3/18/15 UPDATE: Please sign the petition! | I gave interviews about the ad for NY Daily News and HuffPost and board member Lindsey Middlecamp’s tweet about the ad was quoted in this TIME article.
In a move that shows extremely poor taste, TGI Fridays hired Rob Bliss, the creator of the two-minute viral video “10 Hours of Walking in New York City as a Woman” to make a parody commercial for them where food (appetizers) are street harassed.
“Restaurant chain TGI Fridays hopes people get the joke…Fridays is trying to goof with the audience, aiming to lure in customers, especially millennials, with the all-digital campaign breaking Monday. The video, dubbed #AppCalling, isn’t meant to be taken seriously, as opposed to the original, which pointed up brutish and aggressive behavior that’s all too common in women’s lives.
‘We believe app-calling (not cat-calling) food is a funny premise,’ said Brian Gies, Friday’s chief marketing officer. ‘Please note that no apps were harmed as a result of this video!'”
I get the joke and I’m not laughing.
I find it disgusting and in poor taste that TGI Fridays would make light of this serious issue and use it as a gimmick to try to sell food. Even if they note on the video description that catcalling is offensive, that is not enough.
The concept and the video ignore the reality that street harassment is a widespread problem. It can be upsetting and scary and can limit people’s mobility. It can be threatening and indeed, the actress from the original film faced death threats for simply being in the film. And, what most people don’t realize, is it disproportionately happens to teenage girls. Is that really what we want to promote?
When companies like TGI Fridays (and Snickers, Fiat, Allstate, etc) make ads like this, it makes street harassment seem okay, funny, and normal. It shouldn’t be any of those things.
We urge TGI Fridays to discontinue this campaign immediately.
H/T Collective Action for Safe Spaces
