You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy!
A billboard sized sex-ad that not only shocks, but infuriates residents in a sleepy Texas suburb.
The billboard sized pickle looks innocuous enough. The cartoonish creature is green and his beady eyes seem confused, like Sarah Palin when asked to point out Afghanistan on a world map. Like the former Gov., the sad pickle opens his toothless mouth as if to moan the phrase; “oh no.”
Oh No is what motorists and residents are saying as they drive by and see that the pickle, is less about being a pickle and more about being a symbol of sexual product promotion.
Beside the confused cucumber, there is a slogan that says STOP VEGETABLE ABUSE!
Stop Vegetable abuse? That’s a strange thing for a pickle to say, don’t you think?If you drove by quickly, or just gave the billboard a “quickie” glance, you’d think it is an ad for the pro-Christian, cartoon franchise known as:
Veggie-Tales.
But the pickle is more than just a vegetable promoting a good clean lifestyle. This pickle with the crazy eyes is apparently hammering home a commercial message sponsored by a Dallas sex emporium.
The billboard is on interstate-35 a few miles south of Dallas.
According to WJZ TV, the CBS affiliate, the billboard was put up by stores that feature adult toys, lingerie and movies.
Apparently the billboard is a continuation of a late night ad that features the pickle, who is looking for a place to hide.
hmmmm, i wonder where he would like to hide? Well in the refrigerator, truth be told.
The ad is clever and well done. It begins with a young woman sleeping. A buldge emerges under the sheet and moves away from the woman, toward the edge of the bed. The frightened pickle, with the crazy eyes is trying to escape. Just as Pickle pokes his head out, the woman stirs and casts a menacing glance toward the foot of the bed. The pickle with the “oh no” expression tucks his head back under the covers till the coast is clear. When the woman goes back to sleep, the pickle makes a break for it, like escape from alcatraz. The pickle hits the floor and then rolls to the kitchen where he forces open the refrigerator door and hides under other food items. Poor pickle! The woman has so traumatized him that he is shaking uncontrollably.
Then comes the graphic: Thousands of cucumbers are assaulted every year.
That’s when the little green pickle transforms into a sleek and menacing vibrator that glistens in the light of sexual obfuscation.
The ad campaign seems to suggest that the woman in bed had been using the cucumber in a special sort of way that could also be considered abusive to vegetables, and make PETA officials wince. Hence the clever billboard hook: STOP VEGETABLE ABUSE!
The commercials run late at night when most youngsters should be sleeping. The ad on the billboard is beside I -35 in Lancaster which is a suburb south of Dallas. The reason the billboard is causing consternation is because it is right in the open for all to see. Daytime, Nighttime, rain or shine, The pickle looks sad and confused by the alleged abuse. Whether you are a burly armed trucker or an old lady driving the church van, the picklewith the “oh no” look is staring right at you. he forces you to confront your beliefs and deal with the advertising slap in the face.
According to televised reports; employees of the stores say they’ve received several complaints since the billboard went up last week.
I would think so.
It’s no secret that controversy sells, and if selling vibrators and other sexual elixers is your purpose, then creating a buzz, literally, is good for business.
I applaud the creative effort and the marketing behind the campaign. What I don’t appreciate, as a dad, is having to tell school age kids what a vibrator is, where it goes, what it is used for, and why the pickle is so sad. The falic symbol claims to be abused.
Abused by what daddy? Abused by whom?
It just forces concepts on me that I would rather choose to bring up when I want to bring them up, not when I happen to be driving the kids home from soccer and we pass by the big, inappropriate billboard.
That’s my problem with this. It’s a random chance encounter with a serious issue that might take more tact and preparation than a drive by allows for. The questions of “what’s that daddy?” from the back seat are like stinging jelly fish tentacles on my bare skin. The billboard might just force me into an awkward discussion with children who might not be age appropriate for such discussions.
So to the sex company’s I say; stop parental abuse and come up with a more appropriate campaign to get people to come into your stores. After all, you are trying to get them to buy a product that hasn’t exactly gone out of style for a couple of hundred years.
I’m sure they will come, no pun intended. But maybe, if you piss me off enough, me and the church lady and the burly armed truck driver will say F-OFF pickle and the horse you rode in on.
I’ll buy my vibrating merchandise off the internet from a company that has no connection to yours.
Remember pickle people; you may own the billboard, but i control the cabbage in my wallet and i decide where it goes.
It’s called economic control and it is something I get to exercise.
And that is crazy.