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Company: Yahoo!
    View Company Scorecard / Contact Company
Brand: Yahoo!
Ad Title: Park Bum
Business Category: Dot-com
Media Outlets: Television
Country: United Kingdom
Region: Europe
Agency: Euro RSCG Worldwide
Year: 2002
Target: Mainstream
Ad Spotter: Chris Cooper
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Theme(s)

Sexual Predator/Practice

Theme Breakdown

AdRespect Score: 
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A disheveled young man waking up as voiceover says, “You can’t trust late nights.”

A bridegroom-to-be in a practical joke, the man is actually tied naked to a tree, as voiceover continues, “You can’t trust your mates.” An older man, wearing a purple hat and scarf walking a tiny dog, grins with interest at the man's derrière and the groom nervously smiles then turns in fear. The ad closes by saying, “You can only trust yourself. Rely on you. Visit Yahoo Personal Finance.” The scene recalls the 1977 movie "The Choirboys."

The ad created by Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper, London, was pulled following protests by high-profile members of the gay community, including openly gay talk host Graham Norton, and other individuals to the Independent Television Commission, a British regulatory group.

Yahoo UK spokeswoman Georgia Douglas says, "The advert was intended as a light hearted insight into a stereotypical British stag night prank and was certainly not meant to cause offense, however we take customer feedback very seriously."

Yahoo has since edited out the leering man and is airing the new version.

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Sean Martin , Calgary, Canada
The problem is, they resort to the facile stereotype. If the man walking the dog had been someone more like your guy next door who, at first glance, seemed to be the sort to help the groom out, the ad could have been far funnier. But the queen in the purple hat? Sorry, that's the agency being lazy.

Richard Phillips , New York
Please let Yahoo and all the rest know that RAPE is NOT "Gay-Themed!" Rape is not sexual; be it involving same-sex persons or otherwise. These ads. are both in "jaw-dropping" bad taste! Surely there must have been at least one sensible person present who could have/should have/would have pointed out the rather STRANGE "customer" demo-graphics this ad seems directed toward. Now I can take a joke as well as the next person, but you know, I hardly ever see my RATIONAL, DOWN-TO-EARTH point of view reflected in MOST of these multi-million dollar advertising campaigns, which seek to use humor to sell goods and services in today's market place. What I generally see is a great deal of tacky commercials, wallowing in remarkable levels of plain old BAD TASTE! I would love to have just five minutes with one of these highly paid advertising people; he or she would get an enlightening earful.

Eric , Seattle
I think this is open to interpretation, I don't see a huge difference in age between the two men for starters.. to justify calling the man with the dog "old." Secondly I think it's got a bit of comedy to it most should enjoy. You have to remember European humor can be odd and more openly free then conservative america...loosen up...and don't look into things so deep. I give it a thumbs up. Hilarious! By the way, I'm 25...if I don't view them as that old, then why should you?

Todd Hill , Montreal
Well, with that piece of dog poop substituting for an advertisement, Yahoo has just ensured that I will *NEVER* be a customer of any of their useless online services and, furthermore, I will ensure that I, and everyone I can possibly influence, will be sure to use as much of Yahoo's free bandwith/data storage space as possible, to help drive up their costs and drive down their profit margins. The ad is also dumb. A passed-out naked man tied to a tree wakes up after an night of debauchery and feels threatened by an older man with a hat? How does he know he didn't already get poked up the butt repeatedly by all his 'mates' when he was out cold from drinking? I sure hope some high-priced Yahoo heads rolled based on that waste of videotape, and I hope the agency in question got their asses booted firmly off of the account. Maybe they went bankrupt. There's always hope!

Don , Montreal
This is one of the worst ever! Please never use Yahoo!!!

John , Nottingham, England
I just want people to know that this isn't representative of UK culture at all. I'm ashamed, in fact. It must have been pulled fairly quickly because I've never seen it shown.

Steve Wearden , Albuquerque, NM
We need to keep in mind this ad was created for the UK market. They have a much more light-hearted attitude about sex and sexual situations in advertising than we do here in the states. The spot wouldn't play here, but was probably just an average advertisement in Britain.

Anthony , Dallas, TX
Truly a waste of time and not creative in the least. I would expect more from YAHOO! in the way of creativity to its blander and less intelligent audience. Was the old queen in the park interested in a man tied up? They don't know us at all. We'd run for help, then get his number later like any other gentleman would.

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