Just to clarify, the dialog was NEVER meant to be about ‘this one ad’ as I recognize it is MILD by comparison and ‘no big deal’ if not put in context…

Fergawdsakes if I wanted to make a stink about ‘one ad’ it sure as heck wouldn’t be a TAME BY COMPARISON fully clothed persona as I know full well the media would turn that into a trumped up hypefest of an over-reactive public (oh, yeah, that’s right, they already did!

Seriously though, the whole experience has been fascinating to see how the absurdity of incivility turned ME into the target of vitriolic ‘get a life’ outrage despite lack of context, or even probing the verbatim words of what was said.

As a former journalist, I KNEW this would get skewed into a ‘one-off’ sure as I was breathing…but many cautioned, “look, the NYT is gonna write about you anyway, so you might as well agree to a WRITTEN e-interview so you can at least get your words out.”

Well…we saw where that landed, eh?

Here are my verbatim words w/the NYT reporter:
http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=1063

And here is the original context…http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=969
which as you can see, is all about normalization of objectification via mass market ‘family’ retailer adding to the cacophony of noise/urban wallpaper in highly charged media environs of surround sound sexual cues. (How’s that for a mouthful?)

Seriously though…it was never intended to be about ‘one ad’ but about raising the bar of retail to get away from innuendo that’s shrill, harsh, and crass…even if not ‘on purpose’ (See the new ‘Lolita’ children’s bed line for girls that Woolworth’s is saying is another oopsie ‘mistake’ after moms complained in the U.K.)

As Kelley implied above, until parents say ‘hey, knock it off’ and give a ruler whack to the wallet of corporate creepiness it’ll just keep on coming…

So if I have to “take the hit” for a misguided missile, in the hopes of a wake up bracer for the ‘other 86% of parents polled’ to see this is ‘the norm’ NOT the exception of corporate policy to do the ‘wink-n-nod-let’s put it up ’til they carp about it’ bit (look at the ‘mistaken’ gruesome billboards from Captivity the movie that got put up, or the countless other oopsies) then so be it…Fire away!!!

Meanwhile…um…Lolita beds anyone? I need a rest on controversy, so I’ll let ‘one of the Lisas’ take this one…here’s the Packaging Girlhood post and my replies:

http://packaginggirlhood.typepad.com/packaging_girlhood/2008/02/the-lolita-bedr.html