Offensive commercial

[HarrietCheng]

Dear Adobe,

I find your commercial of the boss slapping his employee across the face until he changes his response about the efficacy of social media very offensive.  Not only does this commercial make light of bullying, physical violence and workplace intimidation, it sends a completely wrong message about social media!  My kid (12 yrs) watched it with me and was upset by it.  Trust me, I am a media producer by trade and am not easily offended, but the message of the commercial was completely lost on both me and my kid.

Sorry Adobe, get a better campaign.  This one is terrible.

[TerriStone]

Thank you for your post. We appreciate it, and I've alerted interested parties so they hear your message.

[Fls_Zen]

After seeing the commercial a few minutes ago, I found this thread and wanted to chime in. I'm not sure what goes on at Adobe, but I certainly hope it isn't what we see in the commercial. I believe the commercial reflects very poorly on Adobe's values. My wife and 10 month old were in the room when the commercial came on. I'm glad my son wasnt paying attention to the screen. My wife was thinking the commercial was for some nutsy company we had never heard of before, but then the Adobe logo came up.

[_Paz_]

I saw the commercial as a lead in to a video news report on CNN on the web the other day and I found it absolutely offensive.  Not surprising, considering the bullying Adobe has allowed to go on in their forums in the past, which I found offensive as well.

Sadly, some of Adobe's customers were banned from the forums for life for complaining about it.

What a company!

[professional_pirate]

Sadly, some of Adobe's customers were banned from the forums for life for complaining about it.

In that case they can join the Society of Professional Pirates who can help them with their problems.  If Adobe is not interested to look after its loyal customer base then somebody should.

I wonder why they decided to complain about things that didn't affect them?  All they need is a decent software to work with and if Adobe hasn't got it then they should search for alternatives - free ones and paid ones.

[_Paz_]

professional.pirate wrote:

I wonder why they decided to complain about things that didn't affect them?

For the same reason as the others who have posted on this topic.   When some people see something that is either ethically or morally repugnant to them, they feel compelled to speak up against it.

[Claudio_González1]

p.p, I followed Dave's link and saw the add. You know, there are some people who oppose violence, and I am one of them. To put it mildly, I found the ad disturbing, and was worried by the posts from people who found it brilliant -too many for my taste.

I don't understand why Adobe should use physical violence in ads for products that have nothing to do with violence. But then, I also fail to understand why Adobe doesn't seem to care about what users of their products have to say about these forums...

[Dave Merchant]

Adobe is very much aware of the opinions expressed in this thread (and elsewhere) about the commercial. Please do not take a lack of response as an indication your complaints are not being taken seriously.

You're all welcome to continue to post your opinions about the commercial here, but  do not wander off into general complaints about how the forums are run. If you want to express those opinions, start another topic.

[Claudio_González1]

All right, I'm willing to remove the last sentence in my last post if you wish. Which doesn't change my opinion.

But I can't, as you have replied to that post...

[Dave Merchant]

No need to change your message, I was making a general point that discussions about software or the management of the forums should go in a new thread. This particular topic is clearly emotive so it's important it stays on-point.

[Claudio_González1]

Well, there are some of us who think that the ad fits with what we see in here. Is this off-point?

[Noel Carboni]

I don't think raising the issue as stemming from a possible general cultural problem at Adobe is inappropriate at all, and I was glad to hear Claudio's opinion on the matter.

-Noel

[Noel Carboni]

Wow, I'm offended just from the description, and I didn't even see it.

-Noel

[Captiv8r]

I saw the commercial on regular TV programming the other night. While I feel as the OP does about not being sure what it's exactly about,  I didn't note any connection to Adobe. This makes me wonder if perhaps it's some advertising that has become part of the Adobe site or the videos one may watch that are hosted on Adobe?

Rick

[Dave Merchant]

@Captiv8r - it's an Adobe marketing video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFvpzK8_PDE

[Noel Carboni]

Thanks for the link, Dave, though now I feel somewhat polluted by having seen it.

Yep.  Offensive is right, along with downright stupid.  Adobe actually pays money to people to make garbage like that?

What we don't know is whether later that evening the employee showed up at the boss' house with a .357 magnum...

-Noel

[Phillip_M_Jones]

Poor excuse Comercial. I went through childhood bullying. I don't appreciate this type violence. Had it been me on the receiving end. The fellow doing the slapping would be picking himself off the floor and making a trip to emergency room to have his teeth put back in and maybe having his Jaw set.

The last person bullying me had his nose broke and Jaw Broke. Took 6 other teenagers and 2 adilts to peel me off of him. The bullying stopped. Of Course  no one would then speak to me while I was in high school. For fear I would blow up again.

I wasn't even a fan of the Thrre Stooges.