When Picasso Paints Inappropriately, We All Suffer.

If you advertise your burlesque show in a church letter, you’re going to take some heat, and heat is in the form of free advertising and angry ladies.  Further, the consequence of misjudging your demographic and marketing in inappropriate locations will lead to trouble in and of itself. It boils down to proper vs improper market research and the art of manipulating it. 

That being said, I feel that the burden is on the venue to sift through which messages will and will not be advertised.  If the church prints the ad, then it is not the burlesque show at fault for the shocked readers.  I don’t believe censorship is the answer. 

Media is already monitored and steered enough, and introducing further restrictions could have unexpected consequences. If we muzzle ourselves with social diplomacy, we won’t be able to speak out for injustice and what we don’t like, because it will all be hidden. I like the idea of living in a free society where we can be offended and use the brain in our heads to say we disagree or don't like a product, rather than dumbing everything down to the grey, whimpering paste that is palatable to all. If we don't get to be offended, we never learn what we want, what we don't want and what we need, and this ties in directly to advertising.

People need to be offended.  

I've dumbed down a WWF ad to make my point by changing the blood to grape purple. Blood is offensive and hard to look at, so it should be censored, right? 

Miss!  Your booze is spilling!

VS 

Miss, you need to know that your souvenirs are supporting poachers.   

Being offended sobers us and forces us to talk about things. We can go back to the vintage ads featuring heavy misogyny and racism and see that it's a snapshot of a culture in need of a makeover.  What if these ads hadn't shocked people? What if nobody ever discussed why it made them uncomfortable because it was't on the surface? What if they were not there for us to look back on as a gauge of how we are doing?

And what’s more? Being offended is fun. People love yelling about what makes them angry, and if you are marketing something, you want people yelling about it. When someone is yelling about something, someone else can’t wait to come along and disagree with them. This will make your message a talking point, and that is full of win for you.  

In other news, remember when Fox News censored a Picasso and it was the funniest damned thing that happened in centuries?

This blog brought to you by:  Questions from my Professor.