Unaffordable heating, cold homes and stern foreign involvement are all part of the zeitgeist in Greece this winter for obvious reasons. So it is perhaps unsurprising that numerous companies have played on variations of these themes in their advertising.
But one of them apparently got too close to the bone for some according to an article published yesterday by Eleftherotypia (link in Greek).
According to the news site and other sources, a recent advert aired on Greek television for an Attica provider of natural gas depicted a family in a freezing apartment prevented from turning on the heating by three stern neighbours (conventional heating oil boilers in Greek apartment buildings are communal meaning that agreement is required between neighbours over when the heating is put on). The father, spotting the neighbours through the spyhole, exclaimed, “oh no, the troika!” The neighbours then entered the house and informed the father that the family would only be allowed to put the heating on when the three said so.
A voice over then asked, “How long will outsiders decide for you?” The family was then seen installing natural gas (which gives them autonomy over their heating) after which the father exclaimed “Freedom!” then after a pause, “to heat!” Clearly this was a play on the issue of Greece’s sovereignty (or lack thereof) in the age of the troika and the Memorandum.
At least that’s how it used to be. A newer version of the advert was trimmed and modified in order to for the cheeky references to Greece’s troika of lenders to be eliminated.
In the newer version of the advert the father’s “Oh no the troika,” has become “Oh no the cold trio.” Similarly in the voice-over the word ‘outsiders’ has been replaced by ‘others.’
It is unknown who exactly demanded the changes to the advert or indeed what they hoped to achieve.
Indeed the incident was reminiscent of another recent case of censorship in advertising: the Scarlett Johansson fronted superbowl advert for Sodastream (a device for making homemade soda). During the ad the actress wonders ‘how can I get this to go viral?’ before displaying a revealing dress. Fox reportedly trimmed Ms Johansson’s final line of, “Sorry Coke and Pepsi,” in order to avoid angering the two companies that are major sponsors.
The shocking uncensored Scarlett Johansson advert. Spoiler alert: it's not actually shocking.
Ironically, of course, it was the report of censorship that caused the ad to actually go viral rather than the advert itself.
Similarly the cack-handed and seemingly pointless censorship of the natural gas advert seems far more offensive – and liable to provide far worse publicity – than the original commercial ever was.