March 06, 2008
Super Power Project Launches!
By
Katherine Dodds
For the past year we've been working with WAVAW (Women Against Violence Against Women) and with teens in Vancouver and Kitamaat Village to explore gender stereotypes and how they can lead to violence. Looking at issues around power (who has it, who doesn't) and how it can be used for good rather than 'mindless aggression' (as our villain Dr. Z would have it!) has been both exciting and challenging. The Vancouver team took a "mythbusters" approach while the Kitamaat team parodied the popular body spray ads, in their version the smell of 'respect' is the mysterious ingredient that makes a guy irrisistable to women!
Check them both out on the HelloCoolWorld channel on YouTube. (Where our Corporation in the Grade 8 Classroom video is also posted).
It is rather timely that our online campaign is launching as WAVAW has been invited to speak to the Standing Committee on Bill C327 -- a bill to amend the Broadcasting Act (reduction of violence in television broadcasts). At the same time there has been a frustrated and lively debate on the DOC listserve (Documentary Organizion of Canada) about another bill, Bill C-10, which could limit tax credits (which the Canadian filmmaking industry relies on to do business) The bill proposed to cancel tax credits for any film or TV program it deems offensive, or not in the 'public's interest'.
All this leads me to weigh in with my own views -- firmly anti-censorship -- and to say that while I abhor real-life violence and sexual exploitation deeply, and although I have personally witnessed the generational havoc that abuse leads to, censoring depictions of sex and violence based on dubious governmental judgements on what 'approriate' means, scares me more than what I do see on TV.
I predict it will lead to narrow minded homophobia, PC programming, and continued sexism masquerading as "appropriate and normal". If tax credits are affected by such measures, it will seriously affect the Candian Film industry. And I belive that the Canadian public actually has a pretty open mind.
As one DOC list-server commented: "Now I understand what is behind this legislation.
The new benchmark for Canadian film & television is that programming must be appropriate to watch with your 8-year old decided from a "selection of people" from across the country (no selection criteria were given here)." She goes on to say: "I have a 6-year old and I hope she grows out of Barbie & princess movies because if that is all I'm allowed to watch by the Canadian government,I think I'll go crazy."
This leads me to my favorite rant: How obscene it is that the 'sugar and spice' stereotypes of normality, never in danger of censorship, just go on, and on, and on.
But I don't want more censorship, I want to see public debate on what really does lead to violence and what can prevent it. Things, I hope, like the online campaign we've just launched. Which is what WAVAW is pushing for, more broadcaster commitment to air alternatives to business as usual. More government support for the creation of alternative messages.Challenge advertisers to make ads that do not promote gender stereotypes and glamourize violence.Support groups with alternative messags.
And maybe our public broadcaster needs to re-think their policy on "advocacy" ads -- I recall my first week as Marketing Manager at Adbusters, (back in the 90's) the battle over CBC Newsworld and Adbusters Greenpeace ad "Autosaurus" was just beginning. An animated dinosaur made of cars, scheduled to run during "Drivers Seat", was censored because an advertiser complained. So CBC made their policiy on "Advocacy Ads" even stricter.
And don't even get me started on the ridiculous double standard that restricts condom advertising on TV in a way that gum ads, perfume ads (ad nauseum) don't have to live up to.
The biggest obscenity of all: that product ads are NOT considered 'advocacy'. Everything we see advocates attitudes. We need to be in the battle, not on the sidelines.
Tag(s):
Aboriginal,
First Nations,
Focus Testing,
Graphic Design,
Hello Cool World,
Marketing,
Sexual Health,
Social Marketing,
Strategy,
Technology,
Teens and Dating,
Video Workshops,
Violence Against Women and Girls,
Youth
Recent Blogs by Katherine Dodds:
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Katherine Dodds AKA "Kat" is the founder of Good Company Communications and HelloCoolWorld.com. Trained in renegade advertising & branding through her work with Adbusters in the '90s, Kat's early induction into the possibilities of the web-world was inspired by the term hypertext, which she immediately found comforting. She is dedicated to cause-related communication and to the development and use of tools that promote democratic processes.
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