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." 

Comments

[Debbie Kaufman]

Selah: I received the same reply and my response was similar to yours. I do believe it insults our intelligence, and although I am not normally one to join in on signing petitions or boycotting, this is one exception I will make with no apologies.

Also, true to my word to Dove in my first email to them, I will not be buying their products.

[selahV]

Debbie: thanks for stopping by, I appreciate your input.
This is galling. I don't readily jump on petition bandwagons either. I know that petitions are not nearly as forceful as an individual written letter or phone call. And the strongest statement, when they offer lame excuses and explanations, is to write them again. They think we will give up and go away. In some cases, I might have done just that. Not with this. If we condone this trash, as we condoned the useage of curse words, we will be getting full-blown X-rated magazines disguised as decorating-gardening publications in the supermarket aisles.
Again, thanks for coming by, Debbie. May God bless your day. selahV