The Archive

For me - the smell of freshly baked bread

I was in That London this weekend, on the tube, where I saw a poster that I found rather disturbing for two reasons.

The first was that it was a poster that (and I'll admit I only glanced at it) seemed to be against rape.

Don't get me wrong, I am against rape too. In fact I'd go so far as to state that all my friends and colleagues are against rape as well. As far as I was aware, it was something society at large was agreed was A Bad Thing.

So the existence of this poster means one of two things. Either I am tragically mistaken and it is necessary to remind our population 'whilst you're out tonight, try not to do any raping eh?' or it means there are ad execs out there having meetings that go:

'Rape happens and our research has come back pretty sure that this is bad. Brainstorm everyone, what can we do to stop it?'

'A poster?'

'Brilliant.'

*cashes large public sector cheque*

Still, assuming that better minds than mine know why this poster was a good idea, I remain disturbed by the advertisers' choice of strapline. For on the poster is a model sporting a tee shirt with the slogan for this campaign. And the slogan is...

"Wake up to rape."

Sorry, what? Really? That's your slogan?

Don't you pay people to look for dangerous misinterpretations of these things? Or did it come out of some twisted focus group.

"Ok everyone, in order to earn your sixty quid for the session, we'd like to know how you like to wake up in the morning."

"I like to wake up to birdsong and the rosy-fingered dawn."

"I like the smell of freshly brewed coffee."

"The sensation of a lover gently nuzzling the back of my neck, what do you like to wake up to Evelyn?"

"Rape."

I was going to end the post there, but it just doesn't feel right ending a lighthearted post with that word. So I'll end by reminding you, don't rape. It's not ok.

Don't forget that 'no' means 'no'. Unless you're into BDSM of course, in which case, 'banana' means 'no' or whatever your safe word might be. Still, same point applies.

posted by Peter The Great @ 8:01 PM