Rape: Both Marketable and Hilarious
|
Posted by Andi Zeisler May 30th, 2007 |
Bitch reader Amy Pitts wrote in with a heads up on a new ad campaign from fancy messenger-bag peddler Timbuk2 that appears to play the rape of a teen for big yuks. Featuring a tear-stained, prom-dressed blond on one side of the page and a greasy, bewifebeatered guy on the left, the copy reads “Just like that jerk who stole your virginity, these bags are only around for a short time.”
A post on the site NowPublic quotes a Timbuk2 representative as saying that the folks behind the ad considered “softening the copy to something like… ‘just like that guy who never called…’” but noted that “The powers that be didn’t think it packed the same punch… or was as funny.” And boy, it certainly would be a shame not to mine “stolen” virginity for all the laughs you can.
Pitts says she was told that the company “was happy to see that ad go out.” So she wrote a letter to Timbuk2, and you can too at customerservice@timbuk2.com or pr@timbuk2.com. Or hell, call them up at 1-800-865-2513 and let them know just how funny insinuations of rape—whether they’re sellling overpriced bags or not—aren’t.
May 31st, 2007 11:31
[…] Andi Zeisler posted this on WIMN’s Voices: Bitch reader Amy Pitts wrote in with a heads up on a new ad campaign from fancy messenger-bag peddler Timbuk2 that appears to play the rape of a teen for big yuks. Featuring a tear-stained, prom-dressed blond on one side of the page and a greasy, bewifebeatered guy on the left, the copy reads “Just like that jerk who stole your virginity, these bags are only around for a short time.” […]
June 2nd, 2007 04:48
[…] WIMN’s Voices: A Group Blog on Women, Media, AND… » Blog Archive » Rape: Both Marketable and Hilarious […]
June 2nd, 2007 08:46
Those who play games with the word rape, and concepts associated with rape, should get close to a victim. That’s all there is to say.
June 2nd, 2007 11:50
I’d say calm down. First of all, it’s a pretty funny ad. Especially compared to a lot of the current absurdity abundant in the marketing landscape.
Secondly, the ad is only implicit of rape.I can definitely see outrage forming had the copy read “Just like that guy who raped you at the party last night,” but this is not the case.
However, you get points for the term “bewifebeatered.”
June 2nd, 2007 13:31
Thanks, Artie, I hadn’t had my fill of condescending directives all day, so your urging Andi to “calm down” really helped. Because, you know, if *you* think it’s funny, then the humor is just a *fact,* and her interpretation just must be wrong, since you’ve deemed it so. Right? Yeah, I thought so.
Curious, though, that you’re not disagreeing with Andi about the basic theme of the ad, when you say, “Secondly, the ad is only implicit of rape.” [italics mine] Andi described the ad as profiting off of “insinuations of rape” - it was the implication that she found less than hilarious. You think the implication of rape is funny. No wonder you want her to “calm down.”
By the way, you should enroll yourself in some media literacy classes if you think that words aren’t used to imply multiple meanings, or that visuals don’t matter, in advertising.
June 8th, 2007 16:56
[…] As noted here by Andi Zeisler, a Timbuk2 representative admitted they had considered “softening the copy to something like… ‘just like that guy who never called…’” but “The powers that be didn’t think it packed the same punch… or was as funny.” Because, of course, rape is hilarious. […]