Selling PORNO

Not unexpectedly at all, it seems that the Weinstein Company is having some problems placing advertising for the upcoming comedy Zack And Miri Make A Porno. Evidentally, for some people, even the word “porno” is a bad thing.

An article in today’s USA Today reports that the film company has received complaints about the film’s title and that several televisino stations and about 15 newspapers have refused to carry ads for the comedy about two platonic friends, Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, who decide that making a porn film may be their only way out of their mounting debt. Previously, director Kevin Smith had butted heads with the MPAA over the advertising for the film. Finally, in frustration, he submitted the stick figure drawings that are currently being used in the film’s advertising campaign.

But it seems as if that was still too much for some folks who feel threatened by mere words. According to the story, the Los Angeles Dodgers requested that Fox Sports drop the spots from the airing of their games following viewer complaints. One parent is quoted as being flustered by his young son asking what the word “porno” meant. The city of Philadelphia also felt the title was too inappropriate for the ad space in their bus stops. (I wonder how Pittsburgh, where Smith shot the film, will respond to the advertising.)

While I am not saying that we should thrust the concept of pornography into the faces of children, the fact that it exists shouldn’t be cause to send parents into a frenzy either. Usually, in dealing with things my 11-year old step-daughter might bring up that are over her head, my wife and I merely say that it is a “grown up thing” and we can discuss it when she is older. Seems like a fairly simple solution, and one that doesn’t make adults subject to the tyrrany of the sensibilities of children.

The thing I truely take exception to is the assertation from a professor at Wheelock College who stated that “posters at city bus stops send a message to children that working in the porn industry is an acceptable occupation.” Who is this person to decide what is an “acceptable” occupation? The pornography industry is grossing somewhere in the vacinity of $12 to $14 billion annually, exceeding the revenues of most major league sports or the intake of the major television networks combined. It seems that many Americans find porn consumtion completely acceptable. Yet oddly enough, as a society, we still want to stigmatize this exceedingly popular sector of the entertainment industry.

Watch for our review of Zack And Miri Make A Porno next week, when it opens on October 31.