Real nurses fight MTV over sexy nurse reality show

Via MTV

Home of Jersey Shore and Teen Mom, MTV is not exactly known for respectful or dignified portrayals of people in their reality TV shows. This time, however, they may have picked on the wrong cliché.



"Scrubbing In" follows a group of nurses on and off the clock:

What do you get when you mix the drama of "The Hills" with the partying of "Jersey Shore," and then put everyone in Crocs? That would be "Scrubbing In," MTV's newest docu-drama series that follows young nurses who temporarily uproot themselves to tend to the sick in different parts of the country. In this case, the destination is Orange County, and while the weather is picture-perfect, the emotional climate will call for many an umbrella.

As the trailer shows, the climate calls for a few condoms as well.

From MTV's point of view, I can see how this seems like reality TV gold. Attractive nurses who work hard and play hard, living communally. Who wouldn't want to watch that?!?

Nurses, that's who. The president of the Ontario Nurses' Association, Linda Haslam-Stroud, wrote an open letter to MTV (who also broadcast in Canada):

“It is insulting and simply unacceptable to those of us who use our skills every day to provide quality patient care. The nurses portrayed in the show [are presented] as sexual objects, exploit negative stereotypes and diminish the fact that we are knowledgeable health care professionals who make the difference between life and death for patients every day.”

The ONA has thrown its considerable support behind an online petition and Facebook group, launched in the United States, to cancel the show.

ONA has been successful before in fighting the sexual objectification of their profession. Organized action against Cadbury-Schweppes led to the premature demise of this Dentyn Ice campaign:



A full season of TV production, however, is a much bigger dragon to slay. But it's worth a shot.

The problem with the objectification of nurses is more than a sociological one. In Canada, one third of all nurses report being assaulted by a patient. A Florida survey in 2008 had almost three-quarters of nurses reporting an on-the-job assault.

Assault by patients takes many forms, from verbal and emotional to physical and sexual, but in all cases the portrayal of women in the profession as hypersexualized party girls is hardly helpful in creating a safe environment for them as they care for people in close quarters. They work in constant fear of being stalked by patients.

Nurses really deserve better than the reality show treatment. Everyone does. But considering the profitability of sleaze these days, is there any real chance of changing corporate TV minds?

Via Change.org

Here's the overly-anatomical MTV ad you didn't ask to see #FdAdFriday

What is it? What is it? Is it dirty?

Oh. Ew.

Via Adrants

Penis angels?

Every once in a while, advertising actually catches me by surprise. I can honestly say I did not expect anything like this. It's weird as hell, but I will remember it.

By Loducca, São Paulo, Brazil

Via Ads of The World

F'd Ad Fridays: Serbian "Skins" ads are real torture

The art direction is interesting. The messaging strategy is on.

But...

Dudes! Torture? The Spanish Inquisition? It may have been over 500 years ago, but it's hardly light comedy. (Unlike when Monty Python did it.) Considering torture is still a scourge of war, and religious intolerance still a major cause, half a millennium might still be "too soon".

Via Ads of The World

Brought to you by the letters "H", "I" and "V"

Sesame Street has always been about inclusiveness. And it will be even more so on May 21 (assuming the world does not end as scheduled) when Nigerian Kids are introduced to Kami, an inquisitive female Muppet living with HIV.

She's on the left.

According to MTV Canada reporter Aliya-Jasmine Sovani,

"Nigerian Sesame Street (Sesame Square) will address the biggest challenges faced by Nigerians…in addition to HIV/AIDS, also religion, gender inequality, AND Malaria. In one episode muppet ZOBI gets caught up in a mosquito net to teach kids how to use them and prevent a malaria infection because according to the World Health Organization, a child dies from the disease every 45 seconds."

Zobi, by the way, is an African version of Cookie Monster — except that he craves yams.

Kudos to Sesame Street for continuing to address uncomfortable issues that kids nonetheless have to deal with (I still remember when Mr. Hooper died). Although I was a little disappointed when they caved to uptight parental pressures on the bouncy Katy Perry musical number.

The Importance of Being Guido

AdFreak just posted the first of this awesome viral video series by NYC's The Roundabout Theatre Company to promote their performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. It's transcripts from MTV's Jersey Shore, delivered Wilde style:

"The only thing worse than being over-tanned is not being over-tanned."

Here's a promo that features the actual performance. It runs until July 3.

Not a PSA

It looks like there will be a moral to the story. There isn't. It's just a promo for the MTV show, Skins.



"Based on the popular British show of the same name, 'Skins' follows a group of nine friends navigating the often-tumultuous world of high school; sex, drugs and angst included."

Well, okay then. Would have made a great social ad, though. For many things.

Link via Ads of The World.

Busting out the double entendres for breast cancer

I got word last weekend from MTV Canada's Aliya Jasmine Sovani, better known to the world as the star of last year's controversial and popular "Save The Boobs" video, that this year's promo video is out.

Interestingly, after last year's swimsuit edition provoked controversy over the sexualization of breast cancer, this year the Boobyball crew decided to take a more humorous approach to promoting their Rethink Breast Cancer charity party:



Okay, so it's pretty goofy. But at least they had some fun with the send-up of 70s porn.

Unfortunately, as of this writing, the video is still unavailable on YouTube. I can only imagine that MTV, after seeing diverse postings of last year's video getting hundreds of thousands of hits, decided that all that traffic should be directed to their corporate site.

The problem is, the video is not easy to share or embed. This will inevitably lead to far fewer views, and far less awareness for this year's event.

Fighting Cancer: The Next Generation

Here's an age test for you. Watch this new cancer awareness PSA, and see how many young, up-and-coming TV and movie stars can you can recognize and name:



According to MTV, they are: Zachary Levi, Kristen Bell, Vanessa Hudgens, Logan Lerman, Andrew Garfield, Naya Rivera, Dakota Fanning, Zac Efron, Donald Faison, Jon Heder, Olivia Munn, Sofia Vassilieva, Clark Duke, William Moseley, Aubrey Plaza and Aaron Yoo. (Don't worry, I only got two by sight. Now get off my lawn!)

The Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) campaign aims to educate youth about the high likelihood that they will be diagnosed with some type of cancer during their lives, and makes an appeal to raise funds to fight those odds.



This PSA will be broadcast on September 10 during a one-hour broadcast fundraising event that will be simulcast on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, HBO, Discovery Health, E!, MLB Network, The Style Network, VH1, HBO Latino, Showtime, TV One, and G4.

Too much?

Maybe for this blog, if not for the cause. But here goes. It's a jiggly new PSA for Boobyball, an annual Toronto event "to inspire a new generation of young philanthropists to get involved and create a future without breast cancer".

Let's see what this ad inspires in you:



In case you're wondering who is exploiting whom, the woman in the ads is Aliya Jasmine Sovani, from MTV Canada. She's the co-chair of the event in support of Rethink Breast Cancer, and the writer, co-producer and Creative Director of the spot.

Here's what she thinks of it:



The basic idea is that young people aren't responding to breast cancer information featuring older women and sad situations. The ad is designed to appeal to a generation who have grown up with "Girls Gone Wild" and a generally "show me" culture. So instead of talking about disease and death, the PSA talks about how much everyone loves breasts.

Knowing (older) people who have, or have had, breast cancer, I'm not so sure they'd find this approach tasteful or appropriate. On the other hand, so many ads use breasts to get attention to sell useless things. At least these ones are out there for a cause.

What do you think?

**UPDATE: This viral has made CNN. The question now is, will the spot raise the profile of breast cancer prevention and detection worldwide, or just that of Ms. Sovani?**

**UPDATE 2: Kerry wanted to know what the song in the video was, so I creeped Aliya Jasmine on Facebook, and passed on the query. She wrote back to say it's called "The girl is Mine" by Rosnick. Can't find a band link, but thanks for the intel! (I am still, however, awaiting confirmation on that friend request...)