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First, Happy Birthday to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vampirefever! I hope the sun is shining on you and your day is very happy ::hugs::
And congratulations to all who won at the Bodice Ripper Awards and thanks to all who voted for two of my fics. Extra Ingredient won Readers Choice for Best Slash and Imperfect Understanding won Best Drabble/ficlet; much appreciated and a lovely surprise ::hugs::
I just had an article forwarded to me (thanksclaudia_yvr!) about that awful Bell ad I mentioned a few weeks ago.
Seems it provoked such a lot of outrage that it's been dropped and all who complained are getting an apology.
Haven't had one yet, but it's enough to know it's been cancelled.
Body-parts flyer wrong, Bell says
The Windsor Star
Sat 05 Mar 2005
Page: A2
Section: News
Byline: Grace Macaluso
Source: Windsor Star
Bell Canada has issued a formal apology for an advertising campaign that outraged women's groups and some of its subscribers who had threatened to drop its services.
"It was a lapse in judgment on this one," Charlotte Burke, senior vice-president of Bell Sympatico, said Friday. "You may find this hard to believe, but the two people principally responsible for the campaign were women. I guess we may have to send some of our female employees to sensitivity training."
The multimedia ads, designed to promote Bell's Internet service and parental controls, included a flyer depicting a textbook image of the female anatomy with body parts, such as the breasts and reproductive organs, cut out. Part of the advertisement read: "You'll do anything to protect your kids from inappropriate content. So will we."
The flyer, which had been mailed to households in Ontario and Quebec last week, was blasted by critics as sexist and offensive and prompted one Ontario MPP to call on the province to investigate whether the campaign violated decency laws.
"It's degrading," said Lorenzo Berardinetti, Liberal member for Scarborough Southwest.
The apology is too little too late, he added. "A tremendous amount of harm has been done and I don't know how far an apology will go in repairing the harm."
Berardinetti referred the matter Wednesday to the attorney general and minister of consumer and business services and said he is awaiting their response.
A Bell spokesman insisted earlier this week the ad was a tongue-in-cheek attempt to show what steps a parent might take to manage what children see on the Internet and was not intended to suggest that the female body was inappropriate content.
But that explanation did not appease subscribers like Windsor resident James Martin, who called the flyer "a badly thought out piece of advertising that has offended a lot of people."
Sungee John, interim president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, called the ad "clumsy" and suggested that in the future, Bell could do more consulting with women's groups.
Burke said Bell has pulled the ad from distribution effective immediately and is sending apologies to all individuals and groups who had complained to the telecom giant.
"The material was simply inappropriate," she said. "In this case, we made an error in judgment and for that we apologize."
Bell also is "reviewing its advertising standards and the rigor of our approval process to minimize the chance that this will happen again. Rest assured, Bell is committed to advertising that reflects accepted community standards"
vampirefever! I hope the sun is shining on you and your day is very happy ::hugs::And congratulations to all who won at the Bodice Ripper Awards and thanks to all who voted for two of my fics. Extra Ingredient won Readers Choice for Best Slash and Imperfect Understanding won Best Drabble/ficlet; much appreciated and a lovely surprise ::hugs::
I just had an article forwarded to me (thanks
claudia_yvr!) about that awful Bell ad I mentioned a few weeks ago.Seems it provoked such a lot of outrage that it's been dropped and all who complained are getting an apology.
Haven't had one yet, but it's enough to know it's been cancelled.
Body-parts flyer wrong, Bell says
The Windsor Star
Sat 05 Mar 2005
Page: A2
Section: News
Byline: Grace Macaluso
Source: Windsor Star
Bell Canada has issued a formal apology for an advertising campaign that outraged women's groups and some of its subscribers who had threatened to drop its services.
"It was a lapse in judgment on this one," Charlotte Burke, senior vice-president of Bell Sympatico, said Friday. "You may find this hard to believe, but the two people principally responsible for the campaign were women. I guess we may have to send some of our female employees to sensitivity training."
The multimedia ads, designed to promote Bell's Internet service and parental controls, included a flyer depicting a textbook image of the female anatomy with body parts, such as the breasts and reproductive organs, cut out. Part of the advertisement read: "You'll do anything to protect your kids from inappropriate content. So will we."
The flyer, which had been mailed to households in Ontario and Quebec last week, was blasted by critics as sexist and offensive and prompted one Ontario MPP to call on the province to investigate whether the campaign violated decency laws.
"It's degrading," said Lorenzo Berardinetti, Liberal member for Scarborough Southwest.
The apology is too little too late, he added. "A tremendous amount of harm has been done and I don't know how far an apology will go in repairing the harm."
Berardinetti referred the matter Wednesday to the attorney general and minister of consumer and business services and said he is awaiting their response.
A Bell spokesman insisted earlier this week the ad was a tongue-in-cheek attempt to show what steps a parent might take to manage what children see on the Internet and was not intended to suggest that the female body was inappropriate content.
But that explanation did not appease subscribers like Windsor resident James Martin, who called the flyer "a badly thought out piece of advertising that has offended a lot of people."
Sungee John, interim president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, called the ad "clumsy" and suggested that in the future, Bell could do more consulting with women's groups.
Burke said Bell has pulled the ad from distribution effective immediately and is sending apologies to all individuals and groups who had complained to the telecom giant.
"The material was simply inappropriate," she said. "In this case, we made an error in judgment and for that we apologize."
Bell also is "reviewing its advertising standards and the rigor of our approval process to minimize the chance that this will happen again. Rest assured, Bell is committed to advertising that reflects accepted community standards"