HALF COCK

 

 

There’s a strange commercial running in the US at present.

At least I found it strange, see what you think.

Two suburban moms are talking at the front door.

One mom has just come over to pick up her young son.

We can hear the two boys playing indoors.

Suddenly the boys rush past the moms into the front garden.

They continue their mock sword fight.

But the pretend swords they are using are rubber dildos.

One even has an anal stimulator attached.

The boys continue their sword fight with the dildos.

The visiting mom is shocked.

The mom who owns the dildos is dying of embarrassment.

The VO says “If your children can find it, they will find it.”

Cut to super: ALWAYS KEEP YOUR GUNS LOCKED AWAY.

I found that ad strange on several levels.

The brief must have been that possessing loaded guns and leaving them lying around wasn’t shocking.

Most people didn’t even think about it.

They just stuffed the guns on the top shelf in the closet.

The only way to register the danger was to compare guns to sex toys.

You’d never leave your sex toys lying around for children to find.

You’d always be really careful about locking them away.

Imagine the embarrassment if the neighbours found out you use sex toys.

Because sex toys are secretly shameful, even though lots of people probably have them.

No one wants anyone else to know.

Fair enough.

So everyone is more careful with their sex toys than with their guns.

Which is why they are used as an analogy for guns.

I find it strange that the argument wasn’t “Lock your guns away in case they kill your children”.

Obviously that argument wasn’t powerful enough.

It won’t cut through.

So they needed a consumer insight.

What is there that people are absolutely certain to make sure their children never find?

Sex toys.

Let’s use that consumer insight as an analogy to promote safer gun ownership.

Think about buying a locking firearms safe.

People with guns don’t bother doing that because it seems excessive, almost paranoid.

And that’s why I find that commercial strange.

I live in a country where owning sex toys is not so shocking as owning loaded firearms.

Sex toys don’t kill people.

Embarrassment doesn’t kill people.

You can get over embarrassment,

You can’t get over having your children killed.

That’s why I found that ad strange.

Sex toys and embarrassment are funny.

Loaded firearms aren’t funny.

I don’t have sex toys or firearms at home.

But I know which one I’d worry more about my children finding.

 

Or my neighbours finding out about.