NEWS: Women's Bodies: Awesome! What Happens to Them: Offensive!

The fact that BitchPHD sees no difference between showing panties and implying a dangerous, backalley medical procedure baffles my mind.

It's beyond sick that there is a wire hanger on this billboard...That combined with the words is just one more subliminal message our world does NOT need. The billdoard itself would not be so wrong if the hanger were to be removed...but the two together...SICK and TWISTED! Does the corporation not see or do they just 'choose' NOT to acknowledge the damage done by back-alley abortionists using hangers and other cruel and unsanitary 'utensils'..Mind boggling, that's all...Choice and desperation are two very different things, but the back-alley bastards do more damage than they prevent. Women DIE from these procedures, jsut as their unborn babies do...most of which would at the very least have a chance at a real life with a loving family if these unwanted childre nwere given the chance at life via adoption. Adoption is rising in America, Adoption gives the chance of family living and family values to not only the children but to the people who aren't able to reproduced like rabbits with no intention to become parents. ABORTION is NOT BIRTH CONTROL!!! It's DEATH, in your FACE DEATH...and murder...no matter how you put it, a child is killed when it's over. Even rape babies get adopted!

The only concern I would have about this billboard would be how to explain it to my kids should they ask... they aren't quite old enough to know what it means/is implying, etc.

Do you not see that the use of a coathanger as a piece of reproductive rights imagery makes that very point -- that weakening women's reproductive rights increases the chances of real danger to women.

And I think that the motivation for the storage people may be the same: they have rented a sign to promote their business and they want to donate half the board to make a statement about something they feel strongly about.

Well, we can all speculate wildly on their motivation all we like. But we're talking about liberal New York city and a company that uses the following kind of sloganeering.

That was posted on the previous page in this thread.

Word, PhD.

I'm not sure if we're on the same page here, but what baffles me most about the story as presented is that it's highly likely that many of those who would object to the coathanger picture would be the same ones objecting to the sexualised ads as degrading social morality.

The Puritan Force is strong in those ones.

What the fuck are you even talking about?!?

That is one purpose. But it does not have to be the only purpose. Also, there are other ways to "leverage the PR value that is created through controversy" other than making a political statement.

So? There's nothing wrong with being successful in marketing or politics when it comes to getting your message out there.

Honestly, I find it really, really hard to believe that you work in marketing with this insane anti-corporate attitude. Either that, or you're spending too much time believing your own bullshit.

Businesses can, and do make statements for the purpose of social progress. Simply because a for-profit business is out to make a profit does not mean they may not be concerned with other things. Those other things that they may be concerned about can (and very, very often are) reflected in how that company chooses to market themselves. A company can market themselves successfully a billion different ways. How they choose to do so usually has at the very minimum SOME root in how that the people behind that company see themselves as benefiting society. In this case, the guy who owned this wanted to market his business while making a leftist political statement. He did so. Neither the marketing nor the political statement should be entirely discounted simply because they came in concert.

You must have forgotten the part where you mentioned that. You also said that any man who doesn't leave the toilet seat down deserves to have his hand cut off.

Really, now, what is happening to your memory? Why, if it weren't for all these nice boys around here to remind you, you'd probably have no idea what you were saying!

whoa, simmah down now!
a) yes, of course the advertisers realize the horror of back-alley abortions--that's the point; without access to safe, legal abortions, this is what women will resort to.
b) adoption is a great idea. unfortunately not all children get adopted, particularly once they get older. until the religious right is ready to take in all those babies of wayward teenage mothers, the argument is a non sequitur. it also ignores the argument for bodily integrity that says the government should not be able to commandeer a woman's uterus and force her to carry a fetus to term, regardless of her responsibilities thereafter.
c) in case you are not aware, a good chunk of the population does not believe that a fetus is fully vested with the same rights as a born person. it is a personal, philosophical decision and not yours to make for everyone. abortion most certainly IS birth control--by its very definition it allows a woman control over whether she gives birth or not.

So, yea, that part there where you agree with someone that there are more shocking things than this ad and show the bebe ad as an example.

I mean, being that you're a paid writer, I assumed you correctly said what you were trying to say. But I may have given you too much credit. So, if you really didn't mean to say that you find the panty ad more shocking, just say so. And then please explain what you did mean, because I know of no other way of interpreting those words in that particular order.

*wooooosh*

I disagree. And so do a large number of pro-choice individuals who have seen access to safe abortion methods become less and less accessible over the past few decades.

Oh...I get it, sick and twisted... Sort of like the dead fetus propaganda used by the pro-life camp? Furthermore, the point of the wire hanger is satire. Now I realize that this may be lost on you but a lot of advertisers or activists use hyperbole to emphasize a point.

All I really can say here is: woooooosh. You really missed the point here. The company (via that hyperbole I was talking about earlier) is arguing that women's access to safe, sterile abortions is diminishing (thus the wire hanger imagery).

I also believe that adoption is a great choice for some women. But I also don't feel that it should be up to you, the state, or anyone else to tell a woman that she has to carry a fetus to term if she does not want to.

And thus ends your sanity... A lot of people (myself included) do not consider a fetus to be a child. Simply because you do does not make abortion murder, plain and simple.

It's nice to hear someone else say this - I called abortion a form of birth control in an SG abortion debate once, and MAN did I get jumped all over!!! By both the pro-choice and right-to-life sides! I thought I was alone in this opinion...

"Birth control" has become a codeword that has little to do with either of the component parts it was formed from.

No more wire hangers, EVER!!!

I kind of think that board has been put up specifically to be a lightning rod for discussion such as this, and the makers are indifferent to the cause. It doesn't make sense to me otherwise. When I saw that billboard, the last thing I was thinking about was closet space. Given the import of the one issue (whichever side of the fence you are on), the notion of closet space falls secondary. On that front, it's not a very effective ad. So I assume they wanted the billboard to be controversial, in which case, aren't they more or less whoring out the controversy over these procedures? And what does a billboard like this actually do for the issue? I can't imagine it actually winds up being all that much. It's like riding around with an anti-abortion bumpersticker. The bumpersticker doesn't actually change anyone's mind or provide vital information about the issue in question. Or affect anything.

What I'm saying is that while I'm not offended by the billboard, I'm not moved by it, and would not, as yet, be any more likely to go to them because of it. Tell me that a decent portion of a given month's proceeds go to support Planned Parenthood? That'll be more likely to get me to shop there. But if you aren't doing that, you're just taking advantage of the politics of the city, and the fact that the board will generate publicity via news. It's moot.