BP has pulled that ad for subsidiary Arco that used what sounded like EAS tones.
The New York Times quoted agency Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide; it stated that Ogilvy West had created the commercial. The tones “inadvertently triggered an emergency alert system in Florida,” according to the statement reported in the Times.
As a result, the spot “will not run again” and is being replaced with another commercial, it continued.
Though the spot did not use actual EAS tones — rather “a combination of generic stock alert sound effects” —Olgivy stated it regretted confusion the spot may have caused.
We reported earlier that the SBE said the ads included the phrase “This is a test” and then a simulated eight-second sound that tripped some EAS encoders/decoders at monitoring stations. Broadcast monitoring and verification service Media Monitors released a report indicating the ads aired mostly on the West Coast.
