I dunno, I think the ad was pretty good. It's an anti-discrimination ad, and I think it does it effectively (albeit shockingly)
I disagree - while I completely get the intention of the ad, it is the wrong message to try to send. The message The Foundry is trying to send is that 'any discrimination is wrong, and all discrimination is the same'. That's BS. I'm a big, white bloke of non-jewish descent. To say that my poor lifestyle choices that have lead me to be a big bloke are on par with the slaughter of millions of innocent people should be seen as a very offensive statement.
The problem with fixing the ad would be that as the agent from The Foundry said, a lesser joke wouldn't have the same impact. In fact, making the fat joke worse than the Jewish joke would be making an even worse statement.
Should we also put laughing at red-heads on the same level as laughing at the holocaust? I don't think so. That's not to say we should endorse laughing at red-heads, but there are degrees. Most jokes contain a level of discrimination that makes them funny. The questions are though - is the joke said to incite more discrimination? To make light of their discimination? To endorse their discrimination? To parody their discrimination? This must be compared to just how harmful that discrimination is to that group. In the case of red-heads, I'd have to say that it hasn't really effected them drastically, and if they are unhappy with their look they can change the colour. In the case of the Jewish people, it has affected their history in a way that will not be forgotten, and it's something that they cannot escape.
The ad may indeed have been useful for inviting discussion, but in all fairness it's not something for television. That said, without some sort of discrimination, jokes just wouldn't be the same;
Q: What do you call 5 mexicans standing in quicksand?
A: A troublesome situation that could soon become fatal.
