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Anti-drinking ad in Pennsylvania yanked after complaints by rape victims January 6, 2012

Pennsylvania’s Liquor Control Board was under fire for a controversial ad it chose to run linking heavy drinking to rape. The ad, which eventually got yanked, featured an image of a woman’s legs with her underwear pulled down to her ankles as she lay on a bathroom floor. The ad’s writing stated, “She didn’t want to do it, but she couldn’t say no.” Critics complained that the ad suggested that victims were to blame for rape. As one writer for the feminist blog Jezebel.com wrote, “the scenario of ‘drinking causes you and your friends to get raped’ was chosen from a field that included alternate, less dumb scenarios that might actually do something to control negative consequences of intoxication rather than point fingers.” Critics won the debate about the ad’s meaning, especially once many rape victims spoke out against the image.

For more on the controversial ad by PA’s Liquor Control Board, see the following video:

Discussion Questions:

1.  Was the ad offensive? Why, or why not?

2.  What does the ad demonstrate about the risks of advertising strategies intended to shock audiences?