Thongs are on the front page again. France’s advertising industry watchdog, hardly a paragon of political correctness, yesterday took the exceptional step of asking a leading underwear manufacturer to yank a nationwide poster campaign for thongs because it was deemed degrading to women.
The Advertisement Verification Bureau (BVP) demanded that Sloggi take down a poster showing three young women writhing in minuscule, multicoloured G-strings as if poledancing in a strip club, saying the campaign, which has drawn complaints from across Europe, was unacceptably sexist and not in keeping with a recent drive by the industry to clean up its act. The BVP is made up of agency representatives and big advertisers and can request all it wants but it has no enforceable authority. There is concern in the French advertising community though that there will be call for enforceable government regulation if the recommendations of the BVP are not heeded.
Further outcry surrounds one of the boards placement near a highschool. There is a debate raging across the country regarding the proliferation of thong wearing highschool girls and that the racy attire is overly tempting to potential child abusers as well as its further streotyping women as sex objects.
“Many headteachers have banned the accessory altogether, which is a very good thing,” said former Education Minister, Segolene Royale, a mother of four. “As far as boys are concerned, the string reduces young women to little more than their bottoms. Bodies are being exposed like vulgar merchandise. We shouldn’t be surprised if girls are being sexually harassed or subjected to sexual violence.”
As hot as thongs are to look at, their causing guys to rise up in the middle of class may not be the best thing for the educational process. Triumph, manufacturer of Sloggi thongs, has so far refused to take down the campaign.
A similar Sloggi campaign in England last Summer also casued a stir.
