mightaswell.

Because pot noodles aren’t already disgusting enough, they have now come up with the genius ad campaign with the slogan “Peel the top off a hottie”, complete with pot noodle lid boobs. I was greeted by this display (alternative title: “sexual harassment is HOT”) at Piccadilly Gardens where  several women (presumably the “hotties”) were handing out free pot noodle samples. Turns out this is the current Pot Noodle advertising campaign, which is also paraded round their Facebook page.

In addition to filing a complaint with the Advertising Standard Authority (breach of item 4.1 – offence on grounds of gender – and 4.4 – condoning violent behaviour – of the Advertising Code, or CAP code), I also emailed Manchester City Council and asked them to enforce stricter rules for promotional stalls in public spaces. Given that the ASA recently ruled that one of the “Pussy drink” ads was in breach of the CAP Code, I very much hope that this one gets banned, too. We really don’t need any more objectification of women (“a hottie”), incitement of non-consensual sexual activities, and reinforcement of “lad culture”. Especially not from a bloody pot noodle.

UPDATE (16/05/2013)

I just received an email from Councillors Suzanne Richards and Rosa Battle who kindly looked into this. It seems the advertiser didn’t provide enough information about the stall for anyone to flag this as an issue (if I were trying to promote a product using this kind of imagery I’d probably keep it quiet as well…), but they stated

“I think we are all in agreement that this type of  material is unacceptable and should not be promoted in our City.”

and are planning to do “more stringent checks” in the future. Awesome. I really appreciate the council’s quick reply and their clear position on this kind of advertising. Now waiting for further information from the ASA…

Does anyone remember b3ta.com? I mean, it still exists, bit I just assume that, like myself, most people must have stopped hanging out there to make way for a new generation of kids who were into photoshopping puns and making Buffy swear. Oh man. I miss the noughties.

AnywhatdidIwanttosayagainway, b3ta.com once had a photoshopping misheard lyrics contest and one of the entries that really stuck with me (along with the aforementioned Buffy swear keyboard which taught me the correct – albeit Southern – pronunciation of the word cunt, the zebras in Kenya song, and badger badger badger badger mushroom mushroom… Oh man, I MISS the noughties) was an animation of the famous Beatles lyrics

“She’s got a chicken to ride, she’s got a chicken to ri-hi-hide, she’s got a chicken to ride, but she donkey”

Next thing I remember is going on a trip to Debdale Park and the nearby donkey sanctuary, cycling down the Fallowfield Loop (we all agreed on calling it the floop right?) and singing this song. The donkey sanctuary is located close to the reservoir and Debdale Park where we happened to gatecrash some local parade (that for some reason reminded me of The Prisoner). It currently houses around 20 or so rescue-donkeys (there’s a list with photos and names of all donkeys along a wall inside) and a couple of rabbits. If you ask nicely (or if you’re a kid) the volunteers even bring out a donkey for close up donkey viewing and maybe even a donkey nose rub. So you’ve got water at the reservoir, donkey noses, and dozens of blackberry bushes on the sides of the floop, which results in a pretty good day out. Go!Kids and donkeys welcome.

I’ve moved this post to my other blog, as it didn’t quite fit in here.