so i woke up with the intention today of writing about my most recent struggle with choosing to go to grad school or to start my career after graduation...that was until i saw this:
First and foremost, the print in the ad mentions NOTHING at all about it being a gentleman's club -- all it talks about is how you can "watch all the big college sports on their large plasma TVs" and "get two for one admission if you mention the Daily Orange ad!" (SMH). Secondly, the fact that there is a naked woman pictured in an advertisement that more than likely parents and family members (because this weekend is family weekend at syracuse) are going to pick up and open and when they do, be greeted by a gigantic rear-end right across from the stats page about this weekend's rival game. Third and most importantly, it's not only offensive to black women, but all women of any race.
trust me, I'm not trying to knock the girl in this ad for posing and trying to make an honest dollar - if the BCBG pump fits, wear it well honee. and i'm not trying to encourage her to mask her sexuality. but my problem is that you're (the Daily Orange) putting this ad in a college newspaper on a weekend when the parent population is EXTREMELY high on campus. moreover, at a predominantly white university, so what does that say? i'm not trying to make this about race people, but this is pretty much a race/gender discussion, and rather than sit back and be cool with it, we need to talk about it. if the establishment wants to create ads like this to promote their business, then cool. but for a popular campus publication, not even on their high traffic reading day, to agree putting this in their paper is not cool and disheartening that they showed no remorse too.
i was extremely offended by this advertisement because it is just further perpetuating the stereotype about black women being oversexualized in the media. i mean, my GOSH...we already get it enough in hip-hop videos, but to open a college newspaper and see this? it's totally ludicrous. and i know to them it's only an ad to make profit, DUH! we live in the united states of america, capitalism keeps this engine running. but morally, i know a better decision could have been made.
now that i think about it, it's actually a good thing that an ad was posted in the paper like this because now it will give us a chance to discuss such a prevalent issue such as the imagery of women and sexuality in the media. thank goodness that i took COM 346 last semester that i'm able to properly analyze an advertisement like this and deem it tasteless, classless and unsophisticated.
i would appreciate your thoughts on this topic. and for those who believe that my "energy is severely misplaced", imagine if that girl in the picture was your daughter, sister or niece. how would you feel?
as always, i'm open for comments and criticisms. let's talk.
Chass, you pretty much summed up any and everything I was thinking about this nonsense!
ReplyDeleteOn Parent's Weekend, really? My mom would have literally passed out from shock, and trust me that takes A LOT because my father OWNS a Gentlemen's club.
Shame on you D.O.!
--Can't wait to read about their great apology on Monday because I just know it's coming!
The Daily Orange is independent from Syracuse University, so it has no reason to care about what parents think. No tuition goes into the paper. The D.O. funds itself, and I'm sure the ad brought in a lot of money because it's a full page. Also, The Daily Orange doesn't make ads themselves...it was probably supplied by the club, so they're the ones putting a black woman in that context, not the paper.
ReplyDeleteIt is okay that the the DO is not funded by the school and the club did pay a lot of money for the full page spreed. However, this does not justify why the DO agreed to advertise it for them. It's as if they are agreeing to the "tasteless, classless and unsophisticated" ad. There are other companies that would pay for their companies to be adertised so the intelligent people behind the DO needs to reach out and use the resources that are more than available.
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