Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Victoria's Secret Porn Show

Sent to McDonald's, Circuit City, Dell, Unilever, Dyson, Mucinex, 20th Cent Fox, Colombia, Paramount, Netflix, Universal, Visa, Warner Bros, and Zales

I am very disappointed at your company's decision to sponsor and show advertising during the Victoria's Secret "Fashion" Show on CBS.

I find it deplorable that your company on the one hand attempts to market to families while on the other supports such immoral programming.

Last night (Dec 5th) CBS aired the Victoria's Secret "Fashion" Show. Once again pornography has been mainstreamed across our airwaves and family living rooms were turned into strip clubs. Victoria's Secret television specials and advertisements are images with the purpose of eliciting a sexual response - the very definition of pornography.

Victoria's Secret certainly understands that. An hour of nearly naked women strutting
across the stage, degrading themselves for the pleasure of men. Every erotic movement and gyration was what you would expect to see in a strip club. The women used their bodies to lure and entice while the camera focused in on barely covered crotches and breasts, mostly bare bottoms, and cleavage. And while the women seductively paraded across stage, men's reactions were shown from the audience.

Your company needs to be aware of the content of the programming it supports and associates
itself with when it chooses to spend advertising dollars. Please support family values by not advertising and sponsoring such programming in the future.

more info: http://americandecency.org/email_updates/email12.05a.06.htm

1 comment:

john said...

I recieved this response from Unilever...

Hello John,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your disappointment with the program content which contained a commercial for a Unilever product.


Due to growing concerns over television program content, we recently conducted a re-evaluation of our programming selection practices. We learned that
we are among only a few companies in the U.S. which applies a standardized method to monitor program content. Our re-evaluation resulted in a tightening of our monitoring and selection process, with particular focus on programs aired during the early afternoon
and evening hours when children are more likely to be watching
television. We have pulled advertising support from specific programs that fail to meet our
stricter criteria. Future
decisions will depend upon the content of each program.

Because consumers of our products represent a broad cross-section of the world, there may be times when our commercials appear in programs that not all viewers find acceptable.

Many people sincerely differ in their perceptions, so that there can be no universally held opinion
about what constitutes acceptable programming. Through our programming selection practices,
we strive to achieve an equitable balance between the concerns of
individuals and preserving freedom of choice.

In addition, Unilever is a member of the Family Friendly Programming
Forum, an organization of 43 major national advertisers. Its mission is to ensure the existence of a
family friendly television environment, particularly in the early evening time period. There is
also a script development fund that is supported by a smaller group of
member companies--Unilever being one--that helps finance family friendly scripts.

It is an organization that Unilever is proud to support.

We hope that this information has given you a better understanding of
our advertising practices.

Thank you for taking the time to share your views with us. You can be assured that your comments
will be considered as we continue to challenge our perceptions about
what is appropriate for us in today's environment.

Thanks again for your interest!
Your friends at Unilever U.S.
VC

-----Original Message-----
From: unilevercontactus
[mailto:unilevercontactus@UnileverConsumerLink.co.uk]
Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2006 9:44 AM
To: Comments, Comments
Subject: Consumer Link - Forward of Web Form (Tracking #17638228)

Dear Colleague

I have received the following enquiry through Unilever.com which I
believe you can provide assistance with. Please respond to the consumer
directly.

Many thanks,

Zoe Gray
Unilever.com Advisor