Seyth Miersma of Autoblog reports that, in a statement, Ford Motor Company said it (and its ad agency, J Walter Thompson India) "deeply regrets" a series of bondage ads touting the cargo space of the company's Figo hatchback.
Miersma noted that the ads came to light days after new anti-rape legislation was passed by the Indian Parliament.
(AKSARBENT thinks that the non-Berlusconi ads, at least, were more about revenge or envy than sex and that those two were pretty funny.)
Ads showed Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi kidnapping scantily clad women with ball gags, Formula One race car driver Michael Schumacher kidnapping competitors Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, and Paris Hilton absconding with three Kardashians. Ford said the "Leave your worries behind" print ads "never should have happened."
The ads never ran, but were submitted to an ad award contest in India.
Said Adweek: " It's just too bad for Ford that the brand will suffer for ads it didn't even approve. It's a good reminder that the Internet doesn't know the difference."
Said Ad Age: "The posters, showing women bound and gagged in the trunk of a Ford Figo hatchback, drew international condemnation when they were uploaded to the website Ads of the World, and both JWT and Ford quickly apologized. Neither mentioned that the ads, including a letter of approval from the client, had been entered at Goafest by a senior JWT India executive. "
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