CENSORSHIP OR PROTECTING KIDS
Virginia Beach Police confiscated advertising banners inside of the Abercrombie & Fitch Clothing store in a local mall after some parents filed complaints that the banners were “obscene and offensive”.
In a press release Virginia Beach Police Spokesman Adam Bernstein said that the banners were seized only after the store had ignored previous warnings from their department. Along with seizing the banners the Police also charged the store manager with a Class One Misdemeanor. The citation was issued under the City Code Section 22.31, which makes it a crime to display “obscene materials in a business that is open to juveniles.”
Bernstein said that an Officer assigned to the patrol the mall specially told the store management “we want those advertising signs taken down.” On Saturday the Officer went to work in the mall and spotted the banners still hanging inside of the store.
The store manager faces a fine of $2,000.00 and up to a year in jail, if convicted.
Obscene or not?
posted by TMC NEWS at 10:30 PM
21 Comments:
whats the problem thats how most of the kids are wearing their jeans. i get sick of seeing but crack everywere u go.
Obscene.
For one, why do we need to see these guys' buttcracks? Since when does a buttcrack sell jeans? Anything for profit.....
Damn jeans are probably made in the same sweatshop Walmart jeans are made in.
For one the photo, however stupid it is for advertising, is not obscene. If they were having sex with a dog then that would be obscene.
I fear that this is just the start of the “do gooders police force”. Who decided what is obscene and what is not? How much of the butt crack has to be showing? Are underware ads obscene if they show part of a persons butt? Who is making the decisions?
hmmmm.... to me this is more of a parenting issue. Do they pull all the huge posters that line Victoria Secret with the boobs hanging out and undies barely covering their rears?
My thoughts are that if it is INSIDE the store and not openly visible to those walking down the mall then its up to parents to choose to NOT let their kids shop there.
I don't consider it obscene. But if I don't want my kid to see it... then we won't shop there.
I don't know about obscene...however bad taste. I think that it doesn't do much in way of advertising except for possibly enticing girls into the store. As a straight man in my 20's, that ad does nothing for me except make me sick to my stomach. I do not buy jeans when I see half naked man prancing around in a field with their asses showing.
But hey, some guys might like it.
for everyone that doesn't know, abercrombie and fitch have always pushed the envelope with thier advertising. they have been under fire in the past for all sorts of "racey" ads by everyone from local pta groups to politicians. this is doing exactly what the advertising department set out to do. bring ATTENTION to thier store. it is ludacris to say this is obscene. to charge someone with a crime over this is just one more example of "big brother" sticking thier nose where it does not belong. A&F has always ensured that all models in advertising are over the age of 18 and have proved it in the past. if you do not like the way they conduct business do not shop there. the officer should have been equally offended by the victoria secret store or the spencer store that sells sex toys. i am normally a huge supporter of local police and fire but this guy is a joke.
Maybe it is because I have a dirty mind and I openly admit this, but when I look at this something does come to mind.
Did anyone notice there are 3 guys who appear to be pulling their pants up while they walk. Also, there is only one girl and it is really hard to tell what if anything she is wearing.
My thoughts on censorship are you see what you want to see. If you are looking for something sexual you will find a way to see it. It is unfair when the Victoria Secret example is used. If this was found offensive then the Victoria Secret marketing should have as well.
As I mentioned above, I have a dirty mind. When I look at this I see a couple things. When I first viewed this I thought "whats the big deal." Then my dirty mind kicked in and I started to look for things wrong with it. After I looked for bad things I started to think... 3 guys pulling their pants up, 1 girl following them, and they are all walking from somewhere off camera. Maybe they just finished up a foursome.
Just because I looked at this and eventually thought of the foursome idea doesn't mean that everyone else does. I only thought foursome because I was looking for reasons to find this obscene.
people these days anything to complain about! abercrombie is for college kids so parents keep your damn 5 year olds out the store! and is this banner any worse then mtv? or what these kids see in school everyday! comeon people lighten up and realize were not living in the 60's nemore
I posted the comment where I started off talking about my dirty mind. In the even they decided not to approve my comment, I basically stated upon examining this picture I thought of a certain sexual act.
What I wanted to add is this. Did anyone actually look at this with an open mind without the agenda of trying to find something obscene about it and think that maybe they are trying to sell more belts?
Think about it. If your pants are falling down and you have to keep pulling them back up while you walk then you probably need a new belt.
A point I made in my previous post was you will see what you are out to see. When I let my dirty mind take over and I was looking for a reason to crucify the marketing efforts, I thought something sexual. When I switched mentalities and looked for innocent things I thought that these guys could use belts.
I have a major problem with censorship in general. Unless it is blatantly obvious that there is something "dirty" going on then it shouldn't be an issue. The whole censorship thing comes down to our imaginations. As adults we have bigger and dirtier imaginations than kids. As adults we are going to look for dirty things with this marketing effort because all of a sudden everyone wants to police the community. Do you really think a kid would see this and think something sexual or dirty?
If your kid or any kid were to see this and think something dirty then it wasn't the fault of this marketing effort. Something or someone has already taught them dirty things if they have the ability to look at this picture and think dirty ideas.
if this is obscence, what do they call plumbers when they're bending over?
hahaha! It is funny that different people will see different things!
I see the photo as a group of young adults running to a "watering hole" to go swimming! LOL
I thought they were pulling their clothes off... not putting them back on LOL
not living in the 60's anymore isnt very intelegen comment for this situation consitering that banner was the 60's.
yes a dirty mind can make anything bad of any situation. but so can a teenager. yes this store is target aimed for college students but i wore their clothes in junior high. and yes the banners still looked like that. and that is why i bought the clothes then every one in the ads were sexy,and doing sexy things, their for the clothes made you.....! retarded to think things work that way. that is why you see half naked 13 year old girls prancing round the mall. eww!
further more yes these ads are obscene and should not be seen by young kids. but the ads that look like this are not the ones facing the min halls of the mall they are inside the store.
so who is wrong... the store for using these ads, the dirty minders who start this whole thing, the mothers and fathers who let their children shop in theses stores,and the local police who have nothing better to do than site a store manager for doing her job.
sum. if you dont like it dont shop st the sore. that is the best way to hurt a corporation.... dont give them your money.
hahaha. I think agree with "my name is anonymous" and that these guys are trying to convey that we should some belts.
But if we buy a belt, we ought to finish the wardrobe and get a shirt. Total cost: $53 trillion dollars (plus tax).
No doubt... the only thing truly obscene is the amount of money they charge for a freaking tshirt!!!
This country is TOO damn uptight!
I didn't hear that John Ashcroft left the Justice Department for the Virginia Beach PD!
People don't care about giving up First Amendment, or any of the other, rights anymore as long as it's to "protect" kids. What a bunch of b.s. Think anyone is going to moderate a national discussion on parental responsibilities, communications techniques for kids, or a review why posters like this one (in the same way that messages from as wide a variety of groups as gay rights promoters to the KKK) are protected by the Constitution even though they offend some of the populus? Of course not...
Better watch out posting that pic, Terry... the DOJ may require you hang a black banner over that kid's hind-end so you're not promoting pedophilia. Paraphrasing for King George the Second, "WWJD?"
Mabe
the people complaining about this ad are probully the same people that pull up to the crub drop off their kids and leave them at the mall all day so everyone eles can babysit them. there isn't anything wrong with this picture. some people don't have a life of their own so they find anything to complain about. people get a life and you won't have time to worry about the small things in life.
Its funny to me but wasn't everyone just complaining a couple of stories ago about people not watching out for their kids? Now that someone is watching out for kids, you all are defending the offender?
And since when does someone advocating morals become a do gooders police force?
Maybe if morals were still preached more and more people were involved in kids lives, some of these kids wouldn't make the poor decisions that they are making now.
As for the ad that created this sensation, you can make whatever you want of it but do you really want something that suggestive (both sexually and otherwise) dictating your kids thoughts?
If my son needs a belt, then he already knows it. If my son has other thoughts then he already knows them. He doesn't need a pictorial telling him he needs a belt or as My name is anonymous said suggested, he doesn't need the image of a foursome put in his mind or any of the other sexual connotations involved.
Thats just my opinion though, Patsy
What is obscene is the spelling in these comments! Wow.
I second the motion on the spelling!
Ok, First of all, the management of abercrombie and fitch, or any of their stores has NOTHING to do with the marketing at their stores, EVERY store receives the SAME posters!!!! there are over 700 abercrombie and fitch stores across the U.S. and 3 in Canada. the posters that were complained about showed nothing more than an every day magazine or advertisement would.. that is ridiculous!!!!! I believe these people must lead boreing lives and need “excitement” in their lives so they had to go and start a bunch of controversy… if you don’t like what we have in the stores, don’t shop there, I assure you we get enough business as It is! We don’t need you little $39.90 sale purchase.
Thanks.
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