Background: The National Organization for Women/NOW Foundation has launched a new campaign around ads which they label "Offensive to Women." The campaign involved Love Your Body Day 2007, which was October 18. In this series, I'm reprinting some of the ads which NOW tells us are "Offensive to Women," giving my own humble opinion on the matter and soliciting yours.

In You Be the Judge (Part I), I agreed with NOW. In Part II, I agreed with them on one out of two. In Part III, I thought they were wrong on both. In Part IV, I agreed with NOW.

NOW (successfully) protested this Dolce & Gabbana. They write:

"This ad is beyond offensive, with a scene evoking a gang rape and reeking of violence against women. In an interview, NOW Foundation President Kim Gandy said, 'It's in Esquire, so they probably don't think a stylized gang rape will sell clothes to women, but what is more likely is that they think it will get them publicity. It's a provocative ad but it is provoking things that really are not what we want to have provoked. We don't need any more violence.'"

I agree that it evokes a gang rape. You get no sense of lightheartedness in either the woman or the men, nor any sense that the woman is enjoying herself. One could argue that "gang rape" is an excessive interpretation, but I asked myself this--"If an ad were to evoke gang rape, what would it look like?" The answer, for me, is "probably a lot like this."

I'm with NOW on this one, so that brings NOW's score, in my book, to 4 out of 7 correct.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 7:10 pm and is filed under Feminism/NOW, Advertising, TV, Movies & Gender. You can trackback from your own site.