In The News

Ads exploit bang for buck$
By Jessica Heslam
Boston Herald Media Reporter
Sunday, April 15, 2007 - Updated: 02:28 PM EST

I wonder if Xiomara Robles, the Lynn mother killed in a blazing explosion by the father of her two children, would have wanted to watch Court TV’s new John Waters satire on spousal murder.

Would Ann Gryboski, the Cape Cod doctor who allegedly shot and killed her abusive husband this week, get a kick out of the “I Shot My Wife” movie posters that recently decorated Boston’s streets?

While much of society has become desensitized to the barrage of magazine ads, TV shows and other images glamorizing violence against women, there are those who have not.

Julie, 26, a Boston woman working in public relations, was raped in a college dorm. When she sought refuge in a bathroom, the attacker found her and raped her again.

While channel surfing with her roommate last month, the pair settled on “America’s Next Top Model,” the one where the young models posed as murder victims, women who had been electrocuted, stabbed, shot, decapitated, pushed off a building and so on.

“Judges” oohed and aahed at their bloodied and bruised makeup-covered bodies. Isn’t the show’s creator, supermodel Tyra Banks, supposed to be a role model? A feeling of confusion washed over Julie - similar to the night she was raped.

“I couldn’t fathom that they thought this was a good idea,” said Julie. “I’m not sure what’s appealing to other people about that. When I do see images like that, I feel like there’s so many wasted opportunities in the media.”

Brutal domestic murders have dominated local headlines, and advocates at Jane Doe Inc. project an alarming increase in domestic violence deaths in Massachusetts this year. But those advertising their products don’t seem to care and continue to capitalize on it.

While these types of images aren’t new, the imagery is getting more extreme, said Craig Norberg-Bohm, coordinator of the men’s initiative for Jane Doe Inc.

“In a day’s time you see several examples,” he said. “It’s such an insult to men, but there’s still enough of a market that it sells. The sense of tolerance is what we want to work on.” And part of that is to protest such ad campaigns.

Stephanie Thompson, a reporter for Advertising Age, said people need to “break through the clutter” and get attention for their ads.

Dolce & Gabbana got just that last month. The fashion label created a fantasy gang rape advertisement that depicted a sexed-up woman in stilettos pinned down by a sexy shirtless man while four other men looked on. Is this really going to make you want to buy their fashions? Who knows, but the campaign sure got a whole lot of free media attention, sparking protests in Spain and Italy.

In Boston this past week, “Fracture,” the upcoming Anthony Hopkins flick about a man found innnocent of shooting his wife, made headlines. Giant movie posters boasting “I Shot My Wife” were plastered on 50 bus shelters in some of the city’s most violent neighborhoods.

When Mayor Thomas M. Menino got wind of the posters, he did the right thing and ordered them down - unlike the MBTA, which said the ads met its guidelines. Just yesterday, two of the tasteless posters hung outside the Penalty Box bar near the TD Banknorth Garden. That’s a smart message to send drunk patrons.

“We’ve had so many shootings in this neighborhood,” said a Boston teacher as she sat at a Roxbury bus stop this week, Hopkins’ grimacing face and the words “I Shot My Wife” staring down at her. “Most of the kids I teach know someone who has been shot,” she said.

Clearly it’s time the industry re-evaluates whether it is appropriate to use harsh violence on women to sell. Or clearly it’s time we started boycotting their products.