Thomson Holidays has come under fire
recently for its “Simon the Ogre” advertising campaign. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
has received a number of complaints that the ad is offensive to people with
facial and physical disfigurements, and that it trivialises disability.
The ad features a husband/father figure who
has turned into an ogre and in need of a holiday. The character is shown as oversized, hunchbacked with horns
and teeth sticking out of his mouth.
During the course of his holiday he is transformed, losing his
distinctive features.
The ASA has yet to decide whether the
complaints merit further investigation.
Thomson has said that the ad was designed to show the revitalizing
powers of a good holiday and no offence was intended.
Having seen the ad several times (I know, I
do need to get out more), the potential to offend those with disabilities
passed me by. Indeed, I can’t help
wondering whether this is yet another case of political correctness gone
mad. This is a fairytale style character
that no more trivializes disability or facial disfigurement than the much-loved
Shrek character does.
What’s more disturbing for me is what
Thomson is seeking to achieve by the ad itself. Yes, I understand it’s about getting people to identify with
the benefits of a good holiday.
But I’d argue that the message is already well understood by the average
customer and evidenced by the billions spent on holidays every year. What the ad singularly fails to do is
to associate those benefits with Thomson specifically, rather than holidays
generically. And it also fails to
advocate the benefits of the package holiday over the growing trend for
independent travel fuelled by the ease of online booking of flights and
accommodation.
In my book, Simon the Ogre is a triumph of
storytelling, prosthetics and lavish budgets over the core principle of
convincing the average holidaymaker to buy a Thomson holiday.
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