Jingle bells, Christmas is here. Well, it was here around October according to most retailers! But that’s another blog entirely. So it’s time for you to fill the Christmas stocking, Christmas hamper or car boot with goodies again.
Throughout the past year, Collective Shout has taken action to create a world free of sexploitation. Now it’s your turn to create a shopping bag free of sexploitation this Christmas.
Below is a list of products, brands, people and companies who have been ‘naughty’ and not nice this year. Actually they’ve been exploitative, degrading and disturbing.
Here is a list of corporate offenders we have crossed off our shopping list this year. We encourage you all to do the same.
Thousands of people spoke out against Roger David shirts featuring objectifying images of gagged and half naked women. Roger David have never addressed concerns about these shirts and continue to stock them. Shop somewhere else for men’s clothing this Christmas.
Degrading images usually reserved for the centre pages of fhm or Ralph magazine, have now found their way onto t-shirts marketed primarily towards teenagers, via the T.I.T.S brand stocked by City Beach. If you don’t see these items in City Beach, you will see them wherever a person chooses to wear them. City Beach is contributing to the pornification of culture! Don’t buy from City Beach this holiday season.
Amazon came under fire recently for selling a book titled The pedophile’s guide to love and pleasure: a code of conduct for child lovers. Since then more disturbing material has been found such as Understanding loved boys and boy lovers. Did Amazon act swiftly to remove these child abuse manuals when challenged? No, it defended it’s right to sell the child abuse instruction guide as free speech until they could no longer ignore the threat of global boycott. A company that supports child abuse does not deserve your money. Don’t shop at Amazon.com
‘High Beams’… ‘Pussy Power’ … ‘Santa’s Bitch’ … ‘North Pole Dancer’ … All slogans on t-shirts at Supre, a retailer hugely popular with 11 and 12 year old girls. After loads of complaints sparked by an article on Melinda Tankard Reist’s blog in December 2009, Supre said they would remove the shirts. They lied, the shirts were seen on the clearance rack selling for $5. Don’t shop at a store that treats little girls this way.
Where to begin with Lynx? The Lynx Lodge dubbed a ‘virtual brothel’ by the media. The ‘pop up spa’ in Sydney’s Martin Place, providing passers by with the sexual titillation usually reserved for a strip club. Lynx have been combining deodorant with porn themes and marketing them to a teenage audience for years. They call this the Lynx Effect. The Lynx Effect is that men treat women as objects of sexual recreation. Do not support them this holiday season. Put their stinky, over-priced gift packs back on the shelf, because Lynx Stynx! Lynx have defended their campaign saying it is designed to give men ‘confidence.’ Having looked at Lynx’s facebook page, many men are now quite confident in treating women like pieces of meat.
To add insult to injury, Lynx is owned by Unilever. Do you know what else Unilever owns? Dove. You know, the campaign for real beauty, where women are encouraged to be themselves, to love who they are, no matter what size, colour or age? Contrast the ‘campaign for real beauty’ with Lynx’s advertising and you will see why many are keen to ditch Unilever altogether. It’s easy to do, just look for the ‘U’ logo on the back of the label, then put it back on the shelf! Check out the full list of Unilever brands here.
Lovable are using their affiliation with a leading Eating Disorders charity to further their reputation and profits, while undermining their work in every way. You cannot use a former ‘Miss Universe,’ a woman known for her ‘flawless’ physical attributes in a pornified campaign and claim to be helping to promote positive body image. Eating Disorders are serious mental health issues affecting a growing number of girls and women each year. Not something to be taken advantage of to increase your profits. Lovable? As one commentator has put it, their behaviour is ‘hatable.’
Calvin Klein has a long record of pornified, degrading advertising. Recently we alerted our supporters to this billboard dubbed the ‘gang rape’ billboard. The Ad Standards Board received a large volume of complaints about this ad, sparked by articles on Collective Shout and Melinda Tankard Reist’s blog. An Ad Standards Board representative even wrote to us asking us to advise supporters to use the online facility instead of fax or post – apparently the number of complaints was impacting their workload and online is easier for them to process. The Ad Standards Board upheld the complaints and the billboards were taken down. Read the outcome here. If you see the Calvin Klein logo on jeans, underwear or perfume, put it back on the shelf. This company does not deserve your money.
Diesel has a history of sexualised and degrading ad campaigns. ‘Be stupid’ is one of these campaigns with the accompanying slogan: ‘smart may have the brains but stupid has the balls.’ Melinda Tankard Reist has written about that campaign here.
Diesel came to our attention again this year when images of their ‘sex sells’ campaign were plastered on the front of shop windows. This resulted in a flood of complaints from our supporters with at least one retail store agreeing to remove the posters.
Diesel again hit the media just recently. A US law school rented out their Library to Diesel for what they were told would be a tasteful photo shoot for jeans. The resulting images of models in their underwear crawling over the facilities and each other, were an embarrassment for the law school who said they were duped into allowing Diesel to use their facilities.
“It’s gross. I work on those computers every day!” fumed a female student, referring to a shot showing two women wearing just bras and panties climbing over the machines toward an older man.
As well as boycotting those which objectify and sexualise in their advertising, we want to support those who are doing the right thing.
Tell us what you will choose not to buy this holiday season.
Can you share with us any positive alternatives to some of these brands?
This blog is an edited reprint from Collective Shout.
17 Responses
Thanks SO much for the info re Unilever…..had no idea they owned the other brands, so my hands will be off some of them that I use on occasions.
Keep up the great work Melinda. 🙂
Lynx is so messed up. Last week I saw Coles selling Lynx ‘Sealed Section’ gift packs, which contain a Ralph calendar and ‘centrefold novelty pen’ (I assume this is one of those pens with a little lens and hidden porn photo). It’s blatant marketing of porn.
Instead of Amazon, a brilliant tool for buying books online is Booko, which gives price comparisons and points you to bookstores that are both cheaper and more ethical, like Book Depository and Better World Books.
My my my, the *BACKLASH* against women is really in full swing….serving the pornography patriarchs. Can we actually find out names of the honchos behind this sick attempt to continue to humiliate and subjugate women and girls? THEY need outing big time!
WELL DONE for your excellent work and diligence in spreading the info on these unethical companies. It takes courage and tenacity to do this work..but this is our inherent duty of care as responsible adult human beings. Gosh those monkeys are the ones that need gagging and putting on a short leash. They obviously don’t know about the Law of cause and effect.. 🙁
well they are no doubt starting to learn now. Power to the People..who are 99%wonderful and normal human beings. Keep the faith..let me know if you need me and the Rottweilers ANY time
24/7. ALL POWER & STRENGTH to your arms! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox <3
THE POWER OF GOOD ALWAYS PREVAILS. I pray for those poor damaged sods to truly experience the joy of normal lives sooner rather than later.
Fantastic work Melinda… I mean… excellently investigated and priceless information. I feel somewhat ashamed that I have been careless in my purchases, but your advice has given me a greater awareness and sense of diligence to ensure I do NOT buy any of the products sold by any of the companies listed. The information provided is gold and really should be more widely distributed… if possible. Seriously well done! Steve.
…big fan of collective shout. big fan of melinda tankard reist. big fan of CHRISTmas. not a fan of companies and individuals who degrade, devalue and disrespect women & children for the real dignity they have. raise awareness good people so that our moral standards are raised!
I agree with Arthur about the book suppliers. I understand also that Abebooks, sadly, is owned by Amazon, so they are now undesirable. Amazon also have audible.
Reading through the article, I was feeling fairly secure, as I don’t purchase any of those brands. The only one that I thought I might be inadvertently purchasing was Unilever. Got a pleasant surprise, the only thing I am going to have to change is my margarine. Thanks for the heads up. In relation to books, I purchase from Book Depository, books are cheaper, they don’t charge postage, and they charge in AUD, so no conversion fees.
Ooh, ooh, yes, I have some suggestions for alternative Christmas gifts.
No doubt you already know about the buy-a-goat type idea which has now spread from TEAR (who started it with their ‘arguably the world’s most useful gift catalogue’) to World Vision, Caritas and others. But there are plenty of places that sell actual things you can give to the local people that also benefit the makers and social justice generally.
Oxfam shops and online sell beautiful, hand-made stuff and some lovely foody things that are all fair-traded (including Australian bush foods).
http://www.oxfamshop.org.au/
http://www.mundomaya.com.au/ sell fantastic traditional hand-crafts from South America. My green beaded starburst ring from them is admired whenever I wear it. Good for the villagers who make them and good for people like me who can’t wear metal on their skin.
New Internationalist is a magazine, but they also have a fair-trade/social justice focussed shop which has some groovy things. I bought a wind-up lantern/torch from them which I use all the time. Also some cool t-shirts.
http://www.newint.com.au/shop
Many local churches have connections with communities overseas who make handcrafts. Mine is having a gathering this week to sell jewellery made by women in Thai slums who are trying to work their way out of prostitution. My father-in-law bought me a great bag from Vietnam, brought to his church by a women-to-women help group. Ask your local faith groups. Ring them, if you aren’t religious and are scared! The Uniting Church is good at this kind of social stuff (although both of the previous examples were Catholic).
For all those small gifts, think about packs of fair-trade coffee, tea and chocolate. They are readily available from Oxfam and many specialist tea and coffee shops, they taste great, they’re a reasonable price, they support producers who don’t exploit child labour and giving them raises awareness of fair trade. If you hook just one or two of your work-mates on fair-trade coffee, you have made a difference to several families in the countries that produce it.
Last year, I had a completely fair-trade Christmas. it was a challenge with some of the teenage nieces and nephews but I managed it and it was fun and well as satisfying.
If I think of more, i will come back and post again.
Thank you for this article- although I agree with most of it I don’t really get the Lovable one. Jennifer Hawkins was protraying a healthy woman doing fun playful things like eating icecream and watermelon- how is that sexpolation?
Thanks for the article. I like to fight by buying from those who are helping to bring people out of exploitation. Some of the people I buy from:
Night Light International (Thailand) online purchasing
FOSIFA – Perth Jewellery parties (Nepal) 0413318881
Trade as One – gifts from many places bought together. Online purchasing
Hi S,
The Jennifer Hawkins images are the type normally found in men’s magazines, in fact FHM featured these images in their magazine after the lovable campaign was launched. Read more here:
http://melindatankardreist.com/2010/09/lovable-irresponsible-recovering-anorexia-sufferer/
I went to buy a T-shirt as a gift for my husband at a major dept store and had to browse through lots of inappropriate girly graphics, especially the Ben Sherman range which I was considering. The one that really made me sad was the one with this delightful message on it: “I’ve kidnapped your girlfriend. I’ll pay you to take her back.” How original. I won’t be buying Ben Sherman any more. I found some cool, edgy graphics in the Bauhaus brand range and that’s what I chose.
Thanks for the list! Especially regards to Links and Dove!
Where can we find out who owns what and which brands are linked?
Another brand i have decided to boycott is Garnier – due to their anorexic models etc
Thanks also to those who sugested the challange for a fair trade christmas.
may we remember whats/whos involved behind CHRISTmas this year
The dreadful irony of Amazon.com digging in their heels and continuing to sell books such as the ones described in the name of “free speech”, while rapidly pulling the plug on WikiLeaks when somebody not a million miles from Washington asked them to, must be lost on nobody.
how about bras and things and their playboy brand – thats just disgusting. I have 4 teen age and preteen daughters – i dont want to have to explain that when we take them shopping!
Thank you for sharing this link! Such fantastic work being done here. I’m now sharing this with my “Beauty Redefined” facebook group. I’ve been doing a lot of research on post-feminism and commodity feminism in popular media and these companies know exactly how to frame a product as “empowering” in an effort to exploit, objectify, and degrade women. Thank you for this work!