February 3, 2001

Society for prevention of breast humor

Execs at the über-SUV-maker Land Rover had to pull a print ad in South Africa after the computer-manipulated photo managed to evoke charges of not only racism and sexism, but cultural and environmental insensitivity as well.

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An ELECTRONIC TELEGRAPH (UK) story reports that the ad featured a woman of the Himba tribe, located near the Namibia/Angola border, in traditional dress, which leaves the breasts bare. A Land Rover has just roared past her, causing her breasts to be pulled sideways in its powerful wake — the sideways-breast effect added by computers, of course.

Despite Land Rover’s claim that their focus groups thought it was funny, South Africa’s Advertising Standards Authority sided with women’s and human rights groups that found the ad insulting, along with others who feared the ad would encourage people to go tearing through the remote Himba homeland in their brand-new Land Rovers.

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