Do we need creative no-fly zones?

Do we need creative no-fly zones?

Tonight on the way home, I saw a bus shelter ad promoting a movie about 9/11. I cringed. It’s too soon, it’s too early. (But then again, the Deer Hunter came out just three years after Viet Nam.) Soon will come the ABC-TV Movie of the Week. Then what’s next – some furniture store company promoting “September Blow-out Savings.”

Oh that will never happen you say. Quick, hurry, do you know what you’re supposed to be remembering on Memorial Day, date of great retail sales?

Is there a need for creative no-fly zones? (A phrased borrowed from ad culture guru Ernie Schenck.) Are there places we just shouldn’t go. And if so, who determines them?

On the web, last year one of the most successful viral events was a bogus ad for a car manufacturer created by two creatives who wanted a job with the manufacturer’s agency. No, we won’t blog it. No, they didn’t get the job. In fact, the auto manufacturer is now suing those two creatives. I admit, it’s funny. But tasteless (like the Volvo ads that ran briefly in Asia after Princess Diana’s tragic death in a Benz, or what it a BMW?)

As an advertising creative, I’ve won my share of awards for exploding buildings, breast feeding and farts. It’s true, shock is memorable, shock is attention getting, shock wins awards. But sometimes it isn’t appropriate.