8-year-old NHS PSA causes fresh outrage over victim blaming

Via Daily Mail

Patrick, a reader, made me aware of the latest example of an anti-binge-drinking ad that ends up promoting the culture of blaming victims of rape.

In this case, it's the UK government's National Health Service that is causing outrage.

The Drum reports that the poster actually dates back to 2006,  part of the "Know Your Limits" campaign, but it is still available as part of an online toolkit and posted in some health facilities.

A Change.org petition, launched recently, states:

Two honourable intentions -- to stop people drinking, and to stop rape happening - are being completely deformed. Of course we don't want people to drink so much they make themselves ill, but threatening them with rape by implication is not the way to do it. Of course we don't want anyone to endure sexual assault and rape, but making them feel like it's their fault if they do, is so far out of order. 

It is not consistent with the NHS' own guidelines on 'Help after rape and sexual assault' in which they say 'If you have been sexually assaulted, remember that it wasn’t your fault. It doesn’t matter what you were wearing, where you were or whether you had been drinking. A sexual assault is always the fault of the perpetrator.' This is a much more helpful approach, and we ask the NHS and the Home Office to destroy this poster in all formats. 

It currently has over 62,000 signatures.

There have been a number of prominent anti-alcohol campaigns in recent years that have hit these same triggers, including PSAs by MADD, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, CabWise and West Mercia Police.

The fact that the NHS campaign is an older one shows how far we've come in understanding the cultural issues around rape in just a few years, but it is also a reminder to keep your PSA libraries up-to-date.

Is this Cavalli logo an appropriated Sufi symbol?

Via The Fashion Law

See that fake tattoo on Georgia May Jagger's neck?

Okay, now mentally rotate it 90 degrees. What does it look like? To an entire sect of Sufi Muslims, it looks like this:

Via MTO

Followers of The Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi Shahmaghsoudi School of Sufi Islam are outraged at seeing their emblem in a sexualized advertising campaign. They've launched a Twitter hashtag campaign, #takeoffjustlogo, as well as a petition.



I have written frequently about the problem of commercial appropriation of cultural symbols. And I think I've established myself as a critic of Islamophobia. But as a branding professional, I think this outrage is completely mistaken.

The logo is clearly a stylized "JC" monogram. There is no extra elaboration. "Just" JC.

I firmly believe that the logo designer was completely unaware of any similarity with the Sufi symbol, and it takes a concerted effort to see it:

Via Allvoices

So what's the big deal? One of the anti-Cavalli campaign organizers, American doctoral student Nasim Bahadorani, said "We have this sign that to us represents blessed peace. It's a refuge … To see it disgraced like this for a company to make money is heartbreaking."

But really? There are only so many ways to create symbols in the world. As much as this one means to The Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi Shahmaghsoudi School, and as much as their religious sensibilities are real, this accidental sort-of similarity ranks pretty low in the problems of the world. At least in my opinion.

Cavalli can choose to withdraw the logo if they want to, and they may if they feel the bad PR will influence their key target audiences. But for now, the brand is appealing to the European Union's trademark and design authority, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM).

From Reuters:

"Roberto Cavalli SpA is deeply saddened by the distress expressed by the Sufist School students, but hopes that the sentence emitted by a competent authority such as the OHIM, will convince the Sufist religion of the complete good faith and the groundlessness of their requests," the company said this week in a statement.

Ironically, Roberto Cavalli was the subject of some much more warranted religious outrage back in 2004, when he produced a line of bikinis featuring classical Indian images of Hindu gods. Cavalli apologized and withdrew the swimwear from stores following protests in the UK.

Disney: Girls need heroes, boys need to be them

What is it with kids' t-shirts?

This time, Disney is in trouble with the internet over some licensed Avengers shirts for children:

The Disney Store is selling Avengers t-shirts for women with the slogan "I Need a Hero" and "I Only Kiss Heroes," and an Iron Man t-shirt for boys that reads "Be a Hero." This sends a harmful message about who can and cannot be a leader in this world. These shirts promote the idea that men and boys are meant to do the saving, and that women and girls are the ones who need to be saved.

This is from a Change.org petition by MissRepresentation.org. They are, quite understandably, pissed off at the primitive sexism.

Ironically, Marvel comics has a long history of including (at least token) strong women superheroes in the original comic series. Even the movie includes Black Widow.

The shirt for girls only shows male characters as "heroes" and there doesn't seem to be a hero version for girls.

Ontario teachers hijack the message on anti-union political petition

Ontario Conservative opposition leader Tim Hudak wants to redefine the job description for teachers, requiring them to spend time outside teaching hours doing extra meetings and paperwork (removing any right to work-to-rule) and changing the teacher payscale to punish those who do not "volunteer" for extracurricular activities. As the husband of a teacher (and a supporter of labour rights) I am against this. But what I'm here for is a lesson on unintended consequences in social media.

The Nepean-Carleton Progressive Conservative Riding Association have launched a petition, "Students Deserve Better," that aims to gather public support for their education platform, which will be a major issue in the upcoming election. The petition also had an invitation to send union leaders a message, which would be automatically displayed on the site. The hope was, I assume, to show a public outcry against "union bosses" (democratically elected by teachers) telling teachers to work to rule (which they had voted to do by an overwhelming majority).

The message almost immediately got hijacked by teachers:

By noon today, the comments column was completely dominated by pro-union comments like that above. Dozens of them. By 12:40, the administrator had removed the comments as well as the e-mail messaging form.

(I wish I had collected more of them before my last refresh — let me know if you have screencaps!)

The petition itself is a bit of a mess now. It doesn't even tell you how many have signed. But the easy takeover of its message, through an effort coordinated by pro-teacher social media, is a lesson some nameless political social media "guru" will not soon forget.