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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Read a Book, Get Oral Sex? |
| 2004-11-05 |
| I love to...read. By Larry Fine The Larry Fine?! NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York officials were red-faced on Friday after they discovered that clothing ads on city buses that appeared to promote reading suggested a love of books could be rewarded with oral sex. I love...books. The advertisements that ran on about 200 buses across the city in recent months carried posters displaying a suggestively posed woman in hot pants kneeling among a pile of books beside the snappy slogan "Read Books, Get Brain." Oh, I thought it said something like, "Read this book and I'll blow you." What unhip, unsuspecting local transportation officials did not know was that "get brain" is street slang for oral sex. I'll have to remember that... The ads -- from hip-hop clothing maker Akademiks, which intended the double-entendre -- was stripped off New York buses on Friday after transportation officials discovered the street slang meaning. Metropolitan Transit Authority spokesman Tom Kelly condemned the "vulgar street phrases" in the racy ads he said were "demeaning women." He then departed to...read. "To me and I believe to everyone else, while it was done by a clothing line, it would give the impression that it was also promoting reading and literacy," Kelly told Reuters. "It's easy enough to understand how that would get by based upon someone not knowing the expression." A spokesman for the New York-based clothing maker noted the ad campaign had run since September and "we hadn't had any complaints at all." Dumbass honkies... New York officials may not be the only ones caught out. Akademiks also placed the ads on buses and bus shelters in Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, San Francisco and Philadelphia, the company spokesman said. Kelly, who said he was his 60s, said that after he was tipped to the hidden meaning of the phrase on Thursday he ran a test among some young MTA workers. "I went downstairs to the mailroom and showed some of the young guys a copy of the ad," he said. "I was watching their faces and they all start smirking. ...and reading. "Apparently it's on all the music, in music that's how they refer to it," Kelly said. "I didn't know anything about it and I'm sure the people that approved the ad didn't." Kelly said it was sad that "you can't take things at face value any longer," adding, "We'll have to learn from experience before we accept ads." Heywood Jablome was not available for comment. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #6 Seems to be a good day for offensive ad campains . . . |
| Posted by: gp 2004-11-05 8:42:55 PM |
| #5 Would you like to see my bookshelves... |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2004-11-05 6:18:26 PM |
| #4 "Read a book and I'll give you some nook" woulda been better. I've read a few books...where does the line start? :) |
| Posted by: Jules 187 2004-11-05 5:01:47 PM |
| #3 I love to read as well |
| Posted by: Dr. Craven Moorehead 2004-11-05 4:53:18 PM |
| #2 I've read an awful lot of books in my 49 plus years. I think I'm way behind on brain. A brain shortfall, I'd call it. I guess I haven't met enough brainy women. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2004-11-05 4:49:02 PM |
| #1 Hmmm...and cow dung on the image of Mary was not "demeaning women"? Good enough for public funding. At least these Yahoos were paying for their bit of 'humor'. Strange what takes to outrage officials in New York. |
| Posted by: Don 2004-11-05 4:34:12 PM |