What's some of the most offensive ads (magazines or commercials) from the 90s/early 00s?

This one is just fucking wild no matter when, where or why lol. Imagine how many people had to go "yup, good idea!" for this to show up in print. That's the craziest part.
Ads were deliberately provocative back then to grab your attention. They were aimed to make you outraged. It lead to people talking.
 
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I remember an advert in Computer & Video Games (C&VG) for Strip Poker II by Anco - it was a full page advert with 2 women in their frillies. In a computer games mag, when you were 13/14 - was amazing 🤩
 
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UK magazines in the 80s were something.
 
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This isn't as extreme as what's been posted. I found this Best Buy ad in a EGM from around 1997. It's not the full add, just a clip I took because I thought she was hot.

The ad is supposed to be showing how you can shop for TV from home. I thought it was funny how the woman is in her underwear. Like women shop for TV laying in bed in underwear. Pretty blatantly pandering to the video game nerds.
Women play video games and watch TV all the time in their underwear. At least that's what I was shown on the internet.
 
Those Neo Geo ads in magazines back in the day. Not every kid had rich parents man, doesn't make us a weenie. Hell lots of kids still stuck on the NES during the early 90's. Also probably applies to the majority who bought gaming mags back then.
 
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What this thread is about is more of what would be considered offensive today, not back in these days.


I found this and it inspired the thread. This wasn't offensive at the time, but given our current timeline it's now crazy to think this was an ad.


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Are you actually fucking kidding me?

Man, the early 00s were just insane, I miss it dearly
 
Found the advert for the poker game I mentioned - I'm not sure if it fits the 'offensive' criteria there isn't anything offensive.

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And also the full Psyco Pigs one that was posted earlier.

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Found the advert for the poker game I mentioned - I'm not sure if it fits the 'offensive' criteria there isn't anything offensive.

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And also the full Psyco Pigs one that was posted earlier.

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"Nothing offensive"? Get with the program son. In today's world these hyper sexualized almost naked women are the victims of the male gaze and are being used to fuel the dirty minds of those males. Unacceptable!
 
Most are tame, toilet humor at worst and mostly funny and not that offensive. Its a shame we've grown to be so prude as whats socially 'acceptable' when it comes to ads and marketing.

Well maybe the titallating ones are a bit much lol.
 
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In the early '90s there was this concept of what "cool" was, that didn't actually exist except in the minds of advertising copywriters, this offensively cringey piece of shit is a perfect example:

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"Nothing offensive"? Get with the program son. In today's world these hyper sexualized almost naked women are the victims of the male gaze and are being used to fuel the dirty minds of those males. Unacceptable!
I don't know if the thread criteria is offensive in the 90s or offensive today.

Thread needs to be 'post some adverts from the 90s that would be considered offensive today' I guess.
 
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My friend just sent me this. Not exactly offensive, but it's a tad edgy and hilarious



Lol this one too.
 
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My favorite lol
This is the origin story of the white villain from Disney's storybooks 😂

As for the thread...Like others have said,and having been born in the 90's,I don't take offence with anything an art piece or ad etc says or shows...only weak minded people do or people with too much free time that they need to fabricate drama themselves to make their lives seem more interesting.

The only thing I do hate and take offense with is censorship which comes in spades nowadays,sadly,as people have become a bunch of whiny snowflakes.
 
This was offensive at the time. Sony had to take it down and publicly apologise.

"Whilst the images used in the campaign were intended solely to highlight the contrast between the different colors available for the PSP, we recognize that the subject matter of one specific image may have caused concern in some countries not directly affected by the advertising," the company said in a statement. "As a result, we have now withdrawn the campaign."

Was just supposed to run in the EU I think. But this was a pretty dumb gaffe from a marketing perspective across the board I'd think.
Yes, but why? It isn't even offensive. You can take offense to almost anything. This image shows a white woman dominating a black woman, in the other ads the black woman is dominating the white woman. Now some will scream racist because that's what they want to see. Me...... I see two sexy woman playing kinky bedroom games with each other and good for them.
 
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Yes, but why? It isn't even offensive. You can take offense to almost anything. This image shows a white woman dominating a black woman, in the other ads the black woman is dominating the white woman. Now some will scream racist because that's what they want to see. Me...... I see two sexy woman playing kinky bedroom games with each other and good for them.
It was already answered in a post a user replied to me in. Someone took an image out of context(it was meant to be viewed as a series of images) and used that.

Basically, you want to avoid that shit as much as possible when you're in advertising, because it can and does happen quite a bit. You risk your firm's reputation as well as your client, not to mention any money lost from it.

You also want to avoid stuff like the bolded as well depending on the client and message involved. That's why I said it was a bad marketing campaign overall.
 
It was already answered in a post a user replied to me in. Someone took an image out of context(it was meant to be viewed as a series of images) and used that.

Basically, you want to avoid that shit as much as possible when you're in advertising, because it can and does happen quite a bit. You risk your firm's reputation as well as your client, not to mention any money lost from it.

You also want to avoid stuff like the bolded as well depending on the client and message involved. That's why I said it was a bad marketing campaign overall.
Don't worry, I was saying it partially in jest, I know the trouble it causes, just thought I'd have fun with it :)
 
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