[aldo_14]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/21/crazy_frog_off_air/

[q]The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned Crazy Frog adverts from appearing on British TV before Nine O'clock in the evening in an effort to protect children from his tuneless squeaking.

VeriSign subsidiary Jamster, the company behind the amphibian, says it intends "to pursue all legal means to overturn the ASA's unjust and unfounded decision about its past advertisements". It described the ASA decision as "flawed".

Jamster complains: "The ASA fails to adequately consider the well-established fact that the overwhelming majority of Jamster's customers are above the age 16."

In fact, the ASA devotes some time to this "well-established fact". Jamster provided the ASA with a survey which they said showed less than 3.87 per cent of their customers were under 16.

With restrained dryness the ASA judgement reads: "We appreciated the efforts taken by Jamster to initiate a survey to provide us with customer figures, but we did not consider that the internal survey had been adequate show the age of Jamster customers. It was based on calls to the customer service department over a six-day period." The ASA was satisfied that the product was of interest to children.

The judgement also said: "The 40,000 TV broadcasts in a one-month period made it most unlikely that a child would not have been aware of the characters."

Eighty people complained that Jamster adverts did not make clear they were selling a subscription service rather than soliciting a one-off payment. Some 244 people complained that the ad was aimed at children; 33 complained that their kids had downloaded ringtones and they had subsequently received large phone bills. ®
Cultural observation

Nine pm marks "the watershed" in the UK, the time when British kids are assumed to be in bed leaving their parents to watch all kinds of filth on the telly.
[/q]

Not really important, i just like gloating over the shower of ****e that sell subscriptions to kids too dumb to know better.

[kasperl]

Good to hear this.

If only they banned the stupid things alltogether, then that'd be an example for the Dutch advertising boards.

[Grug]

Oh how I loathe that damned frog and all who use it...

[Ford Prefect]

Could someone fill me in on what this thing is, and why children need to be protected from it?

[aldo_14]

The Crazy Frog is a - now with gentals removed - 'cute' thing used to advertise an incredibly annoying ringtone based upon a scandinavian bloke impersonating a moped.  It's even spawned an album.

Jamster, who are responsible for flogging this horse, run adverts which ask people to sign up to receive a ringtone, etc.  What these people don't know - because there is only tiny small print rapidly scrolling across the screen - is that they're signing up to a subscription service where they receive a shedload of premium rate text messages before they can (struggle to) unsubscribe.  'Fashion conscious' (read: whores to what's hip in the media or playground) teenage kids, being thicker than the usual, tend to fall for this.

[Ford Prefect]

Well that's one of the more depressing things I've heard in my time on this earth.

[Wild Fragaria]

I found that frog funny the first couple of times I saw it (because his private's was 'cover up' in the advertiment), but later it just got annoying.

[Fragrag]

+500000000000 respect to ASA, just for banning Crazy Frog ads, now, if the Belgian counterpart can do the same... I would finally be sane

[SadisticSid]

Good riddance. Well, for most of the day, at least.

[Mongoose]

You know, apparently that damn frog is catching on over here as well.  I just saw a commercial for it a few weeks ago.  You Brits always complain about the crap that American TV exports, but we've never given you something one-hundredth as bad as this thing.  Thanks for nothing

[Ghostavo]

Wait, you brits are responsible for this abomination?

*plots revenge*

[WMCoolmon]

I never expected so see 'Frog' and 'genitals' in the same post on HLP.

[neo_hermes]

*attempts to say something, but can't.*

[StratComm]

I must be one of the few remaining internet-capable people on earth to not know anything about this frog.  Because I know exactly nothing about any of this.

[achtung]

*Massive Cherring in background*

"CMN news reporting, today is a day that will go down in the history books as the day the frog finally died!"

*Band Starts* (tune of bye bye miss american pie)

Bye, bye stupid froggy like guy
I used my chevy which was heavy but it still didn't die
But the good ol' brits with a gleam in their eye said
"This'll be the day that frog dies, oh this'll be the day that frog dies"

Copyright 2005 Swantz Records.

[BlackDove]

I've seen the ******* frog here too in Sweden, and from the first time I heard it, I knew it was a rip off from that internet moped crap.

I thought that someone stupid enough to commertialise that would go down the drain in an instant with regards to the coroporate world, but alas I have been mistaken, because I didn't factor MORONS WHO BUY THAT SHIT into the equation.

My bad.

ASA

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Ghostavo
Wait, you brits are responsible for this abomination?

*plots revenge*

Noooo.... I think it was a swede.  And the company (Jamster) is German.  Their revenge for Dresden, I guess.

[Sandwich]

http://www.frenzy.com/~jester/racecar.html

That's where I heard the sound first.