Subject One: Censorship!

This is the first of hopefully many debates inside the Creative Thinking arena. You can participate or view the outcomes as they unfold. Please contribute, as most people have an opinion and it would be good to hear it. I have moved the discussion here as it has the opportunity to create a wall of discussion. When leaving comments please add your name. You don't need to have an account, simply choose "Name/URL" and supply your FaceBook ID as the name. Couldn't be easier!

First subject in this two weeks will be 'censorship'. For many years as a youthful creative I was always an advocate of non-censorship. Remembering the hidden religious control of the British Board of Censors as they deemed things inappropriate due to their middle class, church going attitudes. I thought that there was nothing wrong with showing things that were viewable in real life, in the confines of adverts, films and television shows. However, as I have grown older and a little wiser I have come to realise that certain things are not allowed and/or are close to the edge. The more I research the subject of Creative Thinking in clever and provocative ads I wonder how close the line of sensitivity will get. I mentioned before that I was watching a TV series called 'Mad Men', which is about the 1960's ad men of Madison Avenue. One episode previous a comment triggered this discussion. That being that advertising is here to sell things that people don't need to people who don't know they need them. In analysis this is true. In reality this was a good starting point to advertising. Now though, there is a need to be more stronger in the approach to getting the message across. We commonly see mentions of death with connection to cigarettes and drink driving, but the biggest seller of all is 'Sex'. Sex sells, based on the pre-notion that it occupies everyones thoughts and therefore we trigger this natural instinct to relate it to selling merchandise. Yesterday I uploaded a video for a 'Durex' advert to the Creative Thinking group on FaceBook (if you are reading this and haven't seen it then take a look here!). The point being that there is an obvious cleverness to the advertising, but when does it stop being clever and when does it start being too cutting. If you look at the image placed in the event section, you will see I have tried to define some subjects that could be of issue. Noticeably the one for the Orbit gum seems to stand out more. The others have a focus on sex, where as this one is basically saying that "Orbit will give you perfect teeth even if the rest of you isn't." Now, even though not an issue in censorship terms, it does carry a strange angle on how people should see themselves. That this image is not perfect, or even abnormal. It could, to some people be very cutting. Therefore could possibly be negative. We are living in a world with more overt openness to too many sensitive subjects, that any attempt to push the bounds of advertising a little further is the risk that companies are willing to take.
What I want to have happen is for you to look at the images and see if the cleverness of the selling technique is acceptable or whether they are going a little too far. Comment on the following:

1) What are your views on censorship?
2) What aspects of graphics should be censored?
3) Who should be responsible for censorship, if any?
4) What is the possible future outcome of graphics, with and without censorship?