TORONTO – A new, taxpayer funded campaign in Tennessee is warning of the dangers of impaired driving in the form of coasters, signs above urinals in bars, and flyers.
Sounds good, right? There’s just one problem – the campaign is built around slogans that some say are offensive to women.
Here’s one example: “Buy a drink for a marginally good looking girl only to find out she’s chatty, clingy, and your boss’s daughter,” the campaign reads.
“If this sounds like something you would do, your judgment is impaired and so is your driving.”
Another slogan reads: “After a few drinks the girls look hotter and the music sounds better. Just remember if your judgment is impaired so is your driving.”
“I think it’s wildly inappropriate,” Tiffany Cannon, a server at Nashville watering hole Charlie Bob’s, told WSMV News. “It was just putting men and women down.”
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In a strong indication that the campaign was ill-conceived, anger is coming in from both sides of the political spectrum. Maybe? I don’t know, your sentence works but this might work better. “Anger has erupted from both sides of the political spectrum; a strong indication that the campaign was ill-conceived.”
“Quite frankly, I was furious,” State Representative John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, said. “It’s inexcusable, it’s inappropriate and it’s offensive.”
“In general, I’m very much against bureaucrats spending money to wave their bony little finger at us self-righteously and tell us how to live our lives,” said Ben Cunningham, a tax advocate with Tennessee Tax Revolt.
Alcohol consumption has been shown to affect the parts of our brain that control decision-making and rationality, while leaving the parts which control sexual desire relatively intact – a phenomenon commonly and colloquially known as “beer goggles”.
But a study from Dr Amanda Ellison, a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Durham University, has found the phenomenon effects men and women equally.
Therefore, a more gender-equal campaign may have focused on “marginally attractive human beings”, though critics say any anti-impaired driving campaign should avoid altogether the issue of objectifying both men and women based on their looks.
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The Governor’s Highway Safety Office is behind the campaign, which cost taxpayers in the state about $77,000 dollars according to multiple reports.
They’ve suspended the campaign in the wake of the backlash and are promising to remove all offensive material distributed so far.
“The Governor’s Highway Safety Office would like to apologize for any offense caused by the 100 Days of Summer Heat Booze It and Lose It Campaign,” the office said in a press release announcing the halt of the campaign.
“Because one of the goals of many Booze It and Lose It campaigns is to reach our high risk driving population, the marketing is often edgy and designed to grab the attention of the young male demographic. It was never the intent of the GHSO to be insensitive or insulting to women.”
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