WARNING: As you scroll down, this post is not safe for work.
We've posted about Tom Ford's most recent provocative campaign (see here), but Urban Artiste drew our attention to an interesting development. The Italian Advertising Institute has banned one of his ads for being too "vulgar," "sexually implicit," "beyond bad taste," and an "offensive gesture which insults women and the dignity of all" (quotes found at The Daily Telegraph). Which ad?
Not this one (found here):
Nope, not this one either (found here):
Nope, not even this one (found here):
Or this one (found here):
Nope, they banned this one (found here):
To be fair, I can't find out much information on this. I don't even know for sure if the other ads circulated in Italy (though I don't know of any reason why they wouldn't be). I'd love your speculations as to why the last would be singled out for censorship, as well as any additional information you hear about the ban.
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Perplexing Censorship
Drugs And Society
In the late 1930s, the movie Reefer Madness dramatized the effects of marijuana abuse (watch the entire video here). In the 1970s, it was ridiculed as hysteria and propaganda.
In light of this, and without trivializing meth addiction (which I understand to be devastating... but where does my information come from?), what do we think of these anti-meth PSAs from the Montana Meth Project? (You can also find television commercials there to go with these print ads.)
Hat tip to copyranter for bringing my attention to this ad campaign.
Where Are The Multiracial Americans?
Over at the New York Times, Peggy Orenstein wrote a light article about the social construction of race, ethnicity, and culture through the lens of multiracialism. This figure (in Hawaii, Hapa means "half") shows the states with the highest percentages of people claiming to be multiracial:
For background: 2000 was the first year that the Census allowed us to mark more than one race... talk about the social construction of racial categories!
Who Gets To Decide What Counts As A Name?
Fascinating example of both social construction and state control:
Sweden fines parents for naming their child Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116.
Described on boing boing by Cory Doctorow, originally here.
Crap, that wasn't an image at all. I'm not sorry.
There Are No Business Travelers, Only Male And Female Business Travelers
Chris M. noticed something bizarre on the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) website.
If you scroll about 1/4th of the way down this page, there is a list of pdfs and videos about security on airplanes. There are separate videos for the female and the male "business traveler." They both show liquids in a plastic bag, but apparently only men carry laptops and women are relieved from having to take off their shoes.
Chris thought it was especially interesting to see this on a .gov site. Nice find Chris!
