CALGARY – A new contest launched by a Calgary radio station has sparked a heated debate.
90.3 Amp Radio in partnership with Desperados is giving away a $10,000 breast augmentation. To enter, women are encouraged to submit a photograph as well as an explanation of why they should win on the station’s website.
The 10 finalists will be chosen in an online vote and the winner will be unveiled during the Calgary Stampede with their “˜new look’.
Critics, including sexuality and pop culture expert Rebecca Sullivan, say the contest is degrading and sexist.
“To have this kind of contest in this day and age really smacks of a kind of pathetic desperation on the part of the radio station looking for cheap publicity and not really having any creative ideas how to get it,” says Sullivan.
The contest launched Monday morning and already one listener has filed a complaint with the Radio Advertising and Broadcast Standards council.
In a letter to the council, Max Orwell writes, “what I am completely shocked by is that this radio station is being so blatantly offensive to women. This is a terrible message to reinforce in men, women and young girls and boys.”
“I doubt very much that a radio ad campaign featuring the online submission, comparison and voting of male genitalia for a contest – with prize being “˜augmentation’ – would be acceptable?
The radio station says the contest is for all types of surgery, including breast reductions.
“This is a voluntary radio contest that we’re running right now as we run many contests throughout the year that are voluntary to enter,” says Kris Mazurak, program director at AMP.
“We’re offering a prize that some women who may want this may not be able to afford and we’re just providing a radio prize to this voluntary contest that if it appeals to them, they will enter it.”
The station says as of Monday afternoon they had already received 20 entries to the contest.
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