Most Horrendous and Tasteless Running Shoe Ad... EVER!

if an advertiser pulled the ad and apologized it doesnt necessarily mean they *know* that its tasteless...merely that they became aware that others felt it was tasteless. so congratulations doggie do gooders how does your bleeding hart feel at the possibility that sone ad guy or lady is getting reamed or canned because of your sensitive lacks of sense of humors and loudmouth whining on the evil collective conscience monolith that is FB?

Alright everyone settle down. I see both sides of the coin here. 1. The Op does have a fantastic sense of humor that I can testify to. 2. In SOME ways the ad is good, after all here we all are talking about it. 3. On the other side it is surprising that a team of people wouldn't foresee the outcry and send this to print. 4. However, all the above aside, knowing the society we live in and the outcry, even after pulling the ad, they're still generating publicity. Leaving us to philosophically wonder, was the ad horrendous and tasteless or is society? There. Let's all shake hands, climb off each others backs, and agree to disagree.

neither the ad nor society is horrendous and tasteless...only the cauliflower smorgasbord in recipes is.

Well I learned something today. That humans are not actually meant to be sprinters although some humans are very good at that and are awesome to watch and envy. I think I read something to the effect a long time ago that hunters mostly wore out their prey, but this was the first time I read about humans being among the best as far as marathon running goes. I am thankful we have evolved to the point I don't have to chase my food and that there are people that grow food for me and I can go to the market and the most hunting I have to do is bargain hunting. I wouldn't last a week if I had to chase my food down. However, I suppose I could walk after my food for several hours, thanks to at least attempting to get in better shape I have increased my walking endurance up to 5 hours a day. Not all at once of course. I started out with around 30 minutes a day. Then started to do 2 or 3 sessions like that a day then I got up to doing a couple hours of walking at a time. So, perhaps this is why I feel that walking around for the better part of my waking hours is a good thing and I don't get terribly bored doing it as long as I am outside. Put me inside for the same amount of time and it's a different story.

As far as the ad being tasteless, I think the idea behind it is actually good. Pay attention to your dog if your dog is your training partner, don't run your dog to exhaustion, know what to do if you accidentally run your dog to hard, make sure you have water for your dog (well that is wisdom from MFP), learn doggie CPR. So, perhaps their intentions weren't to be horrendous or tasteless. But, the execution of the ad is pretty awful. Oh and I don't care if the creators of the ad got in trouble seriously they should have a clue as to how people will react to that kind of thing.

I love dogs....I don't find this ad offensive is just putting emphasis on what the runner is capable of achieving whilst wearing the shoes, Most dogs live to run and any serious runner will be the same...The small print reassures the reader!!

From a marketing prospective I'd say they've done their job....definitely been noticed lol....

I think it's a great ad... it got a lot of people talking. And I thought it was funny.
(I don't run with my dog at all... she's in good shape, but so eager to please me that she would collapse rather than stop if she were overdoing it or got too hot).

CPR is never funny.

Have you ever seen the advert where Vinny Jones does CPR on a guy he did over? They used the song staying alive to teach folk how to give CPR....I thought that was particularly funny esp when he brought him back to life to do it all over again!!

You should watch it and not take things so seriously....and that was a training Ad and educational .....

Dog gone. I must be one sick puppy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbBL62IiRE

[This is probably the harshest thing I've ever posted on the boards. Take it as tough love, not as me just being a hateful person.]

If people actually READ the ad, they would see that the last line says "Ranger is only playing dead. Visitpearlizumi.com/dogcpr to make sure your best friend remains your most loyal running companion."

Truth is more than just taking in a visual and making a snap judgement. It's an advertisement: if there are words, they are meant to be read as well as just looking at the pic and formulating an opinion of outrage.

How many people know about dog CPR? I'll be honest, I had never heard of it until I saw this ad. I do not have a dog myself, but I'm sure loads of dog-owners who are crying and sniffling about abuse in this ad don't know about dog CPR either.

If you care about dogs as much as you say and did NOT know about dog CPR, wipe away those tears of outrage and just go the link, educate yourself and stop jumping to incorrect conclusions.

No one is invoking PETA or animal abuse. No one thinks the dog is actually dead. Many people above have explained succinctly why the ad strikes many of us as being in poor taste. Obviously many others find it perfectly acceptable and think that those that object to it are somehow wrong, unintelligent, overly PC or lacking any shred of a sense of humor. No big shock there -- this is the Internet. I don't care, so I'm not inclined to come back and prove how smart, un PC or hilarious I am (though it could be easily done .

I think this is an interesting discussion about perception, more than anything. As someone who runs with a black dog in Florida, yeah, the image bothers me. YMMV.

I'm not above inappropriate humor. My current profile pic (Embalm and Carrion) is proof of that.

But irresponsible pet ownership (even implied) is right up there with child abuse. Having worked at an animal hospital and shelter, I've seen too much neglect and mistreatment to find humor in it. And running a dog in a desert-like environment until the dog gets heat stroke and heart failure isn't amusing.

Would anyone find it funny if the ad showed a parent with so much extra energy from their fancy new shoes that they played with their child until the kid keeled over?

My biggest surpise, though... is anyone really so clueless that they don't know about pet cpr? Do you not realize that animals have hearts and where they're located? I remember doing a demonstration on it in a public speaking class in 7th grade. I showed how to do CPR and mouth to muzzle on a toy cat.

However, in this hypothetical situation, Ranger's owner would have already ignored earlier signs of heat stroke and dehydration, and has no way of getting him out of the heat, so the CPR isn't going to help. http://www.wikihow.com/Treat-Heat-Stroke-in-Dogs