I'm going to call this the dumbest ad I've ever seen.

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

http://www.godhaven.org.uk/blogimages/rapead.jpg

So, you can cut your chances of getting raped in half if you're drunk all the time? Why, you'd be a fool NOT to be a chronic lush!

― Oilyrags, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:28 (eighteen years ago)

Women! Know Your Place!

― Noodle Vague, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:30 (eighteen years ago)

Where is that...

"MEN!!! If a woman is X, Y or Z, DO NOT RAPE HER" viral when you need it?

― Masonic Boom, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:37 (eighteen years ago)

WOW.

― Curt1s Stephens, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:39 (eighteen years ago)

This is really horrible. WTF kind of message are they trying to send?

― Curt1s Stephens, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:42 (eighteen years ago)

F!F!S!!!!

― marianna lcl, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:43 (eighteen years ago)

You could just reason, because rapes are often done by people you know:

DO NOT KNOW ANYONE.

― nathalie, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:43 (eighteen years ago)

If you drink, you're asking for it?

― Noodle Vague, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:43 (eighteen years ago)

Well, duh, it's always the victim's fault. *shakes head*

― nathalie, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:44 (eighteen years ago)

sorry, that was an xpost.

There is a nasty, repressive, reactionary tone to lots of these campaigns tho.

― Noodle Vague, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:44 (eighteen years ago)

WTF kind of message are they trying to send?

Just not to, yannow, ask for it.

― kenan, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:44 (eighteen years ago)

Women! Know Your Place!

Ha but seriously there must be many more people in the UK like you and I whose first thought on seeing this is that Harry Enfeld sketch. That can't help, can it?

― DJ Mencap, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:45 (eighteen years ago)

that was an xpost

― kenan, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:45 (eighteen years ago)

Ah here it is, I knew Amp would have it:

A lot has been said about how to prevent rape. Women should learn self-defense. Women should lock themselves in their houses after dark. Women shouldn't have long hair and women shouldn't wear short skirts. Women shouldn't leave drinks unattended. Hell, they shouldn't dare to get drunk at all. Instead of that bullshit, how about:

If a woman is drunk, don't rape her.
If a woman is walking alone at night, don't rape her.
If a woman is drugged and unconscious, don't rape her.
If a woman is wearing a short skirt, don't rape her.
If a woman is jogging in a park at 5 am, don't rape her.
If a woman looks like your ex-girlfriend you're still hung up on, don't rape her.
If a woman is asleep in her bed, don't rape her.
If a woman is asleep in your bed, don't rape her.
If a woman is doing her laundry, don't rape her.
If a woman is in a coma, don't rape her.
If a woman changes her mind in the middle of or about a particular activity, don't rape her.
If a woman has repeatedly refused a certain activity, don't rape her.
If a woman is not yet a woman, but a child, don't rape her.
If your girlfriend or wife is not in the mood, don't rape her.
If your step-daughter is watching TV, don't rape her.
If you break into a house and find a woman there, don't rape her.
If your friend thinks it's okay to rape someone, tell him it's not, and that he's not your friend.
If your "friend" tells you he raped someone, report him to the police.
If your frat-brother or another guy at the party tells you there's an unconscious woman upstairs and it's your turn, don't rape her, call the police and tell the guy he's a rapist.
Tell your sons, god-sons, nephews, grandsons, sons of friends it's not okay to rape someone.
Don't tell your women friends how to be safe and avoid rape.
Don't imply that she could have avoided it if she'd only done/not done x.
Don't imply that it's in any way her fault.
Don't let silence imply agreement when someone tells you he "got some" with the drunk girl.
Don't perpetuate a culture that tells you that you have no control over or responsibility for your actions. You can, too, help yourself.

― Masonic Boom, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:46 (eighteen years ago)

See also: shock horror TV docs/broadsheet stories about Why Oh Why Does Young Women Be Drinking?

― Noodle Vague, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:46 (eighteen years ago)

I understand the offense at the wording of that campaign but having seen many such pushes on the campus where I work, I think the intention is (or should be) more common sense warning: be careful with the binge drinking or anything else that incapcitates you.

Kind of along the lines of teaching women not to leave their drinks unattended in bars/clubs. Certainly walking away from your drink doesn't mean you deserve someone dropping a ruffie in it but making sure you don't walk away from it is good self-defense in avoiding that scenario.

― Ms Misery, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:48 (eighteen years ago)

part of the reason for this is going to be the difficulty of securing convictions when the victim's been k-drunk, but it is still lame.

― That one guy that quit, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:48 (eighteen years ago)

It's sound advice to anybody that getting pissed puts you in danger of all sorts of violence happening to you. In this context tho, the message can't help but be offensive.

― Noodle Vague, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:52 (eighteen years ago)

I think the sexualized imagery of this ad is the most nauseating thing about it. Oh noes crying woman holds crotch with her clothes half off... uh... are they trying to get rapists all hot?

― kenan, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:52 (eighteen years ago)

It is totally stupid. If women 'took heed' of this warning, sure the number of women raped when drunk would go down, but do they honestly think if would have any impact on the number of rapes overall? It would just mean that a higher proportion of rapes would be on women who were sober.

― CraigG, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:54 (eighteen years ago)

well yeah tbh they have got two campaigns horribly confused. from a public health perspective yes people being complete fuckwits about alcohol is a complete waste of resources: dealing with this stuff should be client-side.

― That one guy that quit, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:55 (eighteen years ago)

you tell us, kenan

xpost

― That one guy that quit, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:55 (eighteen years ago)

I don't disagree at all with Sam OR Kate here.

Rapists ARE responisible for their actions, and their actions cannot be excused by the behavior of the victims.

AND

People (not just women) ARE responsible for their own safety and should act with prudence and common sense to avoid being a victim of any crime - not just rape.

But the ad actually makes the opposite argument to the one it's trying to make. The statistic it offers suggests that one is safer when incapacitated by alcohol AND it puts the blame for the crime on the victim. Hence, the dumbest -and most offensive- ad I've ever seen.

― Oilyrags, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:56 (eighteen years ago)

"The statistic it offers suggests that one is safer when incapacitated by alcohol"

to be fair, no it doesn't.

― That one guy that quit, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:57 (eighteen years ago)

AND

― Oilyrags, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:57 (eighteen years ago)

I think, if you're implying "In two of three reported rapes the victim is sober therefore it's safer to be drunk", I think you're misunderstanding statistics a bit Oily.

― Noodle Vague, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:58 (eighteen years ago)

"The statistic it offers suggests that one is safer when incapacitated by alcohol"

If more than 1/3 of the population were always drunk, then it would.

― Curt1s Stephens, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:59 (eighteen years ago)

ONE IN THREE REPORTED RAPES HAPPENS WHEN THE SUBJECT HAS BEEN DRINKING.

one in three is less than two in three.

how am I misinterpreting this?

― Oilyrags, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:59 (eighteen years ago)

Because 1 in 3 people are not drunk right now!!!

― Curt1s Stephens, Friday, 30 March 2007 16:00 (eighteen years ago)

(that was poorly worded sorry)

― Curt1s Stephens, Friday, 30 March 2007 16:00 (eighteen years ago)

I agree Austin, that the ad campaign is dumb as it's not getting any good message across well.

It would just mean that a higher proportion of rapes would be on women who were sober.

Yes, since nothing can stop rape other than rapists no longer raping women.

Again I think the concept of warning young women about how they consume alcohol is a safety issue. Like it was said above if you drink to the point of passing out in strange places the likelihood of a number of horrible things happening to you increases greatly.

a very flawed communciations campaign here.

― Ms Misery, Friday, 30 March 2007 16:01 (eighteen years ago)

Okay, I get Curtis' and Noodles' point now. I still don't think that the way that the ad makes the point that drunkeness is dangerous (which is true, of course) is well phrased.

> Yes, since nothing can stop rape other than rapists no longer raping women.

Men can and are raped, too, but otherwise, yeah - obviously.

> Again I think the concept of warning young women about how they consume alcohol is a safety issue. Like it was said above if you drink to the point of passing out in strange places the likelihood of a number of horrible things happening to you increases greatly.

Absolutely, but it's not neccesary to be passed out in a strange place for booze-impairment to increase your risk. Sexual predators are like other predators - they single out the easiest victims available, not just the easiest victims possible.

― Oilyrags, Friday, 30 March 2007 16:08 (eighteen years ago)

Er - for 'easiest' please substitute 'most helpless.'

― Oilyrags, Friday, 30 March 2007 16:10 (eighteen years ago)

Men can and are raped, too, but otherwise, yeah - obviously.

yes, obv. I was just in the mindset of the sexist stuff we're talking about here.

― Ms Misery, Friday, 30 March 2007 16:17 (eighteen years ago)

If more than 1/3 of the population were always drunk, then it would.

I think this is a fairly safe assumption to make.

― walterkranz, Friday, 30 March 2007 16:59 (eighteen years ago)

The only possible defence of this ad can be if there is a companion ad suggesting that one in three (or whatever percentage) of rapes occurs when the perpetrator has been drinking.

― accentmonkey, Friday, 30 March 2007 17:19 (eighteen years ago)

this whole statistics confusion could've been avoided if the poster said DONT GET DRUNK U GONNA GET RAPED. same message.

― Edward III, Friday, 30 March 2007 17:25 (eighteen years ago)

accentmonkey came here to say exactly what i was going to say.

― the schef (adam schefter ha ha), Friday, 30 March 2007 17:30 (eighteen years ago)

same fucked-up message

― Oilyrags, Friday, 30 March 2007 17:30 (eighteen years ago)

another viewpoint would be the number of 'reported' rapes?

i'm pretty cynical about taking the number of 'reported' rapes as meaning the same thing as the instances of (jesus, for want of a better word) 'proper' rape.

wasn't there a conviction in the uk last year where two totally wasted students had sex, and in the morning he was a 'rapist' and she was a 'victim'? that can't be right.

― darraghmac, Saturday, 31 March 2007 13:54 (eighteen years ago)

So, you can cut your chances of getting raped in half if you're drunk all the time? Why, you'd be a fool NOT to be a chronic lush!

-- Oilyrags, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:28 (Yesterday)

As ridiculous as the ad is, I don't see how a reasonable person could get this idea from the statistic posted.

― Hurting 2, Saturday, 31 March 2007 14:00 (eighteen years ago)

You're suggesting that the number of 'proper' rapes is lower than the number of reported ones? I think you'll find that it's actually a hell of a lot higher.

xpost to darraghmac

― emil.y, Saturday, 31 March 2007 14:06 (eighteen years ago)

I guess other folks sort of covered that though.

― Hurting 2, Saturday, 31 March 2007 14:07 (eighteen years ago)

i guess darramagh may just be a troll but...

"wasn't there a conviction in the uk last year where two totally wasted students had sex, and in the morning he was a 'rapist' and she was a 'victim'? that can't be right."

i think it was more like, she was totally paralytic and he raped her, but there was no conviction because there were no witnesses and she couldn't actually remember anything... something like that. if it's the same case. she collapsed in a corridor in her dorm or something.

― That one guy that quit, Saturday, 31 March 2007 14:13 (eighteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.