Ford Apologizes for Offensive Ads

Ford, as most multinational companies do, outsource their advertising to local markets. The ad featured above was intended to show how much room the sub compact car has, but is obviously offensive to many. The firm released the advertisement without the authorization of Ford's global marketing department. Ford has apologized for the graphic image, however it came at a very bad time for the firm. Just two months ago a young woman was gang raped, and savagely beaten. Last week legislation was past to stop this behavior, but an ad such as this is sure to cause Ford many headaches in this market, and globally. No longer are embarrassing faux paw contained to a single market, the internet helps spread ads such as this virally, almost overnight.

Although the article didn't mention this, I'm sure the contract with this firm had been terminated. It's interesting to see a firm would find this acceptable. In the U.S. I don't believe any reputable firm would automatically know this isn't acceptable.

http://live.wsj.com/video/ford-apologizes-for-offensive-ads-in-india/A4FCFDE9-4EFF-496F-B037-75627ABBF8A3.html#!A4FCFDE9-4EFF-496F-B037-75627ABBF8A3