Tuesday 31 March 2009

LOL cuz U R bay-beez haz bay-beez!

"becuz the dad’s name on the birth certificate is going to be I live in a house with four guys. It could have been any one of them."
When I first saw this site, words failed me. What is the purpose of whythefuckdoyouhaveakid.com?
Was it created in a moment of spite, a vile opportunity for adolescents to post pix of their peers ? Do these teens loathe and mock other teens for reasons beyond the fact they are kids having kids? Are they using this website to settle a score?
Though it's certainly been demonstrated that the failure of abstinence-only programs in the US was spectacular, it would seem unlikely that advocates for comprehensive Sex-Ed would use this tactic to promote their own programs. Fear and hate-mongering is not known to be an approach they advocate.
There's something deeply nasty and contemptuous, misogynist, classist and racist about this website, in spite of the disclaimer that all photos were obtained from public image hosting. For example, the jeering caption under that photo at the top of the post - does this young woman deserve to be tagged this way? No, she doesn't.
When I started paying attention to the background - generic birth control pills and Durex condoms - something clicked. Of course. The advertising consultants who designed this website are hoping that it goes viral. Because misery, tragedy and mean-spirited laughs are powerful tools for attracting people and selling them your product.
This website is not the new LOL CATZ. It's just a despicable advertising gimmick.

5 comments:

Mike said...

Wow, who ever made that page were scum...

Beijing York said...

Unfuckingbelievable. It certainly plunges advertisers into new depths by playing on kids' most negative behaviour.

Kids can be incredibly cruel and are quick to jump on board a pile on. There have been lots of ugly groups created on social networking sites like MySpace and FaceBook that illustrate this shock value, beehive mentality but it's pretty irresponsible for advertising creative to mine this kind of crap.

deBeauxOs said...

I'd bet if someone posted a pic of a pregnant Bristol Palin on that website, the marketing idjits who set this thing up would remove it. After all, the idea behind the gimmick is to generate a buzz around Durex, not lawsuits.

Dharmaserf said...

You know what, though. I went to that site and found that I actually liked most of the photos. I thought most of them showed happy people making the most of things. Without the disgusting web-context, the photos to me are quite positive in general. The website seems to deconstruct itself.

deBeauxOs said...

I agree. The problem is not located in the photos posted - it's the disparaging, contemptuous captions that have been added, framing the young women and young men pictured in a most negative way.

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