10.04.2012

I Was Horribly, Horribly Wrong

Last year I wrote a post about a truly awful eyesore of a "breast cancer awareness" (take a shot) vendor with shirts like "I [heart] motorboating" and "Nice Jugs!" and "Boobies Rock!", about how shitty it is to peddle a movement about CANCER as being about the sexayness of the potentially-cancerous body part in a way that completely dehumanizes and erases the PERSON suffering from the deadly disease.

I thought, after that kiosk and those shirts, that the "LOL BOOBIEZ" model of breast cancer "awareness" (take a shot) could sink no lower.

A screencap of PornHub, a site that does what it says on the tin,  titled "Help Pornhub support breast cancer research simply by watching videos!" and going on to explain that because "We all love boobs" they'll donate 1 cent for every 30 videos viewed from their "big-tit" and "small-tit" categories to an unspecified breast cancer research charity.  So that "While you're enjoying the boobs, you'll also be helping to Save the Boobs!"
I have never been so wrong in my life.

6 comments:

MelissaRel said...

Wooooow.

Oh, 1 cent per 30 videos? That's about the least generous thing I've ever heard...

CaitieCat said...

I'm surprised they didn't call it "wanking for boobies!" or something.

Jadelyn said...

It sounds that way, but at the same time, consider how many hits a site like pornhub gets in a month.  The hits counter in this screenshot calculates out to about $3,000, and we're still in the first week of the month.

Which does not in any way absolve the total shittiness of this whole stunt, considering that they also don't specify who the money is going to and to quote a tumblrfriend, I'd side-eye the shit out of any org that took a publicity stunt donation from pornhub.  But it may not be quite as paltry as it seems.

Jadelyn said...

There's always next year.

xuinkrbin said...

Somehow, the alternative of "doing nothing" does not sound any better to Me. While One could argue Pornhub could have done something different, We are talking about a site called "PORNhub" donating funds for *breast* cancer awareness. Doing something significantly different does not necessarily make sense. I am actually more upset when an organization says, "For every X of Our Y sold, We will donate Z dollars, *up*to*ABC*dollars*maximum*." (Yeah, I'm talking to You, yogurt companies.) This move by Pornhub seems to set no limit on the amount of the donation.

Jadelyn said...

While not having a donation cap (and I suspect if you sought out the fine print and read it, there might be one in there anyway, as that's how most companies do it) makes it less worse in that aspect than the usual consumerism-activism stunts, it's still not a good idea.  The choices weren't "gross stunt objectifying women's body parts" or "do nothing".  If they wanted to just make a donation?  They could do that.  *Without* pushing tit videos.  

So they're a porn site.  So what?  That doesn't buy them a free pass for this shit.  All it means is that this makes an awful sort of sense within their context.  It doesn't mean it's a good campaign though.The way they're presenting this is the Save The Titties attitude cranked up to 11, sexualizing CANCER and CANCER PATIENTS in a gross, objectifying way.  I'm never, ever going to be convinced that a shitty way of "helping" outweighs doing nothing.  I don't believe that the long-term social-attitude type of damage a campaign like this does, is worth some monetary compensation to the cause.  

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