three rants

On the subway recently I spied a public service advertisement from the New York State government that says, "Love your child. Don't leave her alone in the bathtub." The ad showed a photo of a little girl, two or three years old, standing inside a bathtub, wearing a cute red top with thin straps. What's wrong with this picture? Children in bathtubs tend to be naked. But in this hysterically prudish society, I guess seeing a three-year-old's nipples is TABOO. How fucking ridiculous. It's a ridiculous ad.

The client for whom we're doing all the user testing was with us on a conference call yesterday and told us that he and his friends had just gone hunting, and had killed a bear. I felt ill and really wanted to leave the room. I got really agitated. He seems like a nice, down-to-earth guy, but what kind of creep goes and MURDERS A BEAR? New Jersey just a week ago temporarily lifted a ban on bear-hunting since there are apparently too many of the bothersome creatures. Invading our space, going through our trash cans, I mean really. Shoot them! Yay! Killed one!
I remember reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and when Pa managed to shoot a bear the most delicious part were the soft pads of their paws. I wonder whether this macho client did anything with the dead bear. What's the protocol?

There was a third thing I wanted to rant about. Oh yeah - in yesterday's Times there was an article about the gender gap, specifically in the ad industry. I found this chart particularly interesting - comparing what total percentage women represent in an industry versus what percentage they represent in management. Check it out.

grrrrr
gertrude