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Famous Cases

Boston Controversy

There was an incident in Boston, MA. Plastered on the side of 220 city buses, was Carrie Bradshaw. That’s right, Sarah Jessica Parker (or SJP as she has become known) from Sex and the City. Next to her laying down in a slinky hot pink dress, read the words, “Sex every night at 11 pm on WB56.” Upon seeing these ads, the Reverend Bruce Wall approached the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) and WB56 and asked that the ads be removed immediately. According to Wall in his letter to the MBTA, “We are trying to prevent teenage pregnancy and your buses are communicating a message that we should have sex every night.” In response, WB spokeswoman Kristen Holgerson said that the station was indeed not trying to promote local youth to have sex every night - the name of the show just so happens to have the word sex in it. Regardless, the ads were removed or changed to say the full name of the show, “Sex and the City every night at 11 pm on WB56” (Beggy & Shanahan, 2005).

Los Angeles Controversy

Similarly, in the same month, Paramount Pictures was under enormous pressure to remove certain billboards in Los Angeles that promoted rapper 50 Cent’s new movie, “Get Rich or Die Tryin’.” In the ad, 50 Cent is pictured wearing a black ski mask and outfit, while holding a gun in his left hand and a microphone in his right. The ads were dangerously close to two schools, and community activists feared the ads may spark violence among kids in inner-city Los Angeles. The movie portrays 50 Cent as a drug dealer who turns away from crime to pursue his true passion of music. On Wednesday, November 9, 2005, a man was shot to death in a theatre near Pittsburgh where the movie had just opened. According to authorities, it is unclear whether the men responsible for the shooting were leaving after seeing this particular movie, but witnesses said they did come from that direction (Sperling, 2005).

What do you think? Are these concerns legitimate? Do you think ads and movies like these invite teenagers and children to participate in sex and violence? There are two sides to every story, so let’s examine the evidence: