I've never had much time for tabloid journalism and every so often I spot something which confirms my misgivings. For all it's exposed nipples and papping of female 'celebrities' sunbathing in the noddy or falling out their tops while falling out of a nightclub, once proceedings move beyond base titilation the Sun comes over all nudge-nudge, wink-wink and adopts a tone of cod-moral disapproval.
A case in point is its coverage of the latest promotional stunt for Sacha Baron Cohen's new film, Bruno. The premise of the event was a fairly ham-fisted pastiche of the controversial United Colours of Benneton adverts of the 1990s ("United Colours of Brünotton", in case you were wondering). Baron Cohen and a few others appeared in the middle of Berlin wearing chunky-knit body suits (most of which were pink, with a yellow one and a brown one chucked in for good measure).
The Sun, in it's infinite wisdom, decided to pixellate the family jewels of each of the suits. Yet, ITN, the Daily Telegraph and the Evening Standard (and these are just the ones I discovered before I got bored and stopped looking) left the images untouched for the world to see the crocheted genitals in all their glory.
Hats off for the man behind the stunt to pay such attention to detail that he gave the 'black' body suit a tiny penis and endow the 'Chinese' one with something that could, at first glance, be mistaken for a French riot policeman's nightstick.
As for the Sun's approach, it's the journalistic equivalent of a bunch of geezers sitting in a pub, drinking pints of Carling, using terms like "John Thomas" or "member" to refer to a penis: utterly laughable and cringe-worthy in one fell swoop.
1 comment:
As seen in Bruno
Post a Comment