Responsible advertising.
The recent sex abuse scandal at Penn State has us shaking our collective heads in disgust. We ask how Penn State officials and coaches could have let such horrific events happen for so long. We wonder what possesses a man to harm innocent children. We cry out in anger and call for firings and suspensions, and we mourn for all victims of sexual abuse.
Like most people, I am angered, saddened, and shocked by these allegations. But I cannot help thinking about our collective responsibility as a nation and culture. In her 1963 work Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt blames the “banality of evil” for the Holocaust and other horrors throughout history. She argues that heinous events are not solely orchestrated by an evil villain or group – they are made possible by the ordinary people who accept the status quo and allow immoral things to happen. Arendt claims that the ordinary Germans who did nothing to stop the events of the Holocaust and went on with their everyday lives without questioning wrongdoing are just as responsible as those who called themselves Nazis. It’s a controversial stance, certainly, but her thesis can apply to shameful events throughout human history – including the Penn State scandal.
Advertising has been blamed for various societal ills—including obesity, racism, and yes, child exploitation. As much as we like to think the industry has cleaned itself up, some advertisers still cannot resist sexualizing children to sell a product. Take the latest Marc Jacobs ad featuring the 17-year-old Dakota Fanning suggestively holding a perfume bottle between her legs. Fanning’s makeup and dress make her appear even younger than she is – yet she is used as a sex object to sell a product to adults. The British Advertising Standards Authority banned the ad in the U.K. because of its sexual nature, but the ad is just one of many featuring teens in sexualized, yet childlike roles.
Though the Fanning ad is far from the only example of child exploitation in the media, this issue is rarely addressed. Sexually provocative ads have become normalized in our society, and we rarely question the ethics of using suggestive images to sell products. Yet study after study has shown that the media, and advertising in particular, play a large role in shaping our beliefs and values. If sexual images of children have become normalized in the media, should we really be surprised that sexual exploitation and abuse are such pervasive societal issues?
And then we return to the responsibility issue. What role do we, as advertisers, play in the sexual exploitation of children, women, and any other group that has been objectified to sell a product? Should those who normalize exploitation really emerge unscathed from blame for tragedies such as this?
Without a doubt, advertisers who exploit children are not solely to blame for the recent terrible events at Penn State. But as Arendt argues in her book, evil events are never orchestrated by a single monster. In Arendt’s view, anyone involved in a campaign that exploited children could be held responsible for child sexual abuse– from the copywriter, to the media buyer, to the employees of the magazine that published the ads. We all have a collective responsibility to fight immorality and injustice – and we need to be aware of how our everyday actions contribute to our society’s beliefs, values, and culture.
Tagged with Arendt, Dakota Fanning, Eichmann, exploitation, Joe Paterno, Oh Lola, Penn State