HK audiences protest over new Sunday spot

Sunday, the upstart telecommunications player in Hong Kong, is continuing to court controversy, this time with its "Taxi Driver" TVC. The spot was pulled from local Chinese-language television channels after the Broadcasting Authority (BA) received more than 1,800 complaints from the public. The commercial showed scenes of a taxi driver being chased by a ghost as he was driving along a dark and lonely stretch of road. The BA described the ad as shocking, scary and disturbing, and issued a "serious warning" to the stations which aired it - ATV Home, TVB Jade and Cable TV. Sunday, however, denied the spot was pulled due to public reaction or the BA warning. Public relations manager Mark Chan said the message had been successfully conveyed and that as a result, it was time to end the airing of the television ad. He also defended the attention-grabbing tactics used: "It was appropriate given the fact that the target audience was mainly 'night owls'." The spot was created by BBDO and co-ECD Paul Chan expressed regret over the BA warning, saying that just under 2,000 complaints from a total population of more than six million people was an extremely small number. Other CDs said there was nothing wrong with the TVC. TBWA Greater China head of creative Raymond Chau described Hong Kong people as "stuffy" and that there was nothing to be frightened of. "Society is not tolerant to creative ideas ... The issue would discourage the enthusiasm of creative directors," he said. Leo Burnett CD Victor Manggunio said he "couldn't understand what the big fuss was all about". He added that, compared with the population of Hong Kong, it was only "a few people" who were upset. He also agreed that Hong Kong people lacked a sense of humour.

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