Most Gizmodo readers understand the dangers of using electronic goods during bathtime. But the little kids of the world may not understand the risks, which is why the Ad Standards Bureau decided to ban this iSelect ad. But how many kids care about iSelect?
One of the complaints about the ads, according to Mumbrella:
“Some people, particularly children, may believe that it is normal to use electrical devices while in a bath. It’s just dangerous and encourages unsafe behaviour. They should think before designing such a dangerous advertisement.”
iSelect are appealing the decision, claiming it’s clearly in the realm of fantasy:
To be forced to withdraw this ad is a very disappointing result. To reiterate, we considered this execution to be an obvious fantasy.
iSelect does not support or condone potentially dangerous or unsafe behaviour in any way. And without wanting to detract from that, we believe we are no more suggesting that electronic mobile devices are used near water than suggesting that you should share a spa with your boss, fully clothed, in his office, talk to him on a mobile while he’s two feet away, while not getting wet and finding ice creams under hot water.
Matt
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 11:42 AMWarning kids, don’t eat ice cream in the bath either.
Edward
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 12:14 PMSociety gone mad.
Josh
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 12:18 PMI’m gonna have to side with iSelect on this one. I think many people understand that electricity in water doesn’t work out. It’s turned out to be a bad idea in more things than it turned out a good one.
Still it’s a pretty bad ad. I won’t miss it.
Argon
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 12:22 PMthe ad is creepy anyway
Matt L
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 12:34 PMNot much would happen if you dropped it in… I actually doubt dropping something 240v would actually do any damage before the power trips out.
Cameron
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 12:35 PMSo they ban this but allow the ridiculously over-sexy ad’s though fine? Riiiiight.
Ozoneocean
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 4:02 PMActually that’s a lot more enlightened. You argument is weak here.
Davo
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 4:22 PMYou must be referring to the AAMI “Rhonda” commercial. Very sexy!
Mark
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 1:38 PMMeh, I use the laptop or tablet in the bath all the time. It’s no big deal as far as I’m concerned.
Sure, I try not to have the laptop plugged in to the mains, but unless you drag the power adaptor into the water, you’re fine. Device probably won’t survive it though.
Ozoneocean
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 4:03 PMThat’d make a potentially interesting mythbusters. :)
Mark
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 4:30 PMAh bugger em, if the little bastards are that stupid let em get fried. Modern day natural selection imo.
Matt L
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 5:00 PMMaximum 19-24 volts in a laptop… You can’t even feel a tingle on your skin until 50-60volts… The worst that’ll happen, the laptop will turn off after anywhere between a few seconds to minutes (You might have no problem for a whole day)… It’ll probably only turn off because the fan can’t rotate due to excess force of the water anyway… As for using it in the bath, I like to get the bath nice and steamy… The steam will condense moisture into the unit, this will eventually cause the growth of bacteria which will probably cause damage… Do a test… Grab 3x 9v batteries, connect them in series and drop them in the bath while you’re in it and see if you get fried… I honestly doubt you would… An old school hair dryer with no protection makes sense it’ll cause injury, as there was no short circuit protection considering the heating coil was already pretty much a short circuit… In later times though, protection circuits have become mandatory… So does ground leakage circuit breakers in your house, if your electrical system complies with the aussie standards, you’re power will trip as soon as it gains contact with the water.
S0ULphIRE
Friday, January 13, 2012 at 5:40 AMWhether you die or not depends on how high the current is that is being grounded *through* your body to an earth/ground point (if that’s even happening at all).
And of course you couldn’t kill yourself with 3 9v batteries in series just by dropping them into water, they simply couldn’t supply a high enough current (their ESR is way too high) initially (I’d say 50-150mA max total, considering they’re in series) to create a circuit through so much resistance (the rest of the circuit, the path between you and the ground point).
Aaricus
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 12:09 AMThere’s heaps of examples on TV where thing’s are completely unrealistic, which make me worry that if some idiot tries it in the real world and gets real world consequences (rather than fairly land TV consequences) they could be seriously injured or killed.
You often see people on TV shoot themselves with syringes for example for one reason or another, but kids don’t realize that a syringe filled with air injected into the blood stream is fatal.
Or another example is how objects on TV are either more or less flammable than in real life, which I think leads a lot of people to throw gasoline on bonfires for example, they think it will be a little flare but in reality fuel is explosive, and doing is a setting off a bomb in front of you.
TheWolf
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 at 2:10 PMRetarded ad anyways. I hate that guy on the iSelect ads – what a wanker. Suitable I suppose for a dodgy company.