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.

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Recent Must Reads

2/2 – Print it and they will kill you

2/1 – Russia frees scores of inmates

1/31 – Genes aren’t colorblind

1/30 – Gay TV shoved back in closet

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.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate