Making crime pay stains advertising.(moral aspects of using crime or criminals in advertising)(Brief Article)

The menacing eyes of Freddie "The Undertaker" Foreman and Tony Lambrianou are unsettling enough just staring out at you from a poster. Heaven knows what effect they must have had on a bit-part crook about to be fitted with a pair of concrete shoes.

Advertising was always likely to be a natural progression for the ex-Kray gang members who have learned to trade profitably on their lurid past, writing memoirs and appearing on chat shows to satisfy an enduring public fascination with the criminal underworld.

Now they have accepted an "undisclosed fee" to appear in an M&C Saatchi campaign for the upmarket shirtmaker Thomas Pink, which sees "geezer chic" as the best way of cutting through the clutter of male fashion ads. The powerful and stunningly photographed images may well do that, but it's the ironic description of Foreman as "armed robber (retired)" that ought to set alarm bells ringing.

Advertising's reputation can only be tarnished if it trivialises crime. The passing of time and a diet of crime-related TV has perpetuated the myth that the Krays were Robin Hoods of the post-war East End, who only killed their own kind and were good to their mum.

This is a travesty of, ...