The company that approves the ads you see on the MTA, CBS Outdoors, is okay with peddling 9/11 truther theories, hating Muslims, promoting impossible body standards and touting general sexiness, but it draws an arbitrary line at the suggestion of safe sex. The board has banned the ad, by Dumbo Moving + Storage, for being “too suggestive.”
The ad features a woman, sans pants, embracing a shirtless man in an intimate moment. Boxes are stacked around them. The tagline reads “ALWAYS HAVE PROTECTION.” It’s one of the series of ads in which Dumbo uses intimate moments — a bachelor party, changing a baby’s diaper — in a young couple’s life to send the message that “we have a lot of resources on protection of the items,” according to the company’s CEO Lior Rachmany.
“They weren’t expecting to have such a complex message from a moving company,” Rachmany said to the Observer. But even so, he argues, “this is a great message, even for younger crowds.”
“Sooner or later, if they’re going to be in any kind of act of affection, they should have protection. I know I’m going to teach my kids that. I do not see anything negative about it.” The move is especially hypocritical considering that the MTA board approved an ad for breast implants last year, which consisted only of a close-up of a woman’s cleavage. Unlike that ad, “We’re not encourag[ing] anybody to somehow not be comfortable with their image,” he said.
The two ads that CBS Outdoors approved will still run. As for the sexy one? After making its way through the internet, it may soon be on the streets of New York, anyway, plastered on the side of Dumbo’s moving trucks.
(Image: Dumbo Moving + Storage)
