Monday, October 18, 2010

How not to get sperm

(I’m experimenting with search engine optimisation in my headings)

I saw an ad on the Tube the other day and couldn’t help but notice this logo:


I would love to have been a fly on the wall when the ad agency managed to rationalise this to the client. But then, after my teenage sense of humour calmed down, I noticed the oddness of the rest of the ad:


This is an attempt to appeal to sperm donors, not to would-be mothers or couples wanting to conceive. Does the LSB really think that potential donors, who may be tempted to get some cash in hand in return for taking, er, something else in hand, want to be reminded that the consequences of this will be their biological kids running around out there?

This level of communicative incompetence makes me think that the logo was genuinely thought to be a good idea rather than something someone did for a dare. I fear that the ad campaign will come to nothing (sorry).

1 comment:

John B said...

The reason for the sperm donor crisis is the well-meaning but utterly stupid legislation the last government passed, which created a right for kids born from donor sperm to track down the identity of the donor. This had predictable consequences in deterring the "jizz in a jar for twenty quid and forget about it" demographic.

Presumably, the organisation has decided that - given the current constraints - appealing to altruism and/or people's desire-to-pass-on-genes might help attract a different group of donors...