You’ve followed the teasers from the front page, and theywere right. This is likely the most sensational editorialyou’ll read in The Daily Campus this year.
But now that we’ve got you here, let’s take a momentto discuss the moral failures of sensationalism in the media andwhy it is readers like you, who encourage the problem.
OK, we’ll spare you the debate, but hopefully we’vemade a point.
Bait-and-switch advertising, like the teasers on our front pageto an editorial about media sensationalism, is not an effective wayto advertise moral judgments.
This is precisely the technique used by Campus Crusade forChrist to advertise their lecture “The Power ofPorn.”
We applaud Campus Crusade for hosting what may possibly be adebate on the social ills of pornography, rather than purelyreligious ones.
(Especially, when in the past, religious groups on campus haveused sexy topics such as the occult and pornography to lurenon-religious members and their advertising campaign underminestheir message.)
You may have noticed the posters plastered across campusfeaturing a bikini-clad woman with a suggestive look in her eyeadvertising the lecture.
There’s nothing really shocking about the picture itself.It looks like it could have been ripped from any number ofmen’s magazines. But what you may not have noticed was asmall message at the bottom of the ad: “Sponsored by CampusCrusade for Christ.”
As advertising, the posters have done their job. They drawpeople in and the campus has been talking about them all week.
If Campus Crusade were selling copies of Hustler, the campaignwould have been a success. But advertising should be held to ahigher standard when it’s being used to make a moralargument.
Drawing attention to an ethical argument by using that which isbeing judged deviant is a hypocritical way of creating a buzz.
There is something questionable about using titillating imagesin your advertising to grab people’s attention and thenlecture them on the social ills of pornography.
It’s easy to shrug the posters off as just ads claimingthat it’s the message of the lecture that counts.
But bringing an end to lustful and objectifying images of womenin our society begins with advertising.
