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.
