No matter how hard it tries, the advertising industry can’t seem to stay out of hot water. Not only is selling and promoting an image a hard task in itself, but it also seems to be even harder to steer clear of backlash and misconceptions.Just last week Ford Motor Company came under fire for leaked unapproved mock ads that were created in hopes of promoting the new Ford Figo. Three versions of the cartoon style ads were leaked and since taken down by JWT (J. Walter Thompson agency) India, Fords advertising agency. They appeared on Ads of the World.com, a website intended to share work amongst a community of advertisers.In one ad the three Kardashian sisters are shown tied up and gagged in the trunk of a Figo while a supposed Paris Hilton sits in the front seat winking. The tag line reads “Leave your worries behind.” Perhaps this is intended to be funny by joking that Paris Hilton is worried about the new reality stars, but the depiction of the sisters overly sexist posture and the apparent violent intentions angered some.The ads get into even more sexiest territory with another variation depicting Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi smiling happily in the front seat while looking back at a trunk full of women also bound and gagged. I suppose this is a nod to his latest scandal, and I’m sure it was intended as a joke, but at the expense of whom? Among the victims in bondage are a crying, sexy school girl and what looks like a female police officer. Although I’ve never seen an officer, male or female, with that short of shorts on.And I’m not the only one who isn’t getting the ‘funny’ part. When leaked Ford could not escape the line of fire headed its way. Ford may seem like the bad guy here, but perhaps a heavier blame should be placed on JWT India which is overseen by WPP Group. The ads were made by workers who never got the official approval to distribute their creations. Official apologies released by both Ford and JWT and suggested that each party is sincere in their regret for the ads to have surfaced. Clearly, these were never meant to see the light of day but maybe the young group of creators just thought they could share what they assumed was a good job. The outright clear fault here seems to be the use of Ford’s name without these ads going through the process of review. In Ford’s apology, as read on businessinsider.com, Ford admits, “The posters are contrary to the standard of professionalism.” Needless to say, some employees lost their jobs at JWT. One tiny detail that I found the most interesting is that these ads came out of India at the location of JWT India. The research department at the agency must really have knowledge of American and Italian popular culture for these images to be produced. I think a good advertiser should know what’s going on in the world to get an idea of what ads would be effective, but I more so believe it’s about the proper depiction of that information. Content is always offensive to someone. I don’t want to overlook the issue of how these women were pictured in these ads. Women have been over sexualized and made out to be helpless in advertisements for decades. Just ask feminist speaker and author Jean Killbourne, a woman who has spent time analyzing the portrayal of women in ads. I think we both would agree that showing women tied up is never a good idea. We, as a society, get our norms from the world around us. If these ads officially ran, what would that say about Ford? They would seem to be saying, ‘it’s totally normal and fine to be violent towards women since they are just sexual objects anyway, which, did we mention, can fit in the trunk of our Figo.’ To be fair, the third ad uses all male characters with driver Michael Schumacher in the front and three of his male rivals in the trunk. They are all tied up like the women but are afforded more clothing. This version still romanticizes violence minus the sexism. Go figure.I’m just glad these ads never ran and Ford handled it in a proper manner. Still, it bothers me that these images could be created and considered valid as popular culture norms. Somewhere along the line the creators responsible for these ads really thought they were right, and that’s just wrong.