Hello *Belly*

I really know nothing about them but will allocate a time slot to search for "search" on google, pick another engine and have a look at this TAPP that you refer to and consider making a comment.

..

Oh, by the way, I wanted to tell you what I most enjoyed about the recent leadership clash within your BeLoved party,

(and no doubt if we are to take you at your word you are a true and loyal participant, a fact about which I have no problem and some admiration)

well, second of course to the fact that for some these "clashes" make the *Greens* look better. I am fond to see in my fanciful imaginative moments *Doug Cameron* replete with thick accent:

" ... Aaah! AAahh! My left tit, tis turning *Green* ... "

(though I must admit, as fond as I am of them in some ways, I have always believed them to be weak on some of the big issues. But then, I do not expect them to be perfect, but rather to recognise that they are not, and to reach out in a greater way to the vast (I believe) unTAPPed wealth of talent in the Australian populace, and invite and involve them in a greater way in the decision making process through, as one example, more focused forums such as this.

Perhaps the NBN will bring about the implementation of something like cost effective voluntary indicative plebiscites, a word I first learned from hearing it usher forth from the mouth of *Kim Beazely*

Another of my favourites from *Kim Beazely* was "Physician heal thySelf" from 1997, and was intensely overwhelming to me at that time, but alas, I digress.

..

What I most liked was that we heard from a considerable number of all of the other ALP participants. I found it to be most refreshing and a matter about which much more could be said.

You wouldn't use such a marketing line without a receptive market. In some places a similar add would prompt the locals to drag you screaming into the town square before stoning you, slitting your throat or some such. Are these places more civilised for reacting in this way, and is not an eternity burning in hell more extreme still?

If you did not like the add, would you be more or less likely to buy the product? Obviously Sofa King's GM thought the add would sell a few.

From Houellie’s link in the opening post:

< In its defence, The Sofa King said the phrase "Where the Prices are Sofa King Low!" had been the firm's slogan since it began trading nine years ago, adding it did not believe it had caused "serious or widespread offence".

The firm also said no action had been taken over complaints made to Northamptonshire Police about the strap line in 2004. >

Well, for goodness sake, they are right. It has palpably not caused serious or widespread offence over that period. If it had, the Advertising Standards Agency would have jumped on it, quickly and decisively, wouldn’t they? Or if they hadn’t, THEY would have been the guilty party.

In fact for them to act now and not years earlier is a real indictment of their ability to make good, fair and sensible decisions.

No doubt there were people who didn’t like the ads, and quite strongly so. But there are hundreds of things that we don’t like, many much worse than that, which are lawfully and socially accepted or tolerated.

The matter had been earlier tested in 2004, after which Sofa King could reasonably understand that its ads were okay, and would not face the possibility of being banned in the future. Also, the ASA has effectively condoned the ads through its long period of inaction.

Consequently, if the ads are to be banned now, the company should receive compensation equal to the full cost of doing so and replacing them with new ads. There is something very wrong with this company now being out of pocket over this.

They have effectively been heavily fined for doing something that was lawful and acceptable or tolerable to the vast majority of people and to the management authority for years.

The UK Advertising Standards Agency’s decision to ban this ad is absurd and pitiful.

Well, why not address the murder of one million Iraqis under the lie of WMDs and stealing their oil.What could be more obscene unless of course,it was your life for the taking?

So let's not gild the lily on Western expletives,since they don't murder people.

What a mountain out of a molehill.Who cares.The F word has become so common most people don't even hear it anymore.I object more to the American saying of "mother f######.First heard this expression in the 60's and was horrified.I thing Sofa King is a clever marketing strategy.

Why is sex with mothers so horrifying? Anyone who has siblings at least can be sure their father is a mother focker. Or is it a bad boy bubby kind thing?

WmTrevor I'm so glad you remembered that one.

Poirot is right of course. I was hoping people might be able to get it but I feel more like a guy dressing up as a Mormon going door to door to Mormon's houses to mock them and instead being received as the Messiah.

I was thinking about it again yesterday and I think all these media outrage beat-ups and trivialities are the equivalent of Aesop's Fables. Which then makes me wonder why we have this Proxy concern for the trivialities of the day rather than explicitly thrash out what should be society's values and how they should be reflected or enforced. Why do we have to filter our morality and life philosophy through entertainment and reality TV and the masters of Outrage.

Then I started thinking about the whole anti-politics attitude of the unwashed, and really it all makes sense. Perhaps people don't think they get a say in anything in the supposed 'democracy', so when you give them a sounding board to throw proverbial stones at others in judgement at the trivial entertainment targets, that's what they do.

But then I was thinking about the standard of TV drama scripts, and although they are derivative, the themes and concepts in shows like House for example (Psychology, Ethics, Machiavellianism), and the dialogue and the complexity (Not to mention swearing) of In The Loop, , the social commentary of The Simpsons and South Park, when you compare things like that to Kingswood Country or Leave it to Beaver, it's amazing the capacity people really do have to comprehend issues these days , but it seems only when they are encapsulated in the form of entertainment. Even concern for other has transcended into entertainment in the form of grief porn.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; Entertainment is the single most important thing in the world.