Cougar Town
The Air New Zealand Cougar campaign is topical and appeals to the humour of New Zealanders. Well, most New Zealanders. Unfortunately the overzealous nature of the ‘Politically Correct police' has tainted the campaign for the rest of us.
In my opinion the campaign was witty, engaging and frankly, it had a great prize attached to it: tickets to the Wellington Rugby Sevens tournament.
Air NZ developed a spoof documentary focusing on women of a certain vintage who have a healthy appetite for younger men. These women have been nicknamed ‘cougars' by the general public and the campaign encouraged women over 35 to join the ‘cougar party' at the Sevens - to enter the draw they needed to send in a photo of themselves with a man at least 10 years their junior.
Unfortunately, as with many cheeky advertising campaigns in New Zealand, the PC police took it out of context and controversy ensured. Complaints arose by those who were appalled/disgusted/horrified at the campaign making light of what seemed to be a very serious issue regarding sexual predators.
Disclaimer: 1. I am not advocating unwelcome sexual advances, any sexual predatory behaviour is unacceptable and rape is a heinous crime. 2. Those who complained have every right to express their opinion - as I do here.
An important fact to note is that the campaign used over exaggeration to create humour. Yes, there was reference to males being unable to escape the cougars' clutches, but its referring to the women we have all seen down at the Viaduct ‘out on the prowl' who epitomise this nickname. That is why the campaign is so clever; it relates to New Zealander's quirky humour and makes fun of Kiwis themselves.
New Zealand has a huge problem with the being too politically correct. It seems we can barely breathe without someone checking to see if we are emitting too much greenhouse gas, so it's no wonder that the first clever campaign this year got lambasted. I'm only going to bother saying this once: the cougar campaign was not designed to bring up hurtful memories or make light of rape victims, it was designed to encourage New Zealanders to interact with a well known brand in a fun, engaging way. End of story.