Twat Did You Say

 British humor never fails to capture it’s audience through advertising. The general procedure is to make a statement, ask a question and most importantly communicate that through to the target audience.Tango is renowned for its bizarre style of advertisements, however its latest offerings were deemed to have gone one step too far by some viewers. The series of ads by Britvic PLC for its tango soft drinks have escaped chastisement from the British Advertising Standards Authority only because they were judged too ridiculous to be taken seriously. This, despite complaints about suggesting oral sex with a bull and another referring to slang regarding the pubic region on a woman’s anatomy. On the newly redesigned can ”Tango With Added Tango” spells twat when read from top to bottom.The company claims this was a mistake.However, in its ensemble, the ads have a gender bias and are virulently anti-woman.A form of secular reactionism. Much of the stupidity is meant to be ironic and at the same time provoke a reaction.’‘The ad man (capitalist term for mind melder) wins here hands down. Because whether positively or negatively we’re all talking about Tango. There are loads of ads that fuck with your head out there. Its a new breed of ad strategy. Get into your head with weird slogans that don’t make sense or bright gaudy colours, or daft looking fuckers on it and whether you like it or loathe it you won’t help thinking about….” the company has a long record of banned publicity, perhaps designed to be unacceptable due to its publicity value.

One t.v. commercial for the brand, called ”Pipes” was banned: ‘‘The TV commercial for the soft drink showed a young man wrapped in a carpet filled with oranges that lay on top of a pyramid of concrete construction pipes. The pyramid was held together with a rope, one end of which was attached to a goat. As the goat moved away, the pyramid collapsed and the man tumbled uncontrollably fast down a steep hill. He then crashed into a tree and two pipes hit him consecutively. The man emerged from the carpet, drenched in juice but completely unharmed and smiling. ‘You know when you’ve been Tango’d,’ announces the voice-over.”

The advertising strategy appropriates much of a Monty Python black comedy approach with elements of the absurd, appealing to idiosyncratic sensibilities typical in British humour. However,  the narrative genius of the Pythons is replaced by clever, but clearly targeted messages to adolescents.