More Poster Problems at CTA
Here’s the CTA’s position, spelled out in a letter written late last month by deputy executive director Ernest Sawyer, chairman of the Advertising Review Committee: “In our judgement, the graphic depiction of violence, i.e., one person with a face blown off, another with a mutilated chest, a third whose missing leg is draped across another body would be offensive to the sensibilities of the people of Chicago, and could be considered obscene.”
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TDI did not even ask to see the CISPES poster until August 31 (this is according to CISPES’s chronology; a TDI official did not return our phone call). And September 15, the day CISPES wanted its poster put on display, was two weeks past before the CTA made its mind up. Smarting from both the rejection and the runaround, CISPES last week fired off an indignant, self-righteous letter to the CTA’s executive director, Alfred Savage, urging him to overturn the review committee’s decision.
“Furthermore, if you are in the business of making judgements about what offends the sensibilities of CTA riders,” the CISPES letter went on self-indulgently, “would you consider the many sexist ads that offend the sensibilities of riders who consider women to be more than sexual objects (for example the recent ad promoting the movie Pretty Woman)? If we are to talk about offended sensibilities, we could talk about a whole realm of objectionable ads, particularly if you are sensitive to the injustices of a system which preys on people’s desires to be wealthy and attractive, perhaps by drinking Johnny Walker or smoking Camel cigarettes.”
CISPES has toiled doggedly for years against the crude American policy of spending billions of dollars on the enemies of our enemies, even if–especially if, it often seems–our enemies pose no real threat to the United States and their enemies are vicious thugs. We admire CISPES for its perseverance, and are pleased to report that the CTA’s rebuff is probably not a serious defeat. That’s true even though this past Tuesday Savage upheld his review committee.
Young Blood
“I think in some ways the Reader’s been so successful and has been around so long it’s moved more to the mainstream and become a prisoner of its own success and lost some of its freshness,” he said. “Everything it does tends to be done with top quality.”
