"A top Ford Motor Co. executive formally apologized Wednesday while the auto maker's Indian advertising agency unit fired an undisclosed number of workers following a series of controversial proposed advertisements to promote Ford's Figo subcompact car."
JWT India's employee didn't have Ford's or JWT's authorization to publicize the unappropriated series of ads featuring Paris Hilton, the Kardashian sister, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and Formula One drivers Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. Someone in the company uploaded the ads in a website called Ads of the World, which gives monthly awards to ads submitted by users. Minutes after, the entire web had access to the ads. It is clearly that the employees responsible for this either didn't understand the power of the internet or didn't think the ads were offensive or creative enough to make international headlines (well.. they were). The ads came in a very sensitive moment in India. The country's parliament recently approved a bill that aims to strengthen sexual assault legislation. The publicity wouldn't be so negative if India wasn't going through a very delicate moment since the horrific gang rape and death of a young Indian woman in December. The employee's of JWT that created and uploaded the ads didn't analyze the market situation and the possible consequences of their non-authorized ads.
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