Since the decline of cinemas, a lot of projectors seem to have found a new calling in life. On Twitter, Laura Dravland a photographer residing in Montreal remarked on the Dominos Pizza box packaging, hashtagging the headline #rapeculture, and the tweet quickly went viral. The line is a twist on the old "X is the new black" cliché, now stating that "No is the new yes". Much like the Bud Light #Upforwhatever line which was accused of rape culture last year, it requires one to read a lot into the line that is not implied in it. If it were, then Nike's classic line "Just do it" is "rape culture" as well.
Her tweet, which currently has 127 hearts and 174 retweets started a chain of heated debate, where people are lobbying insults and insults at each other and Laura is standing her ground.
Dominos Pizza. #rapeculture pic.twitter.com/kfByPiLBe1
— Laura Dravland (@LauraDravland) August 4, 2016
The line "No is the new yes" brings the reader into body copy explaining that artisan pizzas are no substitution or additional topping pizzas, as the chef's have found the perfect topping combinations for you. Now, I'm well aware of advertising and fast food making it all about sex like so many Carl's Jr and McDonald's ads have done, but I sincerely doubt that this was what the copywriter had in mind here. This won't stop the buzz about it, as we all know gender issues is a hot topic right now - see headlines already: "Yikes: Domino's Pizza Ad Says "No Is The New Yes" at XO jane, ‘No Is The New Yes’ Domino’s Pizza Ad Offends Some With Apparent Rape Innuendo at HuffPo and Bain Capital-owned Domino’s Pizza makes a hah-hah rape joke with its new “NO IS THE NEW YES” campaign at Eclectablog. The photo of the pizza box originally appeared at Shakesville under the headline: "Today in Rape Culture". To quote Eclectablog:
Apparently Domino’s, currently owned by Bain Capital and owned founded by the very conservative Tom Monaghan, founder of the far-right Thomas More Law Center and other Catholic organizations aimed at promoting his religious views throughout society, doesn’t have any women on their marketing team. This new campaign is clearly a mash-up of “_______ is the new black” and “No means no”.
The latter references unwanted sexual advances made on women.
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When mashups go frankenstein. It's like someone ordered an ad with everything on it and, god, I really hate anchovies, it's just not working for me.
I get why you're telling me "no, you can't have that extra cheese and pineapple, heathen" but, where does the "yes" come in again? Who's saying yes to what?
Aside from that, intended or not, where was the responsible adult in the uncomfortable outfit going, "you know, there are connotations here...let's not touch this one given the current climate. Because Twitter."
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PermalinkExactly, Tlevitz. Brands like people are now afraid to make one wrong move because of a horde of anonymous or semi anonymous people. Sorry, did I say horde? That's not really accurate. According to Forbes, more Android users are playing Pokémon Go than they are using Twitter. Hopefully with enough time, we can finally end #OutrageCulture
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PermalinkWhen I saw this headline the first thing that came to my mind is Orange Is The New Black. I did not think about rape. Because I don't associate rape with pizza. Your ending paragraph alone does so much conspiracy theory dot connecting it makes a survivalist seem like an every day Joe.
Every news outlet from Time to U.S. News And World Report to intellectual and iconic female feminists are debunking rape culture as being this pervasive thing in society. Even the department of justice has debunked statistics such as one in four women will be raped on college campuses as being a wildly inaccurate number, that came from a wildly inaccurate study that actually undermines the very real work we need to do to educate people about the issue.
To recap: Mainstream journalists, academic feminists, and the government has throwing "rape culture" out the door. And anyone with a clear head would reasonably assume brands are in the market of selling as many goods and services possible and not offending their clientele. But someone on Twitter used a hashtag and someone from an outrage clickbait magazine needs to sell some more ad space, so therefore it must be true.
Today's progressive feminists now think feminists like Camille Paglia, who literally paved the way for them, is as bad as old Clint Eastwood because she and her ilk aren't using outrage as a communication tool, and are telling people to calm down because this bullshit is undermining real women's rights issues. But peoples' ageism is only matched by their self-loathing and unwillingness to learn.
But whatever. The sides have already been chosen. The teams are already divvied up by virtue signalling, not facts. Lines have been drawn. And no one will listen to a dissenting opinion.
Now excuse me. I'm going to have some pizza. Fuck you if you're triggered by it.
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PermalinkAs always, Tlevitz is spot on. Anchovies do not work for me either. And pineapples is for heathens! The old writing switcheroo is often lazy and here the thought doesn't connect the dots as much as the writer may have hoped - "No" is the new "yes" - doesn't quite communicate "you are not allowed to switch toppings: NO" in a simple manner. As much as we would like them to, we still have to remember that nobody reads body copy.
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