Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Cannes Lions has its second cringeworthy moment, this time from a Bronze Lion winner.

The outdoor ad, for Bayer from AlmapBBDO in Sao Paulo, reads "Don't worry babe, I'm not filming this.mov" and features aspirin boxes. Cindy Gallop, the former agency exec and vocal women's advocate, has again brought attention to Cannes Lions ceremony tweeting a photo of the ad and commenting, "Don't use this to sell aspirin, male-dominated ad industry [and] don't award it, male dominated juries." 

UPDATE: Bayer has asked the agency to discontinue the campaign....

Ford isn't the only major company that has had to answer for a controversial ad it never wanted to go public. A series of Pepsi ads in Dusseldorf showed graphic images of a personified calorie committing suicide in various violent ways. The World Wildlife Foundation had to apologize when DDB Brazil created ads in which dozens of planes were shown flying at the World Trade Towers with the text, "The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11." WWF said it never approved the ads even though they were submitted to various ad award ceremonies. Click here to see when big brands had to answer for huge ad fails ...