[interest]

Hi All

For the last month I have been watching this advertisement by Hero group related to Hero Xtreme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckjxgy3o1mQ

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I am extremely disturbed to see that such advertisements can be allowed to be shown given the propensity of our bikers to follow such stunts. As it is the Delhi police is struggling to handle complaints against such stunt bikers running amok on the streets of Delhi. If cigeratte and alcohol ads have been banned for the fear that they promote smoking and drinking, shouldn't such ads be banned as well as they promote unsafe riding/driving putting many people's lives in danger. I know that these advertisements carry a warning that viewers shouldn't imitate, but honestly if these warnings were effective, cigarettes and alcohol could also have been advertised with such warnings. Wonder what we can do to discourage these companies from creating such ads and projecting unruly/irresponsible riding habits as "cool" ?

Mods- I tried searching for an existing thread on this issue and am quite surprised that I couldnt find one. If a thread already exists for this topic, please merge the two threads.

[interest]

On some research on the internet, I see that way back in 2008, SIAM had prescribed certain guidelines for automobile advertisements asking the companies to enusre that no ads should break traffic rules, speed regulations and show any stunts in normal traffic conditions. http://m.economictimes.com/auto/siam...id-2958150.cms . Wonder how such advertising practices still continue

[saket77]

Not long before saw ads which displayed dangerous overtaking, stunts by riders like wheelies, burn-outs among others.

Long ago, a famous car brand had an ad in the print media which almost promoted rash driving because their cars had many safety features in-built!

Ads like these by the marketing team can bring disregard to otherwise good products developed by good engineers & designers.

Imitating these stunts on public roads is dangerous not only for the riders themselves but for the innocent people around too. I really wish that automobile makers came out with responsible ads more often than they do now.

[raksrules]

The disclaimer that one should not perform these stunts is so so small that it is almost ineligible. It serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever.
Like on TV/Radio, after a insurance type ad, they read stuff like "Insurance is subject matter of solicitation and blah blah" so fast that you do not even get what they said.
These warnings just make no sense.

[sai_ace]

For me this ad was no different from the umpteen number of ads that show sliding of mountain cliff with chappals, seducing your neighbour/cat/dog/"anything that walks" - with a bottle of deo, or jumping off buildings/planes/bigger buildings/"anything thats tall" for a cola. Exaggeration is their theme. Why there is even a bicycle ad that has the kid riding on a wall - parallel to the ground. Or that tyre ad where you go chasing a horse and confront it front of cliff bend. wow. when all this can be allowed - why not this ad? It does come with a disclaimer as mandated.

I have a grouse when folks suddenly get edgy when there is anything related to a motorcycle and stunts. Probably thats a baggage thats tagged to a biker, especially when you sit inside your car. I am a biker, and i get irritated when two wheelers do crazy stuff on road and I am in my car. But I realised that 4 wheelers are equally bad. And surely while there arent too many ads showing cars doing zig zag driving, lane cutting, hard braking etc we still experience all this and more. What I am saying is that not all folks attempting weird "kajuraho"esque acts with their two wheelers are inspired by this ad or ads before that. Some are, most arent.

That said, i loved this ad for the clean sharp stunts and a very very energetic soundtrack.

[Mik]

I too don't understand the brouhaha over this particular ad. If anything, its a very fresh take on motorcycle ads (maybe that's why it got noticed ). If this is so offensive, how about the 'We The Swift' ad running concurrently which has traffic violations in every frame including drifting/wrong side driving/middle of the road driving among others. Does it really matter that they placed a disclaimer and a few traffic cones in the ad.
Even the first Swift ad where the guy was scared of crossing the road since the Swift was so fast - was wrong on so many levels!
Will we have a million Swifts now becoming instant traffic violators because of the ad.
-End of Rant.

The need of the hour - stiffer license tests, inculcating better traffic sense, wearing helmets/seatbelts, stricter laws and policing.

Lets not flog the wrong horse.

[interest]

Originally Posted by sai_ace

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My intention is not to target this ad alone but all such ads which display road rules being broken with little consideration being paid to safety of others in an attempt to distinguish yourself from other bikes/cars. More so when SIAM has already issued guidelines about responsible advertising. By your own admission, more than cars, it is bike advertisements that show such conduct. Encouraging unruly driving/riding apart, dont you think that by doing this the advertisers are actually trying to stereotype bike riders as unruly? Why should any product have to be advertised with the support of such tactics to make it appear "cooler" than others? Extending this arguement, ,maybe, it would be OK to show that some bike is so fast that the police is not able to catch the thief sitting on that bike after he robs a person and rides away on his bike?

[noopster]

Originally Posted by Mik

I too don't understand the brouhaha over this particular ad. If anything, its a very fresh take on motorcycle ads (maybe that's why it got noticed ).

Fresh take or whatever, it is a dangerous advert that promotes reckless and dangerous riding with scant regard for safety and laws of the land. I for one am not amused.

I have complained to the Advertising Standards Council of India at their website that is set up for reporting precisely this sort of nonsense. Young people are impressionable to begin with and when companies and ad agencies try to lure them with images of "cool" young heroes impressing their girlfriends with crazy stunts like these, it's time to raise a voice in protest.

By all means enjoy the advert if you must, but if there are others here who feel as I do, complaining to the ASCI is an option that can and must be exercised. Am pasting my detailed complaint in the quoted text below in case anyone needs some quick reference points:

Brand:
Hero Xtreme

Describe the Advertisement (Maximum 5000 characters):
45-second TV advert for Hero Xtreme brand of motorcycle.

The ad begins with an alarm going off and a young man putting on his shoes and getting ready to leave the house. He does so in a state of semi-undress and climbs on his motorbike, puts on a helmet and starts the engine. Once he is on the road, he starts putting on his pants, letting go of the handlebars in the process. Having done that, he then climbs onto the fuel tank of the bike and straddles the handlebars while putting on his shirt. This is all on public roads, with partial shots of objects whizzing by, presumably other vehicles. Finally the young man revs the bike and does a 'wheelie', balancing the bike on its rear wheels as he reaches forward and secures his shoes. All of this while riding the motorcycle at a fast pace on the road, before finally coming to a screeching halt in front of another house. The door opens to show a woman, presumably a girlfriend, who shrugs and says "Not ready". At this our young hero replies, "You will be", indicating that she should also climb aboard his bike in the same semi-dressed state as he had. The closing shot has the couple speeding off with the lady sitting backwards as the pillion rider, most of her long legs exposed as she ties the shoelaces on her boots.
The voiceover at the end goes, "The all-new Hero Xtreme is ready. Live off the edge".
A warning/disclaimer at the bottom of the screen in small capital font stays steady across the duration of the advert, which declares: "Expert Actions Performed By Experts on Empty Roads. Please Do Not Copy."

Write Your Complaint (Maximum 5000 Characters):
The advert shows utter disregard for safety. Though both riders are shown wearing helmets, their actions are in convention of a number of laws of the road. These include but are not restricted to: riding dangerously, leaving the handlebars, climbing atop the fuel tank, putting on various articles of clothing while driving, not paying attention to the road, distracting other users on the road, performing a wheelie and other riding tricks on a public road, and general disregard for all norms of safety for motorcyle riding, one of which is "All the gear all the time".
the makers of the advert are also to be blamedfor the casualness of the disclaimer issued which claims that these "expert actions" have been "performed by experts",whatever that means, along with a weak warning to "please do not copy".
the tagline "Live Off The Edge" reinforces that the product is targeted at people who do not care about their own safety and that of others, which is further driven home by the fact that the young man convinces his girlfriend to indulge in the same dangerous acts as he has, and some more (riding backwards no less).
The advert needs to be pulled off the air with a severe reprimand to the manufacturer, Hero Moto Corporation and the advertising agency is JWT (Delhi)

Where Did You Notice This Advertisement? (Drop Down Menu)
Television

Channel:
Star World

Add Video/Link/Image of Advertisement (optional):
http://www.Youtube.com/ watch?v=ckjxgy3o1mQ

(Remove the gap before watch)

[hrman]

Glad someone brought this up. Very deplorable and pathetic ad to say the least. On the one hand, we have a quarter million deaths due to road accidents every year. And then you have this senseless ad where the moron of a biker is changing his clothes on a bike. What an idiot who made this ad.
There are so many such bike ads, which should be banned. Its not cool at all. Similarly Car/ SUV ads with stunts, flying through the air, drifting, trying to impress girls. I think those who are making these ads and those who are letting them run have never lost a near or dear one in an accident..

There was an ad by Aamir Khan for Mahindra Stallio Scooters. He says at the end of the ad" You can try everything I did in this ad". Meaning there was no senseless stunts done. Shows the pathetic state of today's advertising standards that the celebrity needs to specify that the stunts in this ad can be replicated. A slap in the face for mindless bike advertising I must say!.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiv3a7GHb_0

[AlphaLamb]

Though this ad has been on TV for a while now and I have very strong aversion to what is being shown by means of this ad, I believe that a majority of the intended audience are mature enough to take this ad with a pinch a salt (and reality) as with the other ads for deodorants, fizzy drinks and the like.

These ads will fade away from memory in as quick a time as they took to be conceptualized and made.

[asit.kulkarni93]

I have been noticing this for quiet a long time. This trend had started with the cbz commercial in the early 2000's, then the pulsars and now we have hero doing it again. It is quite stupid to show people performing stunts to complete their day to day activities. It is just not about the bike manufacturers but also many car manufacturers do the same, example the safari storme- it shows the storme going through the jungles at some insane speeds and doing donuts. The first commercial showed the car jumping and drifting. Be it the sx4 men are back or we the swift commercial. We all know that the stunts performed in these commercials are dangerous and break all possible traffic rules. I just have one question for all these manufacturers-
Lets consider a case where In a person performs all these things showed by you in your commercial. Will hero/bajaj replace the headlamp for a customer who broke it while performing a wheelie on his karizma/ xtreme/pulsar under warranty or even once out of it?Will tata replace the suspension if it breaks or replace the rim if it bends free of cost while performing these stunts?
I am sure the answer would be no. Then please stop telecasting these things and start educating your customers. It is not only about the above mentioned brands but about every other brand which showcases similar things. Looking at today's traffic scenario in our country, the government should make it compulsory for every manufacturer to show safety rules being followed in their commercial.
No wonder Maharashtra has the maximum number of deaths due to 2-wheeler accidents.
Kudos to Aamir Khan for that commercial. 👍

Asit

[SmartCat]

I get offended only by badly made advertisements.

Is there any research report that proves bikers (or car drivers for that matter) get influenced by ads and try to imitate what they see on TV advertisements? Or is "boys will be boys" argument more valid here, and those who want to do dangerous stunts to show off, do it anyway?

In other words, perhaps, "good bikers" will always ride keeping their safety and pedestrian safety in mind, even after being exposed to such ads. And perhaps "bad bikers" will show off dangerously (after being inspired - if possible - by ads, print media, movies, watching their friends etc) even if ads like these are taken off air.

[sai_ace]

Originally Posted by interest

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My intention is not to target this ad alone but all such ads which display road rules being broken with little consideration being paid to safety of others in an attempt to distinguish yourself from other bikes/cars. More so when SIAM has already issued guidelines about responsible advertising. By your own admission, more than cars, it is bike advertisements that show such conduct. Encouraging unruly driving/riding apart, dont you think that by doing this the advertisers are actually trying to stereotype bike riders as unruly? Why should any product have to be advertised with the support of such tactics to make it appear "cooler" than others? Extending this arguement, ,maybe, it would be OK to show that some bike is so fast that the police is not able to catch the thief sitting on that bike after he robs a person and rides away on his bike?

My point is simple. Lets bash the ad alone if one feels its not in good taste. Thats what someone here as done with ASCI.

Lets not try to link this ad with all those deaths and accidents on two wheelers. A good number of two wheelers die or are maimed for life simply by being mowed down by a car or those trucks. And I dont remember any truck ad shown on prime time tv. So whats the reason behind the horrible driving of a truck driver?

This ad is just like a movie with umpteen number of stunts involving cars and bikes.

Dhoom, Fast and Furious series, Transporter. Why even Bullitt throws all rule books out for that spectacular cult chase sequence. None of that should be imitated by us and we dont go about bashing these movies for the recklessness shown.

Any guy wanting to stunt in his car or bike will do so irrespective of this ad or any other ad shown on telly or elsewhere. The smarter ones will either not do this or do this on closed circuit with protective gear.

We need to loosen up a bit, separate fact from fiction in our lives and personally feel responsible for the safety of our people - that includes foisting helmets and seatbelts on all folks who we love and care for.

PS: I sincerely apologize for mentioning Dhoom and Bullitt in the same line. Damn, I did that again!

[interest]

Originally Posted by sai_ace

The smarter ones will either not do this or do this on closed circuit with protective gear.

Smarter ones are never our worry. It is those "wannabe cool" halfwits that bother us. Not only will they loose their own limbs (which is still OK as they deserve it for their recklessness) they will injure someone else in the process (this is what makes us worry). Am sure you do remember how many people tried to imitate Aamir Khan's Ghulam antics where he extinguishes a burning matchstick on his tongue. Atleast those people were only hurting themselves. Here we are talking about others getting hurt as well.

[YaeJay]

The milk that we see on an advt is not milk ( paint), the silky hair that we see to promote various shampoos are not real. None of the advts are real. Their only intention is to sell (dreams).

I have never seen any adverts by either tata or AL promoting their mofosil buses, that ply on our roads. You really have to see them drive..

@ interest you would break the 100 mts record by a few secs while crossing our roads.

maybe you are antihero? :P