No Victoria’s Secret television fashion show this year:
Victoria’s Secret is dropping its nationally televised fashion show this year, at least partly because of criticism following Janet Jackson’s breast-baring faux pas at the Super Bowl.
Ed Razek, chief creative officer for the Columbus-based lingerie chain, said Saturday the main reason for the decision was so the company can look at new ways to promote the brand.
Still, he said, “We had to make the decision probably six to eight weeks ago when the heat was on the television networks.”
The announcement came less than three months after the Jackson uproar and a week after federal regulators proposed $495,000 in fines against Clear Channel Communications for sexual material on the Howard Stern show.
We don’t know exactly what lead to Victoria’s Secret’s decision. The implication of this report (and my suspicion) is that political rather than business considerations prompted the cancellation. If so, this is more evidence that our nanny state is getting out of hand.
The Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl display was rightly condemned because it (1) subjected an unsuspecting family audience to (2) public nudity.
Is that a risk with here?
I’ve only seen clips from prior Victoria’s Secret broadcasts. While they did generate controversy from interest groups, I’m not aware of prior FCC indecency complaints over the show’s content. And as far as audience expectations go, can viewers reasonably complain that they didn’t know what they were going to see when they a Victoria’s Secret show?
The government regulatory pendulum is swinging too far to the right. We’ve heard a lot of chatter about freedom in Iraq recently. How about our freedoms in America?
Greetings,
Not too long ago I heard a joke about this notion of freedoms in Iraq and the U.S. It went something like this: “Bush announces new plan to balance the trade deficit; He plans to export U.S. civil freedoms to Iraq in exchange for free oil.”
–jeff-perado
I’m not going to give you a lot of crap, Brian, ’cause I think you’re a good guy, but if you’re not aware of prior FCC indecency complaints over the Victoria’s Secret show you’re not paying enough attention. 🙂 Fortunately for us, though, our pals at The Smoking Gun are on the case. See:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/vsabc1.html
and
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/vscbs1.html