Quit school’ ad blooper on bus

PALOMA MIGONE

‘EPIC BLOOPER’: The Health Sponsorship Council isn’t planning to take the ad down, despite the message. “We see the sense of humour in it,” spokesman Iain Potter says.

An advertising blooper has seen a smokefree advertisement turn in to a call to quit school.

The Health Sponsorship Council’s Smoking Not Our Future campaign has featured young celebrities talking negatively about smoking since it was launched in 2007.

But in the latest advertisement, the smokefree message was inconveniently placed next to a bus’s school sign.

Thus an image of Shortland Street star Ben Mitchell appeared next to a message that read: “take action, take control, quit school”.

Campaign organisers called it an “epic blooper,” but saw the humour behind it and posted a picture of the ad on the Smoking Not Our Future’s Facebook page.

“On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate this as an epic blooper? 1 = not really and 10 = totally epic. p.s Stay in School,” they said.

More than 1000 comments were left on the page, with many followers giving it a 10.

Council spokesman Iain Potter said the picture was sent to the council today and he wasn’t sure where it was taken.

He said they weren’t planning to take the ad down, despite the confusing message.

“It only runs another couple of weeks and we see the sense of humour in it.

“It wasn’t what we intended it to be, but you’ve got to be able to laugh,” he said.

“It’s funny, not derogatory, we thought, so we decided to leave it.”

From: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/6539946/Quit-school-ad-blooper-on-bus