The Deets

As regular Deets readers know, I have a thing for offensive billboard advertisements. Here’s the latest case in Minneapolis.

Apparently, there is a new billboard for Filgio’s in downtown that’s bugging some folks. I haven’t had a chance to check it out myself, so if someone happens to have (or could snap) a photo link to it in the comments or email it in.

Jenny from the GWSS 3390: Feminist Media Making blog offers a description and opinion of the billboard:

GWSS 3390: Feminist Media Making: Watching Myself Watch and Read

I am plagued by the “Working the corner” billboard near my apartment. The billboard is of transvesite man (dressing as a woman) with lettering that says “Working the Corner since (1980something)”, it’s for Figlio restaurant, attempting to make a pun out of their location at Lake Street and Hennepin Ave in Uptown. Instead of a clever pun, they end up with a truly offensive billboard that I see almost every day on my way home. To me, it suggests that transvestites are always sex workers, and that the sex trade is funny.

DBR at the Who can Say? blog says he has also noticed the Figlio billboard and has his own take:

Working the corner

The billboard tells us that Figlio is a hip place, I guess, for only hip people. If you don’t like the billboard, then you aren’t part of their exclusive clientèle. I don’t see how aging hookers are supposed to get you in the mood for mediocre pasta in a noisy restaurant, but I guess I’m missing the point.

Let’s see it.

Preface: I swear that I’ll stop writing about stupid things that Target does as soon as they stop doing stupid things. Perhaps I hold Target to a higher standard than other companies? At this point, I think it’s the misalignment between Target’s positioning as the do-gooder, family-friendly, cooler alternative to Wal-Mart that leads to issues when they misstep.

They also seem to be hyper-sensitive about their brand. They decide what’s cool. You buy it. No questions asked. They don’t seem ready to engage their customers unless you call paying kids to say nice things about Target engaging. While their brand is clearly phenomenal, things like this chip away at their mystique in a world where everyone - not just mainstream media - is a publisher.

On with the show:

Paul Schmelzer has a report over on Minnesota Monitor about a mother, Amy Jussel, who’s offended by a billboard put up by Target in Times Square. She happens to have a blog and asked Target to comment for her blog on why they chose to run this particular advertisement. However, they’ve chosen to snub her.

Here’s the billboard in question:

Here is her concern, as she posted on her site, Shaping Youth - a forum for media & marketing’s influence on kids:

Taking Aim at Target: Think That V is a CoinkyDink?

This ad may not be QUITE as blatant as some of the other spread-eagle ambient billboards we’ve featured or as viral as the onslaught of Axe videos making the rounds, but it’s subliminal to the point of guffaw.

That sounds like a reasonable judgment of a company that positions itself as family friendly.

As Paul summarized, Target told Ms. Jussel, a blogging media analyst, that they wouldn’t talk to her because she didn’t represent Target’s core audience. (Check the comments on Shaping Youth for more deets.) How strange is that?

Maybe Target doesn’t really understand the issue? I mean, why would a mother take offense at a billboard with a bullseye on a woman’s crotch?

Perhaps switching genders will help explain the issue. Here are two shots Target is welcome to use in future billboards, gratis:

Now I’m starting to understand why Ms. Jussel was offended. Heck, I’m offended when I look at myself spread out over the bullseye.

Update: Target considers changing blogger engagement policy?

I’ve heard of advertising on bananas before. That’s cool and all. But this is way over the top.

I think the idea here is to sell custom hand stamps to bars so you’ll walk around all night with an ad for a good DUI attorney or bail bond service.

The example above was Photoshopped. I doubt it would look nearly that good when stamped, or on my non exactly handle-modeling hands.

I’ve been considering getting lasik for a while now. I’ve gone through the evaluation process, and that went well. And now I hear that LasikPlus has pulled their advertising from AnnCoulter.com based on her “faggot” comments about John Edwards.

I didn’t have any special relationship with LasikPlus before, but maybe I’ve found the reason I’ve been looking for to get in the chair.

Fine Dining, originally uploaded by edkohler.

It’s a little known fact that all great New Jersey restaurants sell advertising on their placemats.