn’t really apologize.
To their credit, the company did respond to the criticism, but they did the old “We’re sorry if you got offended” thing, which isn’t really an apology. They also say the ad has been “broadly well received”, even though most of the internet is hating on it.
The ad got called out, then the ‘apology’ got called out.
It’s hard to know if this has been a good thing or a bad thing for Crown Paints. On one hand, they’re getting a lot of hate online. On the other, people are talking about Crown Paints.
Check out the ad here.
Watch it for yourself and then let us know what you think. Does it imply that women are unfaithful? Is it a good commercial? Is the implication a bit weird? Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments section.