Hannah and Dave

[Tinhampton]

El Beeb reports:

The advertising watchdog has received dozens of complaints about a paint advert which a comedian called "massively offensive".

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) said it was considering investigating Crown Paints' "Hannah & Dave" advert.

Comic Jenny Eclair said it must be taken off air over its implication that a woman "conned a man into fatherhood". Apologising for it, the Darwen-based paint firm said it appreciated "people have differing views on humour".

The advert, part of a series called Life Stories, includes a song about the four-year relationship between the characters Hannah and Dave. The lyrics state that "now a baby's coming and they don't know what it is", before continuing: "Hannah's hoping for a girl, Dave's just hoping that it's his."

Tweeting about the advert being "beyond mad", Eclair said the line was "massively offensive". She added that Crown Paints needed to "get that offensive baby ad off air" as its creators had "basically... set up a scenario that implies a woman has possibly conned a man into fatherhood".

Replying, author and podcast host Daisy Buchanan said she welcomed Eclair's tweet as "I honestly thought it was me being mad". Other Twitter users responding to Eclair's tweet said the advert was "offensive", "misogynistic" and a "serious error of judgement".

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the paint firm said the series of ads were "intended to be a humorous celebration of special life moments that prompt people to paint their homes, in this case focusing on Hannah and Dave, a happy couple expecting a baby together". "Whilst the ad has been broadly well received, we appreciate that people have differing views on humour and we apologise if any of the lyrics have caused offence," she added.

Reacting to the company's explanation, blogger and radio presenter Nickie O'Hara said their "gaslighting response" was "just abhorrent".

An ASA spokeswoman said it had received 58 complaints about the advert and was "currently assessing [them] carefully to determine whether there are grounds for an investigation".

And so to my question: Should the Hannah and Dave advert be taken off air? I say no: although the ASA has been trying to fight against adverts which contain obvious gender stereotypes for going on five years now, I am simply not convinced that an obviously comedic advert accusing a woman of having a baby with someone who isn't her husband - especially not for a company which has nothing to do with family planning whatsoever and has produced various other ads along these lines without incident - rises to the sorts of levels where they should be bringing out the sledgehammers. The controversy surrounding this advert appears to have lingered for about a week and Crown is not going to change its mind now.

[Stellar Colonies]

How this could possibly generate any noticeable controversy is beyond me.

From the way they were talking about it, I was expecting something like a husband walking in on his wife cheating and being forced to raise the resulting child.

[Risottia]

How this could possibly generate any noticeable controversy is beyond me.

The army of the professionally offended is always looking for visibility and money.

[The Free Joy State]

I'd seen the advert, but not even noticed the line until the furore popped up on my newsfeed.

I don't find the line particularly clever (sort of reminds me of something from an old sitcom) but it's not offensive either.

Mind you, I rewatch a lot of old sitcoms.

[The Holy Therns]

It's Hannah and Dave, not Hannah and...

...Stave.

Also this seems like a big ol' nothingburger.

[Kerwa]

“Advertising standards”. Lel.

But what can you expect from “crown” paints. Clearly they are colonialismist and probably white supremacist homophobes. I am literally shaking and will tear down a statue,

[Unholy Spanish Empire]

How this could possibly generate any noticeable controversy is beyond me.

Nowadays everything is controversial

[Kerwa]

It really shows why middle class people shouldn’t be in charge of anything though. They are humorless and unserious at the same time. Amazing combo really.

[The Holy Therns]

How this could possibly generate any noticeable controversy is beyond me.

Nowadays everything is controversial

It's actually all me, I take all current news, narrow it down with a few dice rolls until there's two, then flip a coin and tell the hivemind what to be offended by. I've got trashcans with lights on them scheduled for next week.

[Unholy Spanish Empire]

Nowadays everything is controversial

It's actually all me, I take all current news, narrow it down with a few dice rolls until there's two, then flip a coin and tell the hivemind what to be offended by. I've got trashcans with lights on them scheduled for next week.

Delightfully devilish

[EJECT ME SKY MAMA]

I've got trashcans with lights on them scheduled for next week.

Well that's just an affront to all sense of decency.

[Page]

It is a thing that happens. I guess I kind of get people being upset about it. Like if there was a depiction of a black guy robbing a liquor store. Sometimes a black guy robs a liquor store. Sometimes a white guy does. Sometimes women lie about fatherhood, sometimes women poke holes in the condom, sometimes men poke holes in the condom. It all happens and I guess there are valid questions about the promotion of harmful generalizations. In my view it's not worth the bother to complain about something like this though.

[Infected Mushroom]

I think it’s good that people are aware of how messed up parenthood can be.

[Cossette]

ban this sick filth now

[Ethel mermania]

When I have too much free time on my hands, I post on internet websites.

Other people try and control what third parties can and can not do. People like this make me think violence should be legal.

[Ostroeuropa]

It is a thing that happens. I guess I kind of get people being upset about it. Like if there was a depiction of a black guy robbing a liquor store. Sometimes a black guy robs a liquor store. Sometimes a white guy does. Sometimes women lie about fatherhood, sometimes women poke holes in the condom, sometimes men poke holes in the condom. It all happens and I guess there are valid questions about the promotion of harmful generalizations. In my view it's not worth the bother to complain about something like this though.

I think it's noteworthy that some groups are furious over it being depicted because it makes women look bad to depict... something bad they sometimes do.

But there's zero mention about deriving humor from it and how that is messed up. A good insight into the gynocentrism in play.

I think it’s good that people are aware of how messed up parenthood can be.

See above.

It would be like if there was an advert that used a man raping a woman as a punchline and a bunch of people were furious about it...

Because it suggested men sometimes rape women and this is "Misandry" for "Demonizing men.". That it was "Misandrous" to suggest a man could rape a woman and shouldn't be depicted.

Total brainworms, but sadly the norm for a feminism addled society. Also a good example of how all the people who keep pretending feminism also cares about men are telling themselves lies. Not only did they pass up an opportunity to talk about how the advert was misandrous for deriving humor from a woman abusing a man, they actively presented the depiction of such instances as anti-woman.

The OP themselves has demonstrated a degree of this problem in their poll options.

"Depicts outdated gender stereotypes" as the "Offensive" option.

[Sordhau]

Oh my God who fucking cares. What is wrong with people that they find the energy to get upset over nonsense. Touch grass.

[Fartsniffage]

Well they did meet at an illegal rave so perhaps Dave knows that Hannah is promiscuous.

Or there is an unmentioned open relationship. She does seem quite horny since she tried to jump his bones while he was just eating a scone.

[Emotional Support Crocodile]

I'm kind of puzzled as to why 'dozens' of people complaining about anything makes it on to a national news website. Must be a slow news day.

[Sordhau]

I'm kind of puzzled as to why 'dozens' of people complaining about anything makes it on to a national news website. Must be a slow news day.

Every day is a slow news day when you need 24 hours of content.

[Jabberwocky]

I wish we had this cultural advantage in the states.

[Floofybit]

If the roles were reversed no one would be saying anything. I think this is rather humorous.

[The Free Joy State]

Well they did meet at an illegal rave so perhaps Dave knows that Hannah is promiscuous.

Or there is an unmentioned open relationship. She does seem quite horny since she tried to jump his bones while he was just eating a scone.

A word of appreciation for the internal rhyme in the second line.

Maybe they should have mentioned it, if Hannah and Dave had an open marriage. Not only would I have (probably) noticed an ad campaign like: "Polyamorous Pomegranate and Swingers' Sweetpea, Crown has paint for all your open marriage moments", but I think the complaints would have been more amusing to read.

[Page]

But there's zero mention about deriving humor from it and how that is messed up. A good insight into the gynocentrism in play.

I remember this joke me and all the boys would tell in middle school. A white woman with a white husband is giving birth and when the head pops out the doctor tells her "your baby has Chinese eyes". And then the body comes out and it's brown and then they see from the waist down the baby is black. And the doctor spanks the baby to make it cry and when it cries the woman says "thank God!" And the doctor's like "What do you mean thank God? How are you going to explain this to your husband?" The woman says "I mean thank God that it didn't bark."

I had always thought that the humor was basically in that the mom is a slut, though I do see that perhaps more subconsciously one is laughing at the husband for being so thoroughly cuckolded, that there's some schadenfreude to it.

I have no point, really, just musing.

[Sordhau]

You know, thinking about it, the joke makes more sense to me if it's interpreted as making fun of Dave by suggesting he's paranoid that his wife is cheating on him; and not implying that she did actually cheat.