A PSA for Ottawa Comiccon #OCC #consent

In the current conversation about consent and sexual harassment/assault, the subject of how people are dressed often comes up. Whether it's a police officer saying "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized" (the wotrds that launched Slutwalk) or questions about behaviour or reputation, victim-blaming contributes to a culture that enables rape.

At this weekend's Ottawa Comiccon, you can expect to see all kinds of attendees, men and women, getting their "cosplay" on as they dress up as their favourite comic book and sci-fi characters.

Via comicsthegathering.com

Unfortunately, some attendees see costumes as an excuse to harass and assault women at the Comicon. To address this issue, Hollaback! will be there, "to explore the issue of harassment in geek spaces and open up the floor to discussions on how we can make the community safer."

They are also participating in the "Cosplay =/= Consent" campaign by Geeks for CONsent, an organization started by Hollaback! Philly that encourages the organizers of comicons to adopt an anti-harassment policy and train their volunteers on how to appropriately deal with offences. They also encourage people share their stories of harassment, to hand out "Harasser Cards," learn how to be supportive bystanders, and to promote the Cosplay =/= Consent meme by posing with branded placards.

Have fun at the con, everyone. Just don't be a SuperAsshole.

Is this "the least effective sexism awareness ad ever"?

Reading Copyranter today, I saw a Reddit post of the poster above, spotted in the wild. Copyranter called it (maybe) "the least effective sexism awareness ad ever". 

Curious about the campaign, I stumbled upon the entire 2012 campaign from the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MeCasa).

Here are the rest of them:

The first thing that jumped to mind was that this didn't seem like an American campaign. Using "fag" for a cigarette butt and "queens" for gay men is not really Uncle Sam's English.

The other weird thing is that the slanders against women ("bitch" and "ho") are common ways to bring all women down — straight and gay — while the men's slanders are all homophobic.

It turns out that MeCasa has a partner in this campaign, Boys to Men, who states that, "Traditional media and cultural representations of masculinity and femininity are too narrowly defined and contribute to destructive and damaging behavior towards individuals of all genders and ages."

I get that what the campaign is trying to do is helpful. It's just trying way too hard. By placing common words of verbal violence on equal footing with more obscure ones, just in the name of creating more executions, weakens the effect. And the "hoe" execution in particular sends a really awkward mixed message.

LEGO suffers another PR setback over street harassment sticker

Oh, LEGO... You used to be so cool. You sometimes still are. But too often now,  you're just so far behind the times it's sad.

This puffy sticker set was, according to AdFreak's David Gianatasio, released in 2010 by defunct licensee Creative Imagination. So they had a convenient player to throw under the bus.

But they still screwed it up. At first.

The whole PR nightmare began a little over a week ago when journalist and press freedom organizer Josh Stearns posted a photo of it on his Tumblr bog, Talking To Strangers:

I was stunned. Maybe it’s the fact that I just saw the team at Hollaback speak this month, or maybe it is that this is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, or maybe it is just that street harassment sucks. But chances are it was all three of these things that made me so mad to see a brand I love pushing this sort of thing. 

The Hollaback website notes that street harassment is the most prevalent form of sexual violence for both men and women in the United States. Internationally, they point out, “studies show that between 70-99% of women experience street harassment at some point during their lives.”

The issue was picked up by Slate and championed by the group Stop Street Harassment. That got LEGO's attention.

First, Charlotte Simonsen, Senior Director at LEGO’s corporate communications office, told Josh “To communicate the LEGO experience to children we typically use humor and we are sorry that you were unhappy with the way a minifigure was portrayed here.”

That's what we in the communication industry refer to as a "non-apology". So Josh wrote back and got the following reply from Andrea Ryder, the head of the LEGO Group’s Outbound Licensing Department, who said she was "truly sorry" that Josh "had a negative experience" with a LEGO product. She refered him to LEGO's brand values, including the line "Caring is about the desire to make a positive difference in the lives of children, for our partners, colleagues and the world we find ourselves in, and considering their perspective in everything we do." And she concluded, "we would not approve such a product again."

This is progress in brand responsibility, but it does not happen unless people are willing to speak up about the little things that reveal big problems in our society.


Laura Northrup from Consumerist wrote, "Street harassment isn’t the most pressing issue facing women today, but it can be a problem, and certainly isn’t appropriate for a children’s product."

I beg to differ on how serious this "one little picture" really is.

Just recently, I was having a conversation with someone from Hollaback about street harassment and rape culture. When you look at the big picture, the normalization of sexual harassment through bystander apathy is just one end of a continuum that ends with the dehumanization of women as targets of sexual violence.

Fly the creepy skies with Richard Branson

In this bizarre little video, posted on VirginAmerica's YouTube page last week, CEO Richard Branson lets you know how much superior he is to you. He also suggests that a great way to get "lucky" during your long air flight by buying an unsolicited drink, snack, or even full meal for an attractive stranger in another seat:



How this was expected to be a good idea is beyond me.

Policymic's Elizabeth Plank recounts the horrific reality of being the recipient of unwanted sexual attention while trapped on a plane:

...the flight in which I experienced sexually harassment offered free alcoholic beverages. I was 19 and it was my first time flying alone. My harasser took advantage of the free booze policy (although he eventually ended up being cut-off by staff). He didn't need a "seat-to-seat delivery" to harass me. He didn't need the CEO of a flight company to make that process more convenient (and entirely acceptable). He was drunk and he felt entitled to me and my body. 

He touched my thighs. He touched my hair. He verbally harassed me. He sent me lewd notes while I tried to pretend to sleep in the hopes that he would just stop. Maybe if I closed my eyes, he would just disappear? He didn't. My disregard for him only made him more persistent. When I shouted at him to get him away from me, he told me I was overreacting. He said I was the crazy one.  

I had nowhere to go. I coudn't escape. I was 35,000 feet in the air and there was no exit. I was trapped. I was being stalked and my attacker was stuck to me like glue. There wasn't any other seats on the plane. He was so close to me that I could smell his intoxicated breath.

Welcome to Virgin America, the airline "dedicated to making flying good again"...

E-bikes marketed to environmentalist stalkers

I did not know this was a desirable target audience...

Via Ads of The World

Branding women's thighs for fun and profit

I first heard of this trend when Copyranter posted about it yesterday.

Absolute Territory PR is a Japanese company that is renting and selling ad space on young women's thighs.

You heard that right. According to Oddity Central, more than 1,300 women (all over 18) have applied for the agency’s service.

Clients include a number of Japanese domestic brands, but what got the West's attention was their promotion for Green Day's latest album release.

Why the thigh? A 2009 survey of Japanese men on their favourite fetishes ranked "Skin between knee socks and skirt" as the most attractive part of women's bodies. This stretch of upper thigh is known as "absolute territory" — explaining the name of the media buyer.

The idea is that creepy older men are transfixed by these women's thighs anyway, so you might as well put an ad there. As you can see by the screencap above, some of the ads have really small copy, which would require really close inspection. 

If anyone who speaks Japanese cares to wade through the Absolute Territory PR site to see if there are any details on the ad placement contract, please let me know. I wonder if this company is asking women to sign away their rights to not getting eye-groped everywhere they go.

How to Handle a Sex Pest

When I saw this video (and the title "How to Handle a Sex Pest") on the Viral Videos Facebook page, I assumed it was a social marketimng message about sexual harassment. I was wrong.



No, this "choose your own adventure" interactive YouTube is actually a promotional video for Elsie, a British pop singer I had not heard of until this morning.

The video is disturbing, but not in the way you would expect. The options to get rid of the "sex pest" are pretty violent (see above) and the viewer gets an opportunity to let the guy "get revenge" at the end.


The explanation:

"Every girl out there knows this guy -- the horny, crotch-thrusting dancer who just won't leave you alone in the club. They see a bit of booty and think they can touch. Watch Elsie go on the attack and show how us girls WISH we could deal with sex pests."

It's as if it's all a game. Not a violation of personal space, not harassment, unwanted sexual touching or even assault. Just a bit of fun.

And this is, of course, just a video. But every message matters. And it can make things better or worse.

Which do you think this is? Harmless fun, or bad idea?

R/GA Presents: The Workplace Sexual Harassment Twitter App #officecupid

What a terrible idea.

R/GA has launched this cute little self-promotional Twitter thing that is bound to get someone in trouble. Anonymous "valentweets" may seem really sweet, until you remember the following rule of the internet:
person + anonymity + audience = total dickwad.

In other words, this could make Mad Men look like a model of appropriate relations between the sexes at work.*

So let's try:

And... nothing. I just got stood up by myself. On Valentine's Day. **sob**

*Here's the TOU:


By using rgaofficecupid.com managed by R/GA ("we" or "us"), you signify that you have read, understand and agree to be bound by these Terms of Use. These Terms of Use may be updated from time to time for any reason. Children under the age of 13 are not permitted to use rgaofficecupid.com. All information and content added, created, uploaded, submitted, distributed, or posted to rgaofficecupid.com and content generated by us ("Content") is your sole responsibility. We will not be liable in any way for any Content. When you participate, you do so at your own risk. We do not guarantee we will be able to fulfill all requests. We may refuse to provide the service to anyone at anytime. You agree to indemnify and hold us, our affiliates, officers and employees exempt from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of the Content. rgaofficecupid.com collects only public Twitter account names and whatever additional information participants choose to provide. This information will not be stored or used for any other purpose. You may contact us at: Harley.Block@rga.com. rgaofficecupid.com is not associated with Twitter. Twitter is a registered trademark of Twitter Inc.

The Models are Revolting!

Well, not really. They're just organizing.


The Model Alliance Video Campaign from The Model Alliance on Vimeo.



Not quite a union, it seems, but a not-for-profit advocacy group that lets models report violations of labour laws and worse.

Here are The Model Alliance's goals:

1. Provide access to affordable health care.
2. Promote greater financial transparency.
3. Ensure that existing child labor laws are enforced.
4. Establish a grievance and enforcement system for issues of sexual harassment.
5. Draft a code of conduct that sets industry-wide standards for castings, shoots and shows.

They've even drafted a modelling bill of rights. It's a good idea. Even the minor-league models I've known over the years have been subject to poor working conditions and sexual harassment.

Sure, you might think of awful supermodels and be unmoved. But think of the thousands of anonymous men, women, boys and girls who are chewed up and spit out by an industry that is the very definition of superficiality. They could use a rescue network.

Via Jezebel

F'd Ad Fridays: F'd Law Association Ad

I couldn't find a non-flash version of this ad for The Association of Finnish Lawyers, which just went up on Copyranter, which is too bad because it's a little embarrassing for desktop viewing at work. (Turn down the sound and keep an eye out for passers by.)



Goodness me. And I thought it was the lawyers who kept the admen in line...

And I think I know why they misspelt "Finnish"

Workplace sexual harassment is no joke...

...but these awkward stock photos are.

As Brandflakes for Breakfast points out, "Viewed alone, any one of these shots is a cheez festival of awkward, but viewed as a collection, they're funny and ridiculous, just waiting for captions."

Well, okay then...

"My eyes are down here"

Working for the undead was proving to be even creepier than expected.

 

"In Soviet Russia, porn surfs YOU!"

"See? Nair leaves your skin smooth and hair-free. You really should try it, Karen."

Having only transferred from Australia two weeks ago, Sheila had not yet adapted to life in the northern hemisphere.

"Nice beaver!" "Thank you, I just had it stuffed."

Okay, so those were kind of random. Give me your best (or worst) captions below.

Shades of abuse

A new Welsh social marketing campaign is trying to show men how more "accepted" forms of sexual harassment can add up to make women feel threatened and abused:




According to The Drum, the It all adds up campaign "aims to generate debate about gender inequality by challenging the conscious and subconscious attitudes which can lead to the normalisation, acceptance and tolerance of violence towards women".

The campaign was created by Manchester's Access for Llywodraeth Cynulliad Cymru (The Welsh Assembly Government). There's a site, too, at onesteptoofar.org.

The Drum quotes the Access's Managing Director as saying:

"Essentially we’re looking at changing behaviour which has been instilled through years of upbringing, society and the media, this is very tough - it could take years to change attitudes, but it’s great that the Welsh Assembly Government has acknowledged there is an issue and are tackling it head on.

"I believe we’ve come up with a great campaign which highlights the problem in a very simple, none preaching or judgemental way and because there will be research conducted pre and post campaign, I'm interested to see what impact this will have.”

Let's hope it helps, although I wonder if the exaggerated harassment situations will work against it. Generally, when you vilify people in social marketing, it is easy to turn them off and lose your intended audience. In this spot especially, all the guys harassing the woman are really obvious jerks. (Either that, or Wales is still in the Neolithic.)



As an ordinary man who has to ask himself if this compliment was inappropriate, or if that joke made someone feel uncomfortable, I would have preferred an approach that was less about obvious villains and more about the ingrained (and sometimes instinctive) sexism that threatens the safety and confidence of women in a supposedly gender-equal environment. It should be about "nice guys" taking a hard look at behaviour they take for granted, and maybe even seeing it through someone else's eyes.

We will never live in a non-gendered world (thank God!), but this ad — while heartfelt — feels more like it's going to make people hate the obvious pigs even more while letting the subtler ones stay in denial.