Moreland Graffiti

Someone on my route to work has a thing about sexualised advertising - and don't we all. We either like it (whether we're aware of this or not), or hate it. But few take it upon themselves to fight it, fewer still at a grass roots level.

But there's someone, or perhaps a group of someones, who feel that the road between Pascoe Vale and West Preston should be cleared of all sexist advertising. It first began with a reasonably disgusting David Jones lingerie ad which appeared in a few places on my road home. Eventually, all the ads had to be removed and replaced by pictures of women with more clothes on and in less suggestive poses. Why? Because they were all graffitied over to the point of being unrecogniseable.

So David Jones replaced them. But it wasn't long before those women just had to start shedding layers again. If, the marketing geniuses reasoned, the Moreland public couldn't handle lingerie, perhaps they could handle swimwear? After all, it's the Olympics and all that, Ozzie spirit, Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy, oi oi oi, and so forth.

But the citizens of Moreland said "No." Those ads too were graffitied - most of them, at least, and those left untouched were taken down before the graffiti-vigilantes got to them too.

Today's victims were: a curious ad with a woman wearing a black blouse unbuttoned to reveal her bra, with the caption "Confidence"; and a Bonds undies and singlet ad that was only put up two days ago.

It's refreshing to see that, in a world so immune to such things, someone cares enough to keep sticking it to the man in this way. Only it's a bit of a sad reminder of how little the vast majority of us care.