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Aha! The Sun has some feedback from a number of organizations about the Manhattan Mini Storage billboard that proclaims "Your closet space is shrinking as fast as her right to choose" with a big hanger in the image. The ad, which on the storage company's West Side highway space, has been generating much controversy.
Naturally, the Catholic League for Religious and Ciivl Rights is outraged: William Donohue told the Sun it was "insulting and highly offensive." And Morality in Media's president wonders why Manhattan Mini Storage would repel potential customers with conservative values.
On the other side, Planned Parenthood of NYC says, "We think it's fabulous. We salute Manhattan Mini Storage for helping to make New Yorkers as aware as we are of the growing restrictions on reproductive freedom in this country." And a NARAL spokesperson says it's great for the company to wear "its pro-choice values on its sleeve — or on its building."
One marketing executive thinks it may too divisive, but an NYU professor thinks it does its job in getting people's attention. But what do you think?
Manhattan Mini Storage advertising has a history of tweaking Bush/Republican politics; for instance, the "Your closet's so narrow it makes Cheney look liberal" poster.
Image from subwayfox.net
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the biggest offense is that it's just a bad. they're taking a page from the kenneth cole school of advertising and trying way too hard to be edgy.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH, MUTHA FUCKERS!
Way to go, Manhattan Mini Storage. Maybe the answer to Morality in Media's president's question is that Manhattan Mini Storage cares about real issues in addition to making money. Huh. Revolutionary idea.
I think the ad is pretty damn funny.
And Morality in Media's president wonders why Manhattan Mini Storage would repel potential customers with conservative values.
How many customers with conservative values actually live in Manhattan and would be offended by this?
The most offensive thing about the ad is that it's true.
abortions by hanger = always funny.
The most offensive thing about the ad is that it's true.
Please elaborate.
I agree with #5. And being outspoken and unapologetic used to be an American way of life.
If you agree with #5 then you have little understanding of the law.
Catholic League for Religious and Ciivl Rights along with the Morality in Media are two groups who want to censor anything they don't agree with and are always looking to find new reasons to air their radical views. Where is the morality of censorship? And didn't Jesus piss people off?
Any publicity is good publicity, especially free publicity, or so I'm told...
In the past I thought the politically-oriented ads kind of sucked up to smug New Yorkers. I saw this one while driving on the West Side Highway and did indeed think it went too far. Again, it's smug. It doesn't seem accurate (in the last few years we NYkers gained the non-prescription morning-after pill and, as far as I can remember, lost nothing.) And the coat hanger is an inflammatory image.
The "controversy" is stupid (it was Ch 11's lead story last night!), and I'm not gonna boycott Manhattan Mini Storage over it, but jeez, guys, it's time to tweak that marketing department.
I love Manhattan Mini Storage's progressive ad campaigns. They're funny and topical.
#9 are you aware that the Supreme Court recently (April 2007) upheld a nationwide ban on partial birth abortion. Perhaps you are against abortion, but you should realize that those are not are aware that these rights are in serious jeopardy.
Agreed with #1. The most offensive thing about this whole ad campaign is that it's just lame. The link to Copyranter's blog on the Dick Cheney ad, while a little rough around the edges, pretty much illustrates the kind of confusion this campaign is responsible for.
The thing I don't get about these ads: how pathetically patronizing to assume that a potential customer, presuming they're of the same political stripe, can be bought off with cheap (and unfunny) political sloganeering. That is, even presuming you did care deeply about and support a woman's right to choose, would you see this ad and think, "These are just my type of storage purveyors, get thyself to the nearest Manhattan Mini-Storage with due haste!"? Or would you have the sensible reaction and say, "Why are these idiots trying to appeal to my political sympathies for their monetary gain... screw them!"?
I'm not a NARAL member and I'm just waiting patiently for Dick Cheney to go away, so I don't find myself as the target audience of these ads, but I find they insult my intelligence.
that should be, "those who are not"
Actually if more people just threw out all that crap they insist on saving Manhattan Storage and all their crappy buildings would just go away. Can't they move them to Williamsburg or some other out of the way horrible place?
hey, #14: guess what? this fall i know we'll be needing storage. i'll go out of my way to give these guys my money.
this is a big issue. and i like that someone is going to take a stand. hell even if i disagreed with them i'd still be thrilled that someone was taking a stand.
Yes, Monster Mash, you said it much better than I did.
(And yes, OK, partial-birth abortions, a procedure that is almost never performed, and yes, we don't know that the new Supreme Ct. is going to do. I'm still not into the hysteria.)
That's probably the best ad I've ever seen.
You guys do realize that Roe v. Wade makes abortion legal only in that it makes banning it illegal? What that means is that if Roe v. Wade were overturned abortion would remain legal unless a state legislature banned it. And that isn't going to happen anywhere but Dakotas.
Roe v. Wade is a lousy decision from a legal perspective. The court invented a right rather than leave it to the legislative process as was already happening in more progressive states in the 1960s and 1970s. Had the court let the other states come around legislatively there would not be such violent opposition for the last 30 years.
I don't think it's about censorship, but rather an utterly tasteless attempt to link a serious issue with their product. It's not "cutting edge" advertising, it's just a really cheap attention getting stunt. In that regard, it's a success.
I don't use self storage, but I'd personally think twice about using a company that uses such a serious national issue as a means to get attention to their product.
Also, for those screaming "Censorship", the people objecting to it are simply exercising their 1st Amendment right...
i'm all for anything that gets the catholic league upset, but what's really sad is that it seems we have to rely on advertisers to make our political statements. well, i guess we were already getting our music from starbucks, anyway.
Thanks for your perspective, #17. I guess that answers my question for your part. Given Planned Parenthoods' and NARAL's statements, I should have assumed that there were like-minded folks like yourself in the storage-space consuming public.
But, for myself, I'm heartened by the reactions of bklynd and S.D., who appear to take this issue seriously but also don't appreciate a company's taking advantage of it for their monetary gain. If Manhattan Mini cared so deeply about this issue, they'd not cheapen it with this campaign. Instead they might give some of their corporate profits to a media campaign or organization that represents its views capably without cheapening the issue.
9, 18, 20.. you should all realize that Roe v. Wade is not the latest/ultimate word from the Supreme Court on abortion. Planned Parenthood v. Casey upheld the right to choose, but allowed for restrictions. South Dakota passed a law in March 2006 banning abortions, with the intent of pursuing a lawsuit to bring to the Supreme Court in an attempt to overturn abortion rights. The facts behind the billboard are correct, rights are being limited.
The ad is great, provocative and memorable. Two qualities that advertisers value in an ad campaign. Look at it from the marketer's point of view. Selling storage space is not a sexy product or service (ehhem, iPhone); it will not sell itself. So to be provocative and memorable is spot on. And please don't turn this into a morality debate because Manhattan Mini Storage has poked fun at women with big asses and the Jersey suburbs in previous campaigns.
i'm pro-choice but i think the ad is repulsive. we all know what the hanger implies and there fore it's just gross and vile. should is still be allowed? i think so. but i just find it gross even though i'm pro-choice. also, people should stop praising madison ave ad people. there is nothing commendable or creative about shocking people in this way and the ad world in general is a horrible manipulative entity that's a main catalyst in the vaporization of our culture.
Actually #12, Pakaki VETOED non-prescription Plan B in 2005, and the only reason it can be bought without a prescription here is because the FDA made a compromise to prohibit under 18's from buying it last August. If anyone has ANY knowledge of the law, they know that any woman's or couple's right to plan, space, prevent, or end pregnancy is shrinking, and fast.
And why would anyone be offended by this ad? If you are against abortion, the objective fact of it should make you full of smug, self-satisfactory joy.
Freedom of Speech, yes. Good taste, and the ever expanding lack of moral values in this country is disgusting. The same people that say freedom of speech applies to abortion "rights", or defaming a statue of Jesus, are also the same people who condemn freedom of speech of anti-jihadists, or gay (black, PR, etc...)jokes (while rappers sing about killing cops and beating bitches.) Is not a child saying a prayer in class freedom of speech? For them it's all about political correctness as opposed to being for the US Constitution. The ACLU will support them, but where is the ACLU when a muslim calls a jew a pig, or calls on the destruction of the American people. Is that not hate mongering, and threatening your civil liberties. To me, the left liberal is much more narrow minded than Dick Cheney (his daughter, who ran his campaign, is gay...pretty open minded.)
Great, provocative and memorable... from a marketer's perspective. Exactly. Not from a perspective that takes the issue seriously enough to not take advantage of it.
The problem is that Manhattan Mini, by taking up an issue that is morally fraught, made it a morality debate. Manhattan Mini should stick to poking fun at women with big asses and the Jersey suburbs. Both are funnier than appealing to abortion hysteria with a coat hanger to sell storage space.
#24 and #27, some people might say that under-18s don't have a right to unrestricted abortion. Minors have virtually no other rights so it is hard to believe that Roe was meant to apply to minors. Some might therefor argue that Casey, in allowing restrictions on minors, does not violate anyone's "rights".
As for South Dakota, that's the sort of backlash you get when the Supreme Court completely usurped the states' legislative process in Roe.
I like it because it pisses off the radical, conservative jerkoffs. Manhattan Mini, you'll get my business if I'm ever in need of storage. Cheers!
To me, the left liberal is much more narrow minded than Dick Cheney (his daughter, who ran his campaign, is gay...pretty open minded.)
This is very true. While the left screams at the right for wanting everyone to be decent Christians, they have no problem with forcing their beliefs on everyone else.
Then, if people diasgree with their beliefs, they just call them some name like "bigot", "fascist", or some other fancy term that means "you don't think exactly like I do."
I like it. The phrase is clever and accurate. The right to choose [i]is[/i] shrinking. And what other image would they have to go with it but a hanger? People find it offensive because they don't want to admit that bans on abortion will not stop abortion, but will inevitably lead to back-alley abortions. Women's reproductive rights are being eroded away by the religious right who have been given too much power in this country.
Their ads have often made me laugh out loud. This one is more food for thought. The company could also say that a hanger is perfectly appropriate symbol for a place where people store clothing!!
TKaisen and #28 are full of it. First thing, a billboard on the west side highway isn't "forcing" beliefs on anyone. It's just a billboard! The funny thing is I'm not even really liberal, I just hate people who object to things like this. What harm does it do? It's free speech, it's not like it's scaring any children...what's the problem? Manhattan Mini Storage can hang pretty much whatever they want on the side of their own place.
Since when does anyone call someone a "bigot" for disagreeing with their beliefs? Is your belief that you hate people for their sexual orientation or the color of their skin? Then you ARE a bigot! That's not a "belief," it's a fact. Do you know the difference?
Freedom of speech bites both ways. I love it.
NO MORE WIRE HANGERS!
The company could also say that a hanger is perfectly appropriate symbol for a place where people store clothing!!
Exactly.
"Her right to choose..." where to keep clothing in a closet with dwindling space? That's why it's brilliant - who says it has ANYTHING to do with abortion? Methinks the squeaky wheels at the Cathoic League needs some greasing.
it's clearly totally not "brilliant"; my opinion of any person who responds to these hot-button issue self-storage ads with anything but derision, whether they agree with the cartoonishly unsophisticated manhattan limousine liberal political attitudes they express or not, diminishes quite a bit. i, of course, since i read this blog, am pro choice, but i happen to know enough about the law to at least kind of agree with the commenter who's arguing that roe was in a way bad precedent -- both formally and for pragmatic reasons. it fueled the growing influence of the religious right/christian conservative movement for decades and precipitating all sorts of bad consequences thereby, from the failure of the ERA to every incredibly disastrous policy put in place by the current Bush presidency. a better ploy for Manhattan Mini Storage to consider, maybe even more so now that they're getting this attention for these ads that have been up for a while, is to donate all the ad space they've got on the sides of their windowless storage spaces to these sorts of liberal good causes, free of charge, and without the awkward and unfunny tie-ins to their actual business. these kind of laughably bad pun-like jokes made in support of liberal causes provide excellent fodder for rush limbaugh.
If they already have to pollute public space, ads that can provoke a debate are more welcome than the usual you-get-laid-if-you-use-our-product.
This approach was pioneered by Toscani in his campaign for Benetton a couple of decades ago. I guess it never caught up in the States because companies here are more reluctant to offend anybody. Maybe that's why the mainstream is more powerful here than in most other countries.
In any case, there is nothing controversial about the ad; it only states the truth. I can't see why conservatives would be offended, since this is precisely what they are fighting for.
On another note, I used Manhattan Mini a few years ago when I ended up in between apartments, and they were great. Expensive as hell, but I guess that's their perogative. Everyone I dealt with was very helpful.
Bill Donohue is a drunk. He should stop having his bartender write his press releases.
it's interesting to me that no one has mentioned the pro-life billboard on Hwy 1/9 in Jersey between the airport and the Pulaski Skyway.
that ad is highly offensive yet doesn't enter into this conversation.
has anyone seen it?
also, it seems that some of you are more offended by being confronted with politics in an advertisement than you are at the ad itself. it seems that you're afraid to fight for your beliefs, except of course, for the belief that you're free to believe anything you want.
get off the fence. if you believe it, support it. complacency is what's wrong with this country, not advertisers.
if you're pro-choice, the ad shouldn't bother you.
NYC has a law prohibiting billboards within 900 feet of any park or parkway. Why isn't it ever enforced?? Manhattan Storage, Di-Tech.com,Kenneth Lane, Fairway -- I hate them all for making the Hudson River parks look like an expressway. Who's getting paid off?
Content is not the issue.
"People find it offensive because they don't want to admit that bans on abortion will not stop abortion, but will inevitably lead to back-alley abortions."
No, just people going to places where abortions are available-like Massachusetts or Canada.
"Women's reproductive rights are being eroded away by the religious right "
No they aren't-but it's nice that you buy into that propaganda-I hope you donate lots of $.
"who have been given too much power in this country. "
No-wrong again.
Wow, #44, your arguements are so convincing.
NOT.
Could someone give one piece of evidence that rights are eroding? South Dakota is a piss poor example since the state has fewer than a million people and one or two abortion clinics in the entire state. Is their ban fair to women? No. But let's not go overboard in the rhetoric.
An upholding of the SD law and an overturn of Roe would be the ultimate death of the Republican Party because any state legislature that passed a like bill and the governor that signed it would be committing political suicide. Whether you lefties want to admit it or not the bulk of the country want legal abortion but with limits.
46, how about the ever-increasing number of laws regarding how many steps a woman must go through in order to actually get an abortion? Mandatory waiting periods, mandatory biased counseling, and others. How about the enormous number of states with laws on the books that would outlaw abortions as early as 12 weeks--and a few that are even more restrictive--in anticipation of Roe v. Wade being overturned? How about all the states that simply have no access to abortion? How about the states with laws prohibiting private, state, and federal insurance plans from covering abortions? How about the states that allow pharmacists to refuse to distribute prescribed birth control?
I don't really give a damn what the bulk of the country wants me to do with my body. It's not theirs; it's mine.
I, for one, fucking adore this advertisement.
I suppose the Catholic League would prefer some oiled, photoshopped, half-naked, suggestively posed people in this advertisement.
dev,
I may be one of those earlier commenters that you feel "are more offended by being confronted with politics in an advertisement than you are at the ad itself".
My comments had nothing to do with whether I was afraid to fight for my beliefs. I just happen to think appealing to people's vanity about their political beliefs is a pathetic and cheap way to sell storage space that degrades the public discourse about the issue.
As some of the comments on this post have shown, abortion is a complex, morally fraught issue that deserves serious discussion in our politics and culture. My distaste for the ad has nothing to do with the substantive content, which I think is nothing more than a ridiculous caricature of the pro-choice position that is being used to sell storage space. That aspect bothers me very much.
The wire hanger has a symbol of the suppression of a woman's right to have an abortion. I read about some objector saying, "How would they feel if we put a picture of a bloody aborted baby and said this is what a botched abortion looks like..."?
It's not the same thing.
An equivalent symbol on the anti-abortion side might be something like, I don't know, a tear? A tear of grief? A bomb? (like the one thrown at an abortion clinic?)
I'm happy about that ad. It's the only one of the whole series of stupid ads that actually says anything at all.
The wire hanger has been a symbol of the suppression of a woman's right to have an abortion. I read about some objector saying, "How would they feel if we put a picture of a bloody aborted baby and said this is what a botched abortion looks like..."?
It's not the same thing.
An equivalent symbol on the anti-abortion side might be something like, I don't know, a tear? A tear of grief? A bomb? (like the one thrown at an abortion clinic?)
I'm happy about that ad. It's the only one of the whole series of stupid ads that actually says anything at all.
Advertisers use/abuse what they believe will draw as much attention to their service/product/business/client as possible. Sex, religion, politics, group-think, slander, buzz words, pop culture references, famous people, etc. This time they chose abortion. I couldn't care any less. At first read I thought it was funny, on further review I thought it was interesting, and now I just think it was intelligent on the part of the advertiser who put the storage-hanger-hanger-abortion connection together. Soon enough the ad will probably be changed and nobody will give a damn.... unless the following ad is equally as well made.
I have to admit, I'd rather have an ad that gets people talking about a serious issue, than the more common 'buy our stuff and have great sex' variety.
I also have to say that, while I don't like abortions, I'm old enough to remember the coat-hanger and knitting-needle days, and kids, let me tell you, there was nothing good about them. Nobody is going to force you to have an abortion if you don't want to; but the argument that if you do, you can go to some state where it's legal doesn't work very well. Those most likely to need to do that are least likely to have the money to make the trip.
If a business wants to incorporate their politics into their advertising, go for it. At least it's more up-front than funneling the money through lobbyists!