A live, non-talking lobster
Uno’s is a pizza chain that for some reasonadded seafood to its repertoire. For a couple years now it has been peddling lobster dishes on its menu, and the TV commercials feature a black humor ad featuring clueless lobsters chatting by a boiling lobster pot, not suspect that they’re next.
The problem facing Uno’s ad agency was that most Americans, not being from lobster country (as I am), think lobsters are red. They are not red until they are cooked, however; when they are alive and talking, lobsters are a dark, menacing, blackish green. In fact, live lobsters look like big bugs, and if you’re expecting bright red creatures, that what you might think the crustaceans are. So, faced with wanting talking lobsters that are also appetizing, what did Uno do? They made their live lobsters red, even though that will perpetuate the crustacean ignorance of the vast number of mal-educated citizens.
Sorry; it’s a small ethics foul, but a foul nonetheless. A lot of Americans think the Civil War was fought in the 20th Century, but that wouldn’t excuse a commercial showing the battle of Gettysburg including aircraft. Ignorance of any kind is to be avoided, and those who know the truth have an obligation to illuminate, not to keep people dumb and happy by feeding their confusions. Live lobsters aren’t red, and it’s wrong to keep badly educated non-New Englanders thinking otherwise.
And they don’t talk, either.
Ethics Alarms 
I know you hate the “but they’re not as bad as…” game, but I couldn’t resist. After all, I suspect that already-cooked lobsters are no less capable of articulate speech than their pre-cooked selves. But when a company sells “live lobsters,” as these folks do, one might expect their photographs to support that claim. One wonders how many irate phone calls they receive from customers who don’t know what they’re buying.
That’s a great example. I bet 80% of the country thinks live lobsters are red…the lobster in Sponge Bob is red. Come to think of it, he talks too.
What about the Geico commerical with the old-timey footage of Lincoln?
I actually wonder how many people think there really were dagueretype-style films back then.
“A lot of Americans think the Civil War was fought in the 20th Century, but that wouldn’t excuse a commercial showing the battle of Gettysburg including aircraft.”
Would sheer awesomeness excuse such a commercial?
There should be quotes around the first paragraph. Does this new commenting system still support html?
1 . Yes.
2. Is it really a new system? What WordPress does is a mystery unto me.
Maybe.
So, no chance at all that the lobsters just happen to be Washington Redskins fans, then . . . ? 🙂
–Dwayne
Possible. That’s about all the fans the team has left.
Jack,
I don’t get it .. as you yourself said the lobsters in the ad ARE TALKING, meaning it’s unlikely anyone of reasonable intelligence would assume them to be anything like the real kind. This is akin to someone criticizing the “Land Before Time” because Stegosauruses were long extinct by the time of the Tyrannosaur.
I’m going to have to fall back on my Tide argument that commercials are a way of using fiction to sell real products. Making Lobsters red is no different than fast food places making their burgers look more appetizing in TV spots. Live lobsters may be what people are buying, but people are buying them to eat .. thus Unos is selling THAT image.
Finally, considering the lobsters in the ad are sitting near a pan one COULD make the argument these were cooked lobsters simply speaking well of their live brethren being made for sale. On the other hand, talking COOKED lobsters, now that would just be silly.
-Neil
Actually, I’m not all that crazy about misrepresentations of dinosaurs, at least common misconceptions about them. I’ve actually had people argue with me that lobsters ARE red, and this doesn’t help.
Jack,
Agreed. My point (as with Tide) has always been commercials aren’t real, nor do most people assume them to be. Maytag washers DO break down sometimes.
-Neil