Joan Ball is a business professor at St. John’s University in New York and the author of Flirting with Faith: My Spiritual Journey from Atheism to a Faith-Filled Life.
I’m on the fence about in-your-face public service announcements, as my prior post on sugary soda indicates. But this one, called “Save the Boobs”, which you can watch on ABC News, really takes shock ads to a new level. Jiggling breasts, referred to as ‘tatas’, ‘cheechees’ and etc. and women in skimpy bikinis make this look more like a beer commercial than the breast cancer awareness spot it actually is.
So I’d like to ask – do you find this campaign a good way to bring awareness to young women about the dangers of breast cancer? After my earlier post in which I took a stand against shock ads, saying I thought they treated us like children instead of adults, some of the commenters had me thinking twice, and I am now leaning toward saying anything that has people tuning in is a good thing. However…
I’d really like to see women treat their bodies with a sense of sacredness. It took me, personally, a long time to come to a place where I didn’t refer to my breasts as ‘t*ts’ or ‘boobs’ or any of those other derogatory terms. And while I think the lighthearted ad is funny, I don’t think it’s so great for our public service announcements to be advocating anything that demeans women. The ad seemed to walk a fine line, and I’m not sure if it came down on the side of feminist principles. (Read the full ABC story here.)
Will it save feminine lives? Only future studies will show.
What’s your opinion? Do you think these shock PSA’s are the only way to keep the public’s focus on important causes? Or do you believe this is exploiting the very people it’s meant to be saving?
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posted September 28, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Those aren’t even borderline controversial.
posted September 29, 2009 at 7:29 am
These ads work better than the usual ads that get ignored and switched to something else.
If it works, it’s much, much better. If it offends some people, I don’t see that as much a problem as the unnecessary death of loved ones.
Are these type of ads the only way to cause or keep peoples’ focus on important issues? Show me a better way. The usual ways haven’t worked.
posted September 30, 2009 at 9:31 am
How can you NOT be offended by the idea that boobs should be saved from breast cancer just because men find them sexy? Is our definition of female sexuality so limited that sexualized body parts trump the life of a cancer victim?