A billboard was dismantled for being honest, while a billboard depicting an homage to the design of a woman’s parts (via wood grain and a well placed mango) can still sell Absolut Vodka. The billboard in question is not one of those honest “You can be good without God” style atheist ones that people have been freaking out over all over America, but a consumer watchdog group’s sign about a poor insurance company.
“Truth is more controversial than pornography,” said Harvey Rosenfield, founder of Consumer Watchdog, whose ad was dismantled last week. All the ad said was, “You Can’t Trust Mercury Insurance,” with a referral to Consumer Watchdog’s website, which lays out 10 concerns the organization has with Mercury.
And the other billboard?
“If you drive three to four blocks east of where ours was,” said Rosenfield’s colleague, Jamie Court, “there’s a huge Absolut Mango ad, and it’s really not a mango.”
Court said he was alerted by his wife, who happened upon it while driving and made the following observation:
“There’s a five-story vagina on a building.”
Having visited the location Tuesday afternoon, I’d like to make a clarification.
There’s a 10-story vagina on a building.
The author of this piece, Steve Lopez, wandered over to the non-denominational church nearby and dragged their secretary out to have a look. She wasn’t shocked by the suggestive advertising. “The world’s going to hell in a handbag,” was all she said about it.
Too bad he never thought to ask her what she thought of insurance companies so poor that consumerwatchdog.org feels compelled to rent a billboard just so they can warn people about them, and the fact that billboard had to be removed. I think that says a lot more about the state of the world than artistic mangos do.
Money might buy protection, but it seems like all the money Mercury makes is to protect Mercury Insurance. Or to buy votes, apparently. The FBI looked their way a couple times while investigating political corruption.
People need to do their homework when it comes to insurance. Hell, look into anything that’s meant to save lives or property or money or whatever. And, if you can’t do the homework yourself, at least check if the watchdogs have. They care about getting the right information out to the public. Public safety is their business.
