Jul 30 2009
Lustful Acts Against Women – Yes, non-religious people find this offensive
With Comicon, comes gamers, and with gamers comes the brilliant marketing minds at places like Electronic Arts (EA). By brilliant, I mean idiotic and sexist marketing people who don’t seem to see the issue with telling Comicon attendees to ‘Commit an act of lust’ with a ‘booth babe’. This article on femimisting.com presents exactly why some of us (i.e. women) have an issue with this promotion. It is not the idea, it is how it was presented. As stated in the article referenced, if they had told people to take pictures with ‘booth babes’ I wouldn’t be writing this post. But they didn’t, so I am.
In most of the comments, I see people saying that only the religious right and bible thumpers are offended. Well, this is just. not. true. Many people I know, who are not at all religious and are quite liberal in their thinking, think this was an offensive marketing campaign. This is not a religious issue, it is a social issue. It is an issue that proves that some people still don’t seem to see any issue with using women in a negative way for marketing. Women who were not in on the joke, I might add.
Yep… it is one big fail. To those who think this is overreactting, I ask you to think about how you would feel if a woman you know and really care about was sexually assaulted. Then think about that same woman, at her job, minding her own business, who is then accosted by a whole bunch of males who have been told to go commit ‘lustful acts’ against them (which can have very different meanings to different people… and most don’t read the fine print that EA likes to point to). Just think about how that may feel, and then tell me what you think.
The message the entire campaign sends is enough to piss me off. The fact that they actually took it to the level they did, and asked people to tweet about it… well, that’s some pretty piss poor planning. To think that there was a room full of marketing executives who thought this was a good idea. It got at least enough approval to be green-lit.
Wonder if even one person stepped forward and told them to rethink it.
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