Simon Baron-Cohen Criticizes Monster Ads

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Baron-Cohen is Director of the Autism Research Center at the University of Cambridge.

http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/arc ... .asp?id=33

The solution is to kick these guys asses for doing this. Just bash them and show them as the quacks they are. We'll worry about subsequent ads and how to react to them later.

I've seen the ad he's commenting on and, as someone with 'self-diagnosed' AS, I have found it uncomfortable to watch each time it has appeared during a break.

It's not just the fact that the autistic child is depicted as a monster, which is obviously very unhelpful, but also the words used in the ad: the sufferer is basically described as someone who can't control their temper and needs to learn to. The sufferer then describes themself as effectively having been cured of their inconvenient autistic behaviour ("I learnt how to be friendly towards people")

Although it is clearly important that autistic people are given help to overcome their problems and help them integrate more easily into society, to me this ad implies that in order to do that they need to learn to behave as they're 'supposed to'. It does not promote a more tolerant and liberal society.

the sufferer is basically described as someone who can't control their temper

Very well spotted.

And thank you for a considered response.

Have you had a look at the anti ad Facebook site?

Your comments would be welcome there.

Thanks - I will take a look

Even in the US, you can get into trouble with hate speech. It depends on how big the other guys' lawyers are, though. Hate speech against blacks will get you into trouble. Other groups may be fair game, though.



"Yeah, now that I'm nice to all the people who bully me, my life is so much better."

He says "My autism was becoming a pain in the bum" -

Did anyone say to him that maybe the problem was with the bullies; the school that didn't protect him and the other things that were going on in his life?

As Tony Attwood said "seemed brainwashed"

Yes - this is exactly my problem with it: no-one is saying that it is OK to lash out, but this ad puts all the responsibility on the autistic person's shoulders and doesn't suggest in any way that all interaction is a 2-way process.

In other words, there will always be more informed and open-minded people who can see beyond the 'on-the-surface' behaviour of someone with autism, and less than informed people who will write them/us off as short-tempered morons.

In my view, this advert serves to make autistic people feel more guilty for 'not conforming' and does nothing to suggest to society that we all need to open our eyes and stop assuming that we see all and know all, all the time. We do not.

how exactly do you plan to put someone in their place over the internet? this should be amusing...

on the original note of the post. I just don't think that it will ever end with these ads that misrepresent Autism. Right now I think it would be better suited to make individual changes to how people see autism. That means not by asking them to understand but being responible for one's own behavior. Most people who had heard of Asperger's that I used to know looked at it as a whiny disease. I've gone a long way showi ng that its not and that it is merely a different brain configuration and like everyone development is up to us. I think that would change the outlook on autism and these ads would be inneffective.

I am glad to hear that Simon Baron-Cohen has spoken out against the ad. I think that the ad was in very poor taste and should be withdrawn ASAP.

I am so glad that Simon Baron-Cohen has said something about this ad. I respect the guy loads. Hey, you've got to respect him, he's Borat's cousin you know!

I once had a very pleasant evening with Miss Loughborough 1992

WOW RESPECT HARRY!!

Great quotes from great folk!! Prof SBC!! !! Prof Attwood!! !! Dr Mitzi Waltz!! !! Barbara Jacobs!! !! WOWOWOWOWOW, delighted to see such great support from such respected people in the Autistic World.

I am DISGUSTED by every bit of this advert......................it is disgraceful.......................! !! Should be binned, withdrawn, BANNED with immediate effect. Grossly offensive and very misleading. Keep up the great work Harry, you are a legend!

The really interesting thing about this type of deal is that it does illustrate that there is a well meaning but totally misdirected and f*****p organized effort to pigeonhole people who are 'different' in almost any way and they get a lot of support and money for doing this type of catagorizing and dividing and isolating of people.

Phah you aint joking! Charity is all about MONEY! Big business, to repeat something I posted earlier, I worked for a charity for 3yrs, a third world WELL KNOWN ONE! The expense account was very generous as was the travel allowance..........................lunches, trips abroad, chauffeur driven cars, dinners and posh people...........................so where does the money go? Not to those that it is being raised for that is for sure.

This campaign was designed, conceived, researched and produced by a bunch of upper middle class twits.

These quotes about the early stage of the campaign, are from Charles Frith, a PR guru working for Baby Creative, the ad agency behind the Monster Dan ads:


"...I tried to convey to them that the research methodology was inappropriate for young delinquents...


They felt that consumerism drove a lot of the dissatisfaction that the neglected kids and their families felt with their lives....-

However they all loved taking the kids to McDonalds which is a real treat for deprived children in Scotland. So there’s the context for contradiction. There’s always a context. Everything is contextual.


The truth was that they were emotionally immature and intellectually starved so asking them about the brand dimensions of car or financial services brands that advertised on the telly was a waste of time.

...made the fatal mistake of describing the boys in the Glasgow group as ‘not the sharpest tools in the box...

To deprived people and actually people in general, words can be very hurtful, so in a flash it dawned on me that the whole politically correct movement, while sometimes tedious, is based on the power of words."

Yes, Charles, words can be very hurtful, can't they?