"Save the Boobs" PSA??? WHAT!?
This is from my blog, Radical Lorraine .
This new PSA is disturbing.
First, this offends MEN by saying they are not smart enough to grasp the gravity of breast cancer unless it is related to sex. That is messed up.
Second, it offends WOMEN by objectifying a woman in order to raise awareness of a serious illness. That is also messed up.
Men, I trust that you are smart enough to comprehend breast cancer without equating a PSA to a Hooters ad. Cancer is a scary thing and this PSA tries to make light of a disease that takes the lives of thousands.
Disgusting.
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I'm not going to say it's unwarranted to dislike this PSA. But when you're dealing with heavy shit like this, and you want to spread the message as far and wide as you can, you have to hit people from as many angles as possible. There are people out there who walk by all the pink ribbons and such without giving it a second thought at this point, but this will get their attention.
How long will that attention last? Probably not long for most. But if they're specifically trying to get through to a population that will see a normal "support breast cancer research" message and blank out, this is going to be pretty effective. If you think the message in this case is less important than the method, that's fine. I'd disagree.
Are you kidding me? Two wrongs dont make a right.
Maybe you don't know enough idiots. That's probably a good thing on the whole. But if I consider some people I know, like a lot of the guys I work with, and think about some way to get them to pay attention to anything breast cancer-related without doing something like this, I honestly can't think of one. That, to me, mitigates a lot of the negative.
Basically, I figure jiggling breasts are used to advertise so much already, it's hard to damn someone for using them for a good cause instead of a commercial one. I'm sure I'm in the minority here. That's fine. If I'm going to fault the creators of the commercial for anything, it would be in deciding that the dumbass demographic is worth chasing. If they didn't choose to do that, this PSA wouldn't exist.
I agree. This is soooo offensive. I saw this ad featured today as I was flipping the channel (stress that I was FLIPPING THE CHANNEL) on The O'Reilly Show. Unsurprisingly O'Reilly featured two women who magically 'didnt find the ad offensive.' One said its because it relates to how guys get concerned about breast cancer, and relates to the guy perspective ie, they dont care about the life of the woman but her boobs. I dont know what pig guys she's dating, but RAISE THE STANDARDS LADY! Really sick.
It takes a basic premise---that men are reluctant to go to the doctor for anything, even a screening that will save their life, then assumes that their primary focus is on ogling breasts, then draws the conclusion that if they had breasts of their own that their attention would be so constantly drawn to them that they'd take the time to get checked out.
It's not just demeaning to both sexes, it's also condescending. And yes, it shows men to be little more than sex-obsessed brutes who don't think logically or rationally. And, as you have pointed out, the next line of logic is that the only way women can reach men is if they appeal only to their sexuality.