~~FEMININE MATTERS~~

ANOTHER MAN'S TRASH

Beer cans.  Candy wrappers.  Cigarette butts.  And yes, sadly, even an occasional used condom.  I've been graced to pick up each and every one of these items on my lawn during any given day, on any given week.  I don't live in a slum neighborhood.  But slum-thinking disrespectful people travel my streets. 

I could live with the trash on the curb.   If I wanted to.  I could leave it on the lawn and pray the Oklahoma winds pick it up and deposit it somewhere else.  But then I would be no better than the immature people who discard their trash out their windows.  I could leave their litter for another, but when it is dumped on my front lawn, on my property, it is my responsibility to remove it.   When I went to get my mail and found a used condom lying at the base of my mailbox, I had a choice.   Remain as repulsed and disgusted as I was feeling and walk away, or channel that repulsed disgust and pick up the possibly disease-riddled object with guarded hand and dump it into the trash.  I chose the latter.

When I received a Better Homes & Gardens magazine subscription in my mailbox and discovered a SMUTTY-PORNOGRAPHIC Dove Pro-Age advertisement on the inside cover, I also chose to act.  I wrote to the Magazine and canceled my subscription.  I also wrote a blog asking everyone to let their voice be heard by writing to Dove/Unilever and publications which accepted their advertising dollars to dump their trash into our unsuspecting lives.  In my opinion, Better Homes and Gardens was absolutely no different than the deviant personality who tossed their used condom on my lawn.  Both totally disregarded me and my privacy.

Since writing my earlier blog, I've received word that Donald E. Wildmon, Chairman of Onemillionmoms.com is also calling for people to take a stand against the trash-ads Dove/Unilever is producing.   In addition, I have received a response Dove/Unilever sent a friend of mine when she protested their campaign.  It is as follows:

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
The Pro-Age advertising campaign is about celebrating women 50+ and widening the definition of beauty to show that real beauty has no age limit.  Our goal was to feature beautiful women as they really are - with self-confidence, age spots wrinkles and grey hair.

The advertising campaign is certainly not about nudity, but rather about honesty. The statement we clearly wanted to make is that it is time to stop hiding and covering signs of aging and be proud to look our age. We didn't want to cover these women or enhance their appearances, because they are beautiful just as they are. We believe it was necessary to show skin, age spots, wrinkles and grey hair to show women that they are stunning at any age. There is no shying away, concealing or retouching, as Pro-Age represents honest beauty.
Please be assured we will share your comments with our Brand Manager.
Kind regards,Your friends at Dove

To Dove/Unilever I say, "Your company insults my intelligence and spits in the face of every person who considers your ads an insult to moral women everywhere."  Do they take us for imbeciles?  Dove/Unilever is totally misguided in their attempts.  They are completely dishonest in their self-serving approach to advertise their product line.

If, in fact, their product line is "not about nudity", why did they use NUDE women to advertise their product line?  My answer--because they knew it would cause a stir--unlike an ad with wrinkled, grey-haired, obese women clothed women would not.  They knew the naked women would provoke an interest that clothed women wouldn't.  They didn't want their new line of Pro-age products to be missed in a sea of mediocre ads.  They knew exactly what they were doing.  Exactly.  And they did not care.  And they do not care.  They did not care what we would think before they produced the ads and they do not care what we think now.

It absolutely sickens me to write another blog on this subject.  But the Dove/Unilever response to objections to their advertising campaign further magnifies my initial disgust to the appearance of their first ad appearance.  Obviously, Dove/Unilever is not only morally blind, they are morally deaf, too.  I suggest we write them again.  Only this time, perhaps you can have a few friends write with you.   Give them a stamped addressed envelope to Dove/Unilever and tell them how you feel.  At the very least, contact them via email--something.

Just as I had to pick up another's man's trash on my curb...we must pick up the litter of mega companies who toss their trash on the curbs of our lives.  If we don't, the trash will simply be deposited again and again on someone else's unsuspecting lives.   If not this way, then another.

Who is my neighbor?  And Jesus said, "....he who showed mercy." We must show mercy on anyone who has no idea what door this kind of advertising will open for the innocent.  We are our "brothers' keepers." 

ENSLAVED BY FREEDOM

WARNING!

WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ IS NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN!

Yesterday I went to my mailbox to see what kind of junkmail the postman had delivered.  To my delight, beneath a card trying to entice me into using their high-interest lending firm, was my monthly copy of "Better Homes and Gardens".  Yippee!  Something to read in my van while I wait for my grandson to get out of school!  Though tempted to sit down with a cup of coffee and scan it, I laid it down and began straightening the living room till time to go pick up Jordy.

I was savoring the moment I would open it.  I enjoy the pictures of decorating, the occasional recipe, and the advice on gardening.  Forty-five minutes later, I sat in the parking lot waiting for my grandson. (I have to admit.  I got there twelve minutes early because I really did want to scan my magazine before other chores claimed the rest of the day.)  WHAT A DISSAPOINTMENT!  I went no further than the first page!

Upon flipping the cover, my eyes were greeted by a completely nude figure of an obese woman sitting in a crouched position and staring proudly back at me.  Words to describe how I felt are multiple.

SHOCKED!  APPALLED! LIVID!  DECEIVED!  BETRAYED!  FURIOUS!  DISGUSTED!

Think about it.  You spend your very limited income on purchasing a magazine subscription to what ONCE was very reputable in my opinion.  And then they lower themselves to introduce a product line for aging woman by DOVE by not just exploiting the rolls of blubber of a naked woman.  A woman who most certainly is the age of a grandmother!

So I begin sharing my disgust and disdain with each and every lady I know.  One came up to my van in the parking lot.  She was giving me the DVD we share weekly to teach a ladies' Bible study.  I showed her the cover and said, "I just got my new Better Homes and Gardens."  She smiled and said, "Oh, I love that magazine!"

"So did I, until five minutes ago."  I opened the front cover and she literally gasped, drew back as if burned and shook her head in disagreement.  "Oh, no!" 

To make a much longer story short, I later showed the magazine to my husband, who was reading his paper. I said, "I am soooooo angry.  If I wanted PLAYBOY Magazine, I would subscribe to it!"  He picked up the insert of LIFE which was in our newspaper and there on the back cover (where advertisers pay extra to have ads displayed) was the very same naked obese woman staring back at me AGAIN!  What I didn't realize till I saw the same photo on the back of my LIFE insert, was when I opened my magazine cover, there was a FOLD-OUT full spread of two more GRANDMOTHERS sitting stark naked in similar poses.

THE PLOT THICKENED!  A cresendo banged with a cymbalic "BAM!"  The high-pitched opera singer shattered the windows of my mind!   This is an all out advertising CAMPAIGN!

The makers of Dove products for aging women wanted to Slap everyone up side the face with their blitz of shock and awe!  Dove determined to strike with a force that would demand not only my attention, but every person's attention from here to Siberia.  They planned this obscene, pornographic, Playboy posed advertising to create such a stir in the world that they would be discussed on FOX NEWS and every news show in America.  What they may not count on is the backlash from their high-priced advertising.

I wrote an email to the editor of Better Homes and Garden and canceled my subscription that wouldn't have expired till 2009.   I further sent my cancelation email to every friend I have on my email list.  I am now blogging about it and will continue to link it to every blog I write in the future.  I will tag it as SMUT INVASION! A Must Read!

I will write to every advertiser of the Better Homes and Garden Magazine and ask them to remove their advertising from them for a minimum of three months unless they promise NEVER to run an ad like this one again.  The Supreme Court ruled that obscenity is one of those things one cannot describe, but when you see it you know it!  Well, I know I just saw it.  I would never allow my grandsons to see me sitting stark naked in a pose like these women found tasteful, artistic and I would even say humorous.  I can hear the advertising board room chuckling now as they considered the impact of this ad.

I am a faithful purchaser of Dove soap for sensitive skin.  Guess what!  My skin just got too sensitive to use any of Dove's products.  I am through with anything they produce and will make sure I do not purchase anything of any company they are associated with.  As far as I am concerned, this should be a class action suit against Dove and every magazine who displayed these ads for trafficking porn to unsuspecting folks like me.

Anyone want to join me?   Until later, I remain LIVID in Oklahoma!  Should you want to read some positive thoughts on the subject of MODESTY, see Rachel's post, HERE.  SelahV [copyrighted,Selahvtoday,2007]  YOU HAVE MY EXPRESS PERMISSION TO COPY AND DISTRIBUTE THIS BLOG TO ANYONE YOU SO DESIRE.  SelahV