Virgin Mobile U.S. Ad (Stupidly) Seems to Joke About Rape

Even in the 21st century, in America, where women have made huge achievements and are approaching full equality of opportunity, rights, power and income with men, we still see absolutely STUPID instances of sexism and the hatred of women in advertising.

Virgin Mobile USA was running an ad which seemed to joke about the issue of rape.  Virgin Mobile is owned by Sprint/Nextel.   

Basically, in the ad, a man is considering whether he should buy "chloroform" (a chemical that causes a person to lose his/her consciousness) to use on a woman he knows.  The implication is clearly that by chloroforming this woman, he will be able to rape her easily.

http://now.msn.com/virgin-mobile-us-kills-ad-that-seems-to-condone-rape

1)  Virgin Mobile claims they did not know about this ad.  Do you believe them?

2)  Does seeing an ad like this make you angry?  How angry? 

3)  After seeing an ad like this, how influenced are you to change your judgment of a company?  Would you consider not buying a Virgin Mobile product because of such a terrible ad?  Honestly, why WOULD a woman ever buy a Virgin Mobile product again?  It seems that Sprint/Nextel owns Virgin Mobile.  If you are a woman, would you be inclined to buy a Sprint/Nextel product when they joke about an issue like rape?

4)  Many people immediately went online to protest this ad.  Does this seem to indicate to you that normal people, in general, are fed up with sexism and will not tolerate this type of joke?  Should we be proud of ourselves, so to speak, that ordinary people forced this company to take down this disgusting ad?

5)  Should executives at Virgin Mobile be held accountable (punished) for this attack against women?


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Yes, I'm the guy who caused the "scandal" in Asia two years ago :P http://www.shoutcastblog.com/2010/05/11/wondergirls-were-mistreated-by-jyp-entertainment/

Yes, I'm also the guy who wrote the very funny ESL book: New York City Sucks, But You'll Wanna Live Here Anyway http://www.amazon.com/Sucks-Youll-Wanna-Anyway-ebook/dp/B004TSPAQS