Am I taking this too seriously? PC gone mad? (again)
So. I was driving to Uni yesterday when I saw a bus up ahead with an advertisement for Crunchie chocolate bars on the back. The advertisement read:
10 out of 9 dyslexics prefer Crunchie
Ha. Ha. Get it? Dyslexics? Back to front? Yeah, groan.
Now, I know the dyslexic joke has been a staple of comedy routines for years. But laughing at a disability in order to sell a chocolate bar – isn’t that a bit rough? More to the point, it paints people who suffer from dyslexia as ‘stupid’, and back to front. Of course, this isn’t the case at all, dyslexia refers to:
disorders that involve difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols, but that do not affect general intelligence – Dictionary definition
So tell me. Am I taking this too seriously? Should I lighten the hell up? Or is this unfair victimisation of a section of the disability community at the hands of a confectionary company?
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Its in poor taste, but actually not even funny. Cadburys should know better.
It is poor taste indeed.
Anyone who feels especially aggrieved by this can take a case to the Advertising Standards Complaints Board – I don't remember the exact wording, but I'm sure they've got something in their little book of rules stating that advertisers shouldn't say anything that could "offend significant sections of the public" – and given that dyslexia is increasingly being recognised as a disability these days, you would probably get a hearing. And no, Red, I don't think you should "lighten the hell up" – as I always say in these matters, if you're pissed off, you're pissed off!
[...] being reported that those distasteful Cadbury dyslexia advertisements I mentioned a few days ago have been pulled, as a result of numerous [...]
yes. you should lighten up.
Yeah, I agree, lighten up. My partner has dyslexia and he thought it was funny.
Re: Poll, I prefer 'has a disability' to 'is disabled', but then that can be read as overly PC too…Someone tried to argue for the term 'disadvantaged' the other day and I thought that was terrible! What do you think?
also technically someone who has problems with numbers is dyscalculic, not dyslexic. Dyslexia is languuage -based….
So not only is it a bad-taste joke, its complete bullshit too
Just for the record, I dont think the joke is that bad, but the act of using it to sell something is.
I think the ad is in poor taste. It suggests that people with dyslexia are stupid. This is not the case. Dyslexia is a learning disability. Some very famous people have dyslexia and obviously highly intelligent.