Note to copywriters: advertisements featuring house pets being kicked, decapitated, electrocuted, thrown across the room or, really, hurt in any way don’t play well with the public.

That would seem to go without saying — except that another major marketer has now found itself in hot water over just such an advertisement.

This time it is Chrysler Group, which has apologized for an advertisement that showed a dog being electrocuted beside its new Dodge Nitro sports utility vehicle.

Chrysler acknowledged that the spot, created by BBDO Netherlands, was “in extremely bad taste” and said it was investigating the advertisement’s origin. At the end of the spot, which ran on the Internet, the dog goes up in flames.

They’re hardly the first to come under fire from pet lovers. Others include: General Motors for a spot that showed a small dog being flung from a car window; Ford for a spot that showed an animated but realistic cat being decapitated by a sunroof; and Nokia for a spot that showed a cat spinning around a ceiling fan until it tossed against a wall. 

Nokia and Ford blamed their creative agencies, saying the advertisements were unauthorized.

(The earlier YouTube link no longer works. Sorry folks.)