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File Under Things We Cannot Muster The Will To Get Indignant About: This “With Love, Philadelphia” Billboard

Now, a very Northampton, Mass view to take on this piece of advertising would be to say, “THIS WILL NOT STAND! THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA IS ENCOURAGING MEN TO LEER AT PRETTY WOMEN ON THE STREET! DON’T THEY KNOW THIS IS ONLY CULTURALLY ACCEPTABLE IN ITALY?!” Another way to look at it would be, “Man, they have really run this ‘With Love’ campaign straight into the dirt and more than anything else, I’m just starting to get annoyed by the typeface.” We’ll take the latter, please, but over at philly.ihollaback.org, well, they’ve taken a different approach. (As of this writing, a whopping 73 people agree with them, and GPTMC is exasperatedly “looking into the matter.”) And while we support Hollaback’s general mission — to “end street harassment against women and LGBTQ individuals” — we also think it’s utterly moronic to get upset about this billboard and believe that, in any way, this contributes to a rapey, shitty, sexual culture. Would Hollaback level the same charge at, say, The O’kaysions, whose golden oldie “I’m A Girl Watcher” remains the definitive statement on everything that it means to be a student of physical beauty in the public space? Either way, WE SIDE WITH THOSE GUYS. It’s a beautiful spring day in Philadelphia. There’s beautiful people all over the place. AND WE’LL BE DAMNED IF YOU HUMORLESS TORI AMOS FANS MAKE IT LIKE IT’S A BAD THING TO LOOK AT THEM.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 11th, 2012 at 11:35 am.

  • Guest

    Thank you Philebrity. Imma go look at sum butt. Happy Summer erry body.

  • http://twitter.com/iPhillyChitChat PhillyChitChat.com

    Dear Ladies, Colin Farrell is eating at a.kitchen, outside, as we speak.
    HughE

  • soupy78

    You clearly didn’t read their post.  If you had, you would know that the picture you post above is from a 2010 ad.  The ad that hollback is petitioning is actually one that reads “Dear Walking This Way, I Like the Way You Move It Move It.”

    This is a dumb ad, and not especially threatening, but definitely way worse that encouraging girl watching from the street.

    This week has been full of knee jerks for you.  Maybe you should lay off the “humorless” and go get some sun.

  • philebrity

    No, I think both of these nontroversial ads are completely inoffensive. The whole thing is ridiculous. You’re right, though: Thank God I’m finally poolside. Phew! All this shit looks even more stupid from here.

  • OhNo

    I’m much more offended by al fresco seating in the city than girl watching.

  • Guest

    @philebrity, How dare you say that these ads are “completely inoffensive”? If people are offended, listen to them. I can tell you it’s not just an intellectual exercise; in fact, far from it. People who are creeped out by these ads deal with things like passersby saying vulgar, inappropriate things to them as they walk to work or school, get yelled at when they ignore the harassment, get leered at or grabbed on the subway where they can’t run away. It might not have happened to you, but it happens to *lots of us,* continually.  And ads that validate girl-watching are part of the culture of “just deal with the attention,” “what’s your problem”? It would be nice if people could take this seriously!