Swedish transport bosses ban boobs
This news is a few days old but – Swedish transport authority has banned Lindex’s “We love boobs” campaign slogan which can also be found all around Helsinki…
A saucy advertising campaign from Swedish fashion company Lindex has hit the buffers after SL, which manages Stockholm’s transport network, refused to display the posters of women in a new range of bras. But it was not the scantily-clad women which the transport bosses objected to. Instead, it was the slogan: ‘We love boobs!’
“In our judgement the text will upset certain groups in society,” said Maria Adolfsson, press officer at SL, to Dagens Media. “We have said no to the text for roughly the same reason that they want it there – because it is intended to attract attention.”
Puuh…
It seems that the american culture of people’s right “of not to get offended” has landed in Scandinavia aswell.
Comment by Kras — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 1:24 pm
Silly swedes.
Comment by M — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 1:31 pm
well duh its meant to attract attention – is that not the puropse of any ad? lol
Comment by anon — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 1:52 pm
I’m starting to think that “being offended” is a sure sign for lack of intelligence.
Comment by Phil — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 3:38 pm
“I’m starting to think that “being offended†is a sure sign for lack of intelligence.”
Not to mention a lack of a basic education…
So the pic is ok. How about changing the slogan to we like Public Transport.
Comment by Fred Fry — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 3:56 pm
I’d like that ad if it had a “we love asses” ad for men’s underwear to go with it.
Now I think it’s just pointless and a textbook example of the tedious lack of imagination of the advertising industry.
“We love boobs.”
Well, I’ve had them for more than half of my life now so I guess I’m kind of attached to them. Otherwise they’re just…there.
Comment by Anzi — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 3:56 pm
Some ten year ago HKL tried to get us chauvinistic rednecks out of our cars for a change and try the commie public transport. They had a campaign, where rather suggestive blonde urged: “Be unfaithful to your car, use public (Ole uskoton autollesi, käytä yleisiä). In finnish this ‘yleinen’ or public can also be understood as an euphemism for a prostitute. I remember a couple tramdriver ladies coming giggling back from the meeting, where they coined that slogan.
There was a major outrage and a lot of writings to HS letters to the editor. In the end they had to apologize for the campaign.
Comment by antti (the redneck one) — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 4:08 pm
They do love boobs. Without boobs it’s a lot less business for Lindex. Nothing saucy to that slogan… I think this is one of the effects of a greying population. You will probably hear more of that in my comments in future, because yes, I’m afraid of old people! The older they get, the more conservative. Once hippies, now rapdily becoming christain fundamentalist gangs that terrorise shopping malls and libraries and if they’re not yet retired they sit in bodies like the transport authority in Sweden, spreading their old fashioned values. Help!!!
Comment by Majava — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 4:24 pm
“It seems that the american culture of people’s right “of not to get offended†has landed in Scandinavia aswell.”
Noo, it’s just the Swedes being, mmm, well, Swedes!
Comment by Anna-Leena — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 5:11 pm
I think that ad is just lame. When I wait for a bus in -20C I’d rather see something else than half-naked women with some stupid text added to the picture. “We love boobs”? Oh really?
Comment by Ajatar — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 6:04 pm
“It seems that the american culture of people’s right “of not to get offended†has landed in Scandinavia aswell.â€Â
Noo, it’s just the Swedes being, mmm, well, Swedes!
Heh, I was just going to say the same!
Comment by Joonas — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 6:17 pm
“When I wait for a bus in -20C I’d rather see something else than half-naked women with some stupid text added to the picture.”
Knowing Phil’s stance towards gay people (next to commies and anti-semites, well, something negative anyway) I have to prove my heterosexuality here by proclaiming that those half-naked women make me feel warmer and more gay… gay meaning happy here.
Comment by M — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 6:35 pm
I wonder what SL would say about the famous Wonderbra ad with the slogen “Hello Boys” .
Comment by Philip M — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 6:35 pm
i couldn’t give a crap about the lindex ads, but i’d like to go on the record saying boobs are awesome. even more awesome are boobs supported by a good bra. yay boobs!
Comment by jenkki immigrant — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 6:47 pm
I am in Stockholm, and saw this in the press also. The strange thing is, until the other day, the posters were up in tunnelbana stations complete with slogan. The ads were also everywhere else, like bus stops, and also non-SL locations such as on the front of the Metro free newspaper. So, it seems that maybe SL relented, although I never saw anything reported of this…. hmm
Comment by JG — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 6:58 pm
Does ‘rinta’ mean boobs? In Estonia I think they are called “rinnad.”
Comment by giustino — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 7:14 pm
giustino: “rinnad” in Estonian is “rinnat” in Finnish.
Comment by Helsinkian — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 7:17 pm
No Giustino, the are called rinnat, boobs. Rinta means a boob. Either way, I love ‘em.
Comment by Zzz — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 7:22 pm
Were there a full face on that ad it would not be censored, but in torso&lips form I guess it might slightly offend feminists and feminines…
Comment by A Finn — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 7:39 pm
“When I wait for a bus in -20C I’d rather see something else than half-naked women with some stupid text added to the picture.”
Oh, come on. Would anything please you under those circumstances?
Comment by Kimmo W. — Fri, Feb 17th, 2006 @ 5:42 am
“Oh, come on. Would anything please you under those circumstances?”
Yes. A Lindex ad which states that for every two bras bought, you get a big cup of hot cocoa for free.
Comment by Anzi — Fri, Feb 17th, 2006 @ 10:40 am
I agree with Anzi, that we would need pictures of males, as well. If there are to be some ads with erotic connotation (that’s what they have), so then for both sexes.
Comment by Boobs and asses — Fri, Feb 17th, 2006 @ 11:58 pm
Since this site has discussions about the Mohammad cartoons and the Lindex bus stop ad’s, I thought this post might fit in.
I see a connection between the Islamists getting all worked up about pictures of Mohammed and the Swedish Lutherans getting all worked up about Lindex’s “we love boobs†ad. Here it goes.
At first glance neither makes sense. After all, there have been published, respectful, and accepted Islamic pictures of Mohammed and many Lindex bus stop ads of bras. What is so offending about these particular ones?
In short: Mohammed’s person is pictured as impure, and Lindex’s ad with impure words.
If you think about Christianity, one of its core stories is that in Jesus “the word became fleshâ€Â. God, which is a conceptual, abstract, timeless ideal, became a concrete, imperfect, mortal human being. Through this transformation God showed that He has mercy and saves humans from their original sin (of living a bodily, concrete, and imperfect existence), if only humans in turn believe in the ideal God. A model life for a good Christian is to imitate this humble incorporation of impurity.
Most Christian blasphemy accusations that I can recall seem to do more with using offending words and symbols against the ideal of Godly life than with depicting God with impure body. Churches are full of pictures of tormented bodies (mostly of Jesus on cross) so Christianity simply cannot be offended by imperfect bodies.
In Islam, the core story goes in the exact opposite direction: “flesh became wordâ€Â. Mohammad, a human prophet, became associated with the ideal God, became holy, and *wrote* God’s will. The model of a good Muslim is to live imitating this transcendence from the concrete to the ideal. A good Moslem enters the Paradise through deeds, by controlling the bodily temptations, and making sure his body acts in the prescribed, pure manner. The Islamic blasphemy is about associating the ideal God with impure body.
So the Lindex ad is offensive to some people with Christian background not because there are boobs in the picture, but because there are the impure words “we love boobsâ€Â. And the Islamists are offended by the cartoons, not because the cartoon is associating militant Islamists with bombs (which could be considered a respected act of jihad), but because there is a picture of a Mohammad’s body in an impure state.
As for me, I thank all the Gods that there is a blog site that is cool enough to both show the pictures of cartoons and bra ads, and to write about those topics.
Comment by mara — Sat, Feb 18th, 2006 @ 7:05 pm
Thanks mara, not for a long time heard something that wise and “educated” than from you.
Comment by mara is a wise man — Sun, Feb 19th, 2006 @ 12:58 am
o my god! why why do you this?
Comment by joe — Thu, Jan 25th, 2007 @ 5:31 pm
her tits are to small
Comment by joe — Thu, Jan 25th, 2007 @ 5:31 pm
O_o hahhaa… ette te tiiä
Comment by finn — Thu, Apr 19th, 2007 @ 5:47 pm