Well is anyone else offended by the commercial? I think we should all write to complain and maybe Dairy Queen will mail us a bunch of free coupons. Seriously, its a rude thing to use in advertisements. Why pick on hypo-T's? If they'd said diabetics or anything else they would have already had a lawsuit against them. I really like DQ's dipped cherry cones, so I may have to write and complain. But I don't think eating too much ice cream caused me to be hypo.
OK fill me in I don't watch TV all that much, what is the commercial and what do they talk about? Or even better any place where I can download a capture of it to know what you're talking about? (I doubt they'd object to the increased advertising really)
I got to thinking the last commercials I've seen were for the REd white and blue blizzard with the dumb guys turning their blizzard cups upside down doing stupid things with them.
[This message has been edited by Sky_Eagle1 (edited 09-13-2003).]
Angela....yes...please fill me in. I don't understand why would DQ make fun of hypo's unless they meant eating the ice cream would make you hyperactive. But even that would not be a good advertisement for business. I hope you are still up because now I am going to want to know this.-Roni
Mary Shomon's newest newsletter had a tidbit on this commercial that has someone going back for more icecream saying that they have a thyroid problem. It is pretty insensitive. It's bad enough when a doctor does not want to hear about your weight issues as a thyroid problem, this will just reinforce the stigma. I went online to try to e-mail DQ and the only way to contact them is by phone, how annoying.
You can email DQ when you scroll further down the public citizen page. It is highlighted for the media and I left them a detailed letter about this commercial. I hope they will respond to me but not expecting it.
So no one has a blow-by-blow account of this commercial, nothing more than just a vague series of events? I'd like to make something of this if I can, but it's hard with just a vague description of what they did.
SkyEagle- The ad is like this... a customer keeps going into the Dairy Queen again, and again and again for an ice cream blaming the frequent visits on a thyroid problem. About as humorous as the another recent ad with the two dumb guys. That's a weird sort of plunge for DQ to make insulting others trying to be funny. Reminds me of a child trying to get attention. All they gotta do to sell ice cream is show pictures of their sundaes. The food is good, well the ice cream is, so I don't see why they have to resort to taking low blows. Will the next commercial pick on hypoglycemics stopping by to raise their blood sugar??
Oh I just gave them a piece of my mind! I wish you guys could see what I wrote. I suggested they use the truth of hair falling into Blizzards. I suggested that they run a contest. Throw a cancerous thyroid into a shake and tell the people if they find the prize, they'll be the proud owners of a large, spacious thyroid with a special all inclusive option-cancer. I wonder if they're going to e-mail me back-NOT!!! I just can't believe any company can be so ignorant as to put such steriotypes in their commercials. My husband laughed his butt off and said "Man you really laid it into them, didn't you?"
Oh yes! Tell all your family and friends to e-mail their opinions to Dairy Queen. I sure will! I never saw the commercial but I'm glad I heard about it.
THERE! GOT IT OFF MY CHEST! LOL!!!
Barb
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"Life, for all its agonies...is exciting and beautiful, amusing and artful and endearing... and whatever is to come after it-we shall not have this life again."
I think the DQ customer service is going to be putting in some overtime the next few days answering complaint letters. I got a response by email within 15 minutes apologizing to me. However I asked for a nationwide apology to be carried by the media and they made no mention of that. They only said they would take my complaint seriously and consider it when making plans for advertising for remainder of year. Oh-good so next year we can anticipate more ads making fun of health conditions? An FYI-the advertising genius responsible for the commerical is Grey Worldwide.
I anticipate making some calls to the two local DQ's, just to let them know I am offended and won't be paying them a visit anytime soon. The woman that owns one of the local restuarants is a real nice lady, so just going to tell her how appalled I am and to please pass it on. No use being ugly to those that have nothing to do with the stupid ad. I don't care if their corporate headquarters is long distance I will call them too!
I think you guys have missed the point. You have to catch the very beginning of the commercial, which I didn't get the first three times I saw it.
The announcer says it might be a good idea to give away free "Triple" chocolate sundaes to sets of triplets as a marketing gimmick. Then the twin girls bring this tall, beefy guy dressed as they are with them to get their free ice cream. To explain why the guy doesn't look like the other two, he give a series of excuses... For the last one he shrugs and says, "I got a ty'roid issue?"
I have to disagree with y'all ... I think it's hilarious. It makes me laugh each time it's on. People who just eat too darn much and don't move enough have been using the thyroid excuse for centuries to explain why they're big. This is the premise the advertisers are using. They aren't saying anything about anyone who is truly hypo.
[This message has been edited by midwest1 (edited 09-14-2003).]
__________________ "We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses." Abraham Lincoln
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I am definitely going to spread the word about this to every place I can. I am even going to write my first letter to the editor and put it into some newspapers.
One more question though about the ad...was this customer male or female? Fat or thin? Muscular?
[This message has been edited by Sky_Eagle1 (edited 09-14-2003).]
Sky, he is tall and muscular... not fat. That's why he looks so ridiculous trying to pass himself as a petite, cute cheerleader type like the other girls.
__________________ "We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses." Abraham Lincoln
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The implication here, though, is that they feel they can make fun and belittle with the idea of thyroid disorders. They wouldn't dare even consider substituting that with "hypoglycemic" or "diabetic" because they know their world would crash down on them. But because of the ignorance and limited awareness, thyroid disease is still OK in their eyes to link to gluttony through this stereotyping. It's not good to stereotype diseases like this in any way, even if it is a horrid attempt at comedy.
Do I need to try to explain WHY this is offensive?
[This message has been edited by Sky_Eagle1 (edited 09-14-2003).]
Sky Eagle, Big dark beefy(chunky guy), if I remember. I thought it was funny. I'm sorry. IWL P.S. My husband thought they probably started with pituitary gland, but decided alot of people wouldn't understand.
[This message has been edited by Iwannalife (edited 09-14-2003).]
Midwest- I know they are trying to make into a joke, but anytime you make light of a health issue it is not funny. People watching the commercial will get the wrong idea about hypothyroidism. We've been stigmatized enough. If statistics are right and there really are 13 million undiagnosed Americans with hypothyroid; its not going to bring more people out to demand testing if they feel the whole thing is a big joke.
If the commercial had made fun of anything else, any other disease, or if they had made a racial, ethnic or religious joke they would be sued and it would be news headlines the next day!
[This message has been edited by AngelaA (edited 09-14-2003).]
I saw a commercial on television that I consider an outrage. Dairy Queen has run an ad featuring a person going into a Dairy Queen for ice cream, blaming the desire for their latest product on a thyroid disorder. The implication made is that thyroid disorders are not real and life altering diseases, but something to be used as folly or an excuse for gluttony and laziness.
As a person suffering from hypothyroidism, I fight this unfortunate stereotype occasionally with people I meet as well as the doctors themselves. Since part of life with hypothyroidism is uncontrolled weight gain and inability to lose weight, those who are ignorant of this illness easily make this stereotype. Stereotypes are even worse, though, when they are reinforced through the media with things like this recent Dairy Queen ad. These stereotypes must not be tolerated at all, whether it is a bad attempt at comedy like the Dairy Queen ad, or a serious statement.
Over ten million Americans suffer with hypothyroidism (10% of all women, 3% of all men). Symptoms of hypothyroidism include joint pain, fatigue and exhaustion, depression, inability to concentrate, and other numerous symptoms too long to list here. Hypothyroidism can definitely be a debilitating, life altering, and disabling disease.
It is appalling when advertising of any organization would belittle or make fun of anyone with an illness or disease. The estimation is that thirteen million Americans remain undiagnosed and the spreading of stereotypes like this one will keep people from getting checked out and obtaining proper treatment. I am contacting Dairy Queen to let them know my opinion about this outrage, and suggest that anyone else who feels that communicating misinformed stereotypes about those with debilitating illnesses is not a good idea do so as well. Needless to say, I won’t be frequenting any Dairy Queens for a long time until some kind of apology is made and these ads are forever pulled from television.
You can write Dairy Queen at American Dairy Queen Corporation, 7505 Metro Blvd., Minneapolis, MN 55439 or call: +1 (952) 830-0200.
Originally posted by Iwannalife:
[B]My husband thought they probably started with pituitary gland, but decided alot of people wouldn't understand.
]
IWL- The thought of a joke about pituitary disfunction makes me want to cry. I got a horrific bash on the head at 9 months old from a toybox, so hard it drove my teeth into the wood and I had to be pried loose while I bled. My dr now thinks that is what caused my pituitary problem (several drs think I have a tumor not showing up on MRI). Because of that, it may have been the beginning of the thyroid problem. This is something that has changed the whole course of my life. This is not funny stuff.
Thanks for not letting me hang out there alone on this, IWL!
The guy isn't "blaming the desire for their latest product on a thyroid disorder". He's offering an obviously ridiculous excuse - which puts the joke squarely back on his own shoulders - for his dissimilar appearance to his 'triplet' sisters. He says his line in a way that shows he knows it sounds ridiculous to the ice cream clerk. The emphasis isn't on the disease; it's on the goofy lengths some people will go to get something for nothing. If you haven't seen it, you probably won't find any humor in it. And if you have seen it, but missed the announcer's lines at the beginning as I did at first, you might not get it either. To me, it's just silly, and not offensive at all.
__________________ "We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses." Abraham Lincoln
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Angela, Believe me, I do understand affliction, ill health, but although I think there is thoughtlessness behind it, I don't think it's malicious. I have developed tougher skin as I've gotten older. I only care about what the ones I love think and say. I have become fat since they "murdered" my thyroid. I used to be really mortified and embarrassed by it. Can't let what "the world" thinks and says bother me. None of us should. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't disagree, denounce and boycott what we don't think is right. I don't like Dairy Queen anyway. By the way my husband doesn't know what pitituary disease is. He thinks it just makes you keep growing and growing. No maliciousness there either. He was maybe making fun of the typical Dairy Queen "audience", but nothing else. Anyone who get's their medical information from a Dairy Queen commercial is probably not real informed on anything. IWL
About the Dairy Queen Hypo-T commerical 
Seriously, its a rude thing to use in advertisements. Why pick on hypo-T's? If they'd said diabetics or anything else they would have already had a lawsuit against them. I really like DQ's dipped cherry cones, so I may have to write and complain. But I don't think eating too much ice cream caused me to be hypo.
IWL P.S. My husband thought they probably started with pituitary gland, but decided alot of people wouldn't understand.
