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In LA's Koreatown district, two dueling billboards over on Wilshire Boulevard. Two enter, one leaves. Guess which?

At left, Consumer Watchdog's ad, arguing that you can't trust Mercury Insurance. Yup, you guessed it -- THAT billboard was dismantled last week when the subject of the ad issued lawyergrams.

At right, the Absolut vagina Mango ad, which still flaps proudly in the Southern California breeze:

"If you drive three to four blocks east of where ours was," said Jamie Court, "there's a huge Absolut Mango ad, and it's really not a mango." Court said he was alerted by his wife, who happened upon it while driving and made the following observation: "There's a five-story vagina on a building."
So, happy mutants, lesson learned: You may or may not be able to trust Mercury Insurance, but you can trust humongous hoo-hahs.

Read: LA Times via MSNBC. Images from Consumer Watchdog; howunoriginal.com.

  • cstatman

    hooray for the hoo hah!

  • Adam Stanhope

    Reaching…

  • Pipenta

    Hokano,

    Ow, ow, ow.

    That was funny! Painful, but funny.

  • hokano

    Here are some things shaped like vaginas as seen at lesbilicious.co.uk

    There’s even a mango involved.

  • Anonymous

    Why exactly does everyone think that billboard looks like a giant pussy? It took an effort to see what you guys are seeing, because I’ve never seen a green, wood-grained snatch with a clit the size of a golf ball. Have you been getting it on with the green slave women from Star Trek or something?

  • Anonymous

    Advertising is not afforded the same protections as journalism regarding libel and the like. IOW, an advertiser will lose a lawsuit rather easily and often knows full well they are placi g an ad that is coming down shortly. Whereas for the Absolut ad, wow, I’ve never seen a vag so disease riddled as that. Wow.

  • Anonymous

    “you can trust humongous hoo-hahs.” A well known scientific fact, and the subject of many formal studies, including the seminal “Robust Effect of Humongous Hoo-Hahs on Assured Confidence.”

  • Takuan

    oh dear, things are coming to a head here.

  • Cicada

    I kind of like the Absolut ad. It’s Georgia O’Keeffe meets Edvard Munch. Neat.

  • Anonymous

    I saw a vagina once and it did’nt look like this.

  • mulls

    Um, my dad was admittedly a little late with the birds and bees conversation, but that doesn’t look like any female bodypart I’ve ever seen…

  • Anonymous

    Ha – in Japanese “mango” = “pussy”

    But why is this supposed to be offensive? As an earlier comment noted, it’s no more explicit than a Georgia O’Keefe.

  • Takuan

    a phallic symbol is any object longer than it is wide – and the complement is of course any object with a curve.

  • RichSPK

    Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes an abstract picture featuring a mango is just an abstract picture featuring a mango. I don’t think I’d see a vagina in that billboard if you hadn’t pointed it out.

    And so what?

    Why’re you comparing commercial criticism to mango vodka? That’s apples and oranges…

    That’s not to say I’m not against the Consumer Watchdog billboard, although there may be a case for it being libel.

  • Cicada

    @11 On the other hand, no halfway competent marketing firm in its right mind would be unaware that the resemblance would be there. If it is, it’s deliberate.

  • Lobster

    Makes sense to me. The insurance one is slander. Vaginas never hurt anybody that didn’t deserve it.

  • presterjohn

    I say we remove all advertising billboards, and replace them with abstract representations of sex organs.

  • Anonymous

    Something I learned as an Art/Art History Major:

    What you see in a work of art says more about you than it does about the artist or the art itself. So if you see sex in everyday objects, you are the one obsessed with sex

    • Antinous / Moderator

      So if you see sex in everyday objects, you are the one obsessed with sex.

      And…………?

  • Cicada

    @15- Well, there is the alleged fate of Steely Dan I…

  • ArghMonkey

    Just an example of consumerism trumping everything else, yet again.

    Its hard to stay focused on this sort of thing, corporatism has won in the u.s. and noone cares (except for a handful of us).

    For the record I think there should be more subtle vaginas in advertising.

    http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/39/2009/06/340x_custom_1246286823506_LILA-HIV.jpg

    http://jezebel.com/assets/resources/2008/03/FAUXTAMPAX031008.jpg

  • Daemon

    @#12 Anonymous
    Actually, the word you’re looking for is “manko”

  • searconflex

    someone care to fill us in on what the text under the hoo-hah reads, s’il te plait.

  • nigelfootpowder

    I dunno, maybe I just need to be hit over the head with pornography.

  • Anonymous

    #15 Actually, slander is spoken. The written bit that says you can’t trust Mercury Insurance would be liable if it were not true. My experience of them over a long time is that it’s a pretty accurate statement. Really.

  • Anonymous
  • ArghMonkey

    @ #46 – You mean the VAGINA?! You can type out the word you know. Jesus wont come and turn you into a pillar of salt *L*

    Sorry, im sure your on the level but I find it hilarious that americans are so purity and prudish.

    Its a VVVVAAAAGGGGIIIINNNNAAAA, its ok to say, infact its fun …

  • Anonymous

    What’s sad here is how many of you are talking about the vagina over the injustice that is going on..

  • wolfwitch

    Gotta say, I think gratefully, that I’ve never seen a vagina that looked anything like that…

  • W. James Au

    I want to live in a world with way less stupid billboards about insurance and way more that enshrine the sacred vag. Is that too much to ask?

  • hokano

    searconflex, a slightly more legible pic for your inspection.

  • wolfiesma

    The abstract sex organs are very artfully done. Could be an O’Keefe. Could be a mirror on the wall. Maybe a key hole… I think its a lovely piece of artwork/advertisement.

    The garish yellow and black headline screaming from the top of the building, on the other hand is just plain tacky. So is the scaffolding that holds it up, imo. I do like the palm trees, though.

  • Anonymous

    I drive past this sign everyday…I had no idea that I was looking at a pussy, It didn’t look like MINE…art I guess.

  • Brainspore

    I always thought that I had a dirty mind, but to my eye that billboard doesn’t really bear much resemblance to my wife’s ladyparts. Maybe she should see a gynecologist?

    In any case I’ve seen horizontal versions of that billboard that were even less vagina-like, so it probably has more to do with the eye of the beholder than anything intentional on the part of the ad agency.

  • Jarvik7

    @12: No it doesn’t. You’re thinking of “manko”. “Mango” in Japanese means “mango”.

  • Anonymous

    Billboard reads (from what i can tell)

    “In an absolute world, this taste comes naturally”

    hmmm…. or is that “cums naturally”. Doubters, I don’t think that innuendo is unintentional.

  • Anonymous

    No problem finding the little man in the boat here.

  • Takuan

    the upsetting part is the bottle is so small next to the mango swirly. (“mango swirly thing alert?”}

  • Anonymous
  • hokano

    Sometimes one simply doesn’t measure up.

  • chgoliz

    Pipenta @ #30:

    I can’t believe it. After nearly 2 decades of expressing the sentiment of having just spewed hot tea all over my monitor and keyboard in response to someone’s post, for the first time ever I have actually done so. Congratulations. My new computer (less than a week old…I kid you not) has now been baptized.

  • Takuan

    Fatty Arbuckle joke, 3…2…1…

  • hokano

    Anon #12: Jarvik7 types the truth. Tokyomango would be a whole different site otherwise.

    Also, Anon, to my ear at least the Japanese word is quite a bit more harsh than your English translation. You might find yourself in an awkward situation even outside of the dessert-ordering scenario.

  • Cactaur

    The Vaginas are coming! zomgweregonnadierunandhide

  • Oren Beck
  • Kimmo

    I don’t see any vulva here.

    I see an illustration of laminar flow.

  • Anonymous

    If the clitoris was that big, gentlemen, we’d all be in chains working a sledgehammer on a mining planet far far away.

  • Anonymous

    Totally agree with #20 wolfiesma.

    I’m sympathetic to the point that Xeni makes (and would likely be even more sympathetic were I a female, or at least less than 50% male) and I’m not wild about the idea of 50′ tall genitalia everywhere one looks. However, if our urban (and not-os-urban) environments *must* be polluted, then pray let it be in the style of the vodka ad rather than the insurance ad.

    Jon

  • Anonymous

    YVMV. IANAG.

  • IWood

    “Vagina mango” makes me think of a certain scene with Jacqueline Beudant and Terri Hall in The Opening of Misty Beethoven.

  • Anonymous

    Aloisius wrote “If you’re going to criticize insurance companies, just stick the words “I think” before it.”

    Something like this?

    http://www.hughescp.com/mercurybus.jpg

  • flytch

    vagina??? not.. that is part of the body you can’t see… it is representative of a clitoris, clitoris hood and labia… they are body parts… get over it…

    now seriously if you look closely at ALL alcohol and tobacco ad you will find either a penis, penis and testicles… or clitoris, clitoris hood and labia somewhere in the ad… it’s been used for years… sex sells…

    where have you all been????? this is OLD hat…

  • EMJ

    The vagina is an internal organ. Aka birth canal.
    No matter how hard you look you won’t see much of it.

    Lets see how many other female body parts you gentlemen can id – vulva, labia, clitoris…

    Calling vulva a vagina is like not being able to differentiate penis from scrotum from testicles.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      Despite being a gay man, I find myself constantly explaining that.

  • Anonymous

    Absolut Vodka has been using subliminal porno ads for years.

  • Anonymous

    hoo-hah? The proper term is Wookie.

  • Caroline

    I think that billboard looks more like The Scream than like a vulva.

  • Takuan
  • Ben Morris

    Sure it’s an abstract and artistic representation of sex organs and not offensive on its own, but should it be associated with selling alcohol?

    Here in the UK this would probably run afoul of legislation preventing alcohol advertising from suggesting that getting drunk is the easy way to get laid (they’re also forbidden them from saying “this gets you really drunk”, which is arguable a major reason that alcohol adverts are often so imaginative and surreal).

  • caipirina

    and sometimes a mango is really just a … mango …

    sorry .. i don;t see a vagina there … (and before you give me geek comments … i have been present at our boy’s birth and I know female anatomy pretty ok)

    I think it would have been sick if it had somehow incorporated the typical absolut bottle shape ‘venturing to new horizions’ …

    someone do a remix !!!!

  • Takuan

    us humoursexuals have rights too you know.

  • hokano

    EMJ:

    Calling vulva a vagina is like not being able to differentiate penis from scrotum from testicles.

    Antinous:

    Despite being a gay man, I find myself constantly explaining that.

    If either of you should find yourself transported back to 1996, please track down Eve Ensler and tell her.

  • Cicada

    @25- Nonsense. Getting drunk is a terrible way to get laid if male. Getting someone else drunk is an effective (and hideously unethical) way to get laid. Your views on consent given while merely tipsy may vary.

  • deadon

    That’s a sad shame… can’t warn people about another company?

  • buddy66

    Call it what you want … how’s the vodka?

  • Takuan

    bloody mammals… always so damned textured.

  • Ben Morris

    @26- Yeah, I phrased that badly. I think the “getting someone else drunk” thing is the reason alcohol companies (quite rightly) aren’t supposed to associate sex and alcohol in advertising.

  • calabanos

    Wow, I’d love to introduce that billboard to my friend, the Washington Monument.

  • Avram / Moderator

    I’m concerned about the baby’s scalp condition.

  • Pipenta

    “Giant Boozy Ladyparts” sounds like a great name for a band, or a poem, or a boat, or something!

  • Cassandra

    That looks like a Georgia O’keefe “Jack in the Pulpit” or possibly something by Judy Chicago.

  • SamSam

    I don’t get it, Cory. Would you really have preferred they pulled the other billboard, because of a possible resemblance to a female body part?

    Really?

    I feel like if they had done that, then there would have been something worthy of a post.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      Cory? If you’re going to be tedious, at least be accurate.

  • Snig
  • Aloisius

    It could be a heavily stylized uterus. I don’t see the big deal though.

    If you’re going to criticize insurance companies, just stick the words “I think” before it as in, “I think you can’t trust Mercury insurance.”

  • maoinhibitor

    If this keeps up, Dow Corning will have to quadruple Silastic LSR production.

  • zachary0611

    That doesn’t look like a vagina to me. lol

  • Anonymous

    It looks like a clitoris, a body part that not nearly enough people understand or even recognize!

  • Joe118

    Thats not an ad for Absolut Vagina, that’s an ad for Absolut Fleshlight, the very newest secret model, LOL.

  • Ambiguity

    Mango?

    Kind of puts a different spin on the “sticky rice with…” part.

  • maoinhibitor

    This image was part of the Absolut “Streams” ad campaign for new, all natural fruit flavored vodkas.

    http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/creative/news/e3i3dd1b5aef655211d7aa0db16b70f5400
    http://www.absolutads.com/?p=841
    http://www.advertolog.com/absolut/print-outdoor/ciitron-streams-198172/

    IMHO, there is a commonality to all of the images in the campaign. Personally, I like it, even if I’ve gotta make my snarky comments.

    It’s an interesting image to be sure, but if you think of the abstracted vulva in this image as a cipher for nature’s creative capacity, it starts to fall in to place.

    Absolut is saying its mango flavored vodka tastes as good as a mango created by a nature goddess. And Gaia is not going to create a mango by firing up her 3-d printer. She’s going to “bring it forth”. If you’re too scared to taste that mango, that’s your problem… more qualia for me!

  • hbl

    omg it’s a vaganus!! Absolut always try to be risque, but by employing the art history majors, they’ve gone over most people’s heads with this one, hurrah!!

  • slida

    Five Story Vagina would make a great band name.

  • Nasty

    Everything starts to look like a penis if u stare at it long enough.

  • Chocolatey Shatner

    If that’s what vaginas look like, makes me glad I chose to be gay…

    @ #25: ROFLCOPTER

  • jfrancis

    Technically the arm only goes from the shoulder to the elbow. Below the elbow is the forearm.

  • oheso

    I, for one, welcome our new vagina overlords.

    … waitaminute …

  • Anonymous

    It’s amazing how many people are apologists for corporations. They can screw people over left and right yet very few are willing to speak out against it because “as long as the market supports their existence they deserve to exist” type mentality.

  • hokano

    Maude Lebowski: Does the female form make you uncomfortable, Mr. Lebowski?

    The Dude: Uh, is that what this is a picture of?
    Maude Lebowski: In a sense, yes. My art has been commended as being strongly vaginal which bothers some men. The word itself makes some men uncomfortable. Vagina.

    The Dude: Oh yeah?
    Maude Lebowski: Yes, they don’t like hearing it and find it difficult to say whereas without batting an eye a man will refer to his dick or his rod or his Johnson.

    The Dude: Johnson?

  • Anonymous

    Sounds like a brilliant attempt by the watchdog to harness the Streisand effect.

  • Anonymous

    who said that was a vagina, Sigmund Freud? what about that Grand Canyon, they need to put some undies on that thing!

  • hokano

    Avram wrote: “I’m concerned about the baby’s scalp condition.”

    Without doubt, the crowning achievement of this thread.

  • Anonymous

    If the clitoris was that big, gentlemen, we’d all be in chains working a sledgehammer on a mining planet far far away.

    I admit it. I have absolutely no idea what this joke means.

  • benher

    Oh no’s! Teh female s3x organ! Run little Americans, run!

  • Felton

    Nasty@34: Only after you reach adulthood. Until then, everything looks like this.

  • SimeonW

    all billboards are offensive. but, if given the choice, i would rather be forced to think about booze and the stylized representation of the female anatomy, than i would ugly text and what i should be doing about my premiums going to a company that will likely rip me off.

  • wunderkammer

    In the interest of fighting ignorance, I feel that I should mention that mangoes grow on trees. Trees.

    They’d be all mooshy if they had to pass through the human pelvis.