Controversial adverts: racism, sexism, abusive relationships and disrespect towards chickens

Not a month seems to go by without an outcry over an advertisement’s perceived insensitivity. The latest to raise hackles in some quarters is a new advert by the Hong Kong Tourism Board to promote Sham Shui Po, a gritty district in Kowloon.

The ad, launched in a tweet by Discover Hong Kong on October 10, portrays a romance between a woman and her boyfriend. About to leave Hong Kong to study photography, the woman discovers her passport is missing.

Based on written clues left by her boyfriend, she embarks on a frantic search around Sham Shui Po which takes her to the bric-a-brac and electronics open-air bazaar in Ap Liu Street, and other areas. She ends up in a photo equipment shop where her boyfriend gives her a camera as a parting gift.

Instead of perceiving it as a sweet love story, critics panned the advert for promoting abusive relationships. British online newspaper The Independent ran a story about the outcry, which quoted online commenters as saying it was coercive and abusive, and said the story of a man stealing his girlfriend’s passport sent a message that it’s OK to violate someone’s human rights.

Given the culture wars currently raging, and growing social divisions, the threshold beyond which someone takes offence at something seems to be getting ever lower.

Standard-bearers for civil rights cry foul over perceived slights to women, LGBT groups, non-white people, and myriad marginalised groups. At the other end of the sensitivity spectrum are those who complain about how identity politics and political correctness have poisoned public discourse.