Virgin Radio has shoved its way onto the streets of Ottawa, and simultaneously onto the radar of some brilliant, social justice minded and pissed off people. The above adverts are part of Virgin Radio's visual marketing campaign here in my adopted city and are---quite tragically---EVERYWHERE.
I was once told that the world's best minds are in marketing. WTF, Virgin? Did your marketing budget get swallowed up by the divinely inspired mouth-shaped urinals? Clearly, someone is under the advertising tutelage of PETA.
I am fairly confidant that the goal of this campaign is to be as offensive as possible. Let's go through some of the misdemeanors:
- Trivializing violence against women
- Implicitly excusing sexual assault
- ...of minors
- Perpetuating the tired cliche that women are helpless and need to be protected
- Assuming rock music is only something men can get into
- Calling themselves the gods of rock in a pathetic attempt to revive the "glory" era of shitty 80s rock music
I am pulling the NIMBY card on this one, help me get this out of my backyard. Go here to see what can be done.
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Not to mention immaculate conception, which is what the whole "concept" (no pun intended) of this marketing is.
ReplyDeleteThe "gods" of "virgin" radio are in town and so who else can give births to these little demi-Gods than modern-day Marys?
*barf*
As much as these ads grill my soul and offend me on 10 different levels, I'm opposed to the idea of actively petitioning against them. It's the viral marketing that they want. Personally, I think if people are going to do anything, I prefer the guerilla culture jamming that's been going on. I haven't seen a picture of any online, but one of the adverts was spray painted with "Unlock your daughters and arm them with mace".