Best Ad Ever

If you were watching the World Cup in Scotland you would have  jumped up and shouted YEAH, GO TEAM!  Not for the players, but because you saw the ad below at half-time. It's out by Rape Crisis Scotland, and it is spot fucking on.  Cara at the Curvature says what needs saying but let me add my two bits.

We've all seen those list of "ways to prevent rape" that without fail address how women need to restrict their lives since rape is just something that falls out of the sky, nothing to do with men.
We started a different list addressed to the perpetrators instead of the victims, and  high on that list was "Don't laugh at rape jokes".  Along those lines, this ad puts the problem squarely where it belongs, on the perpetrators and their enablers.  Watch for the second guy, the one who looks over his shoulder.

Doesn't that just KICK ASS? There's lots more you could say, by Cara already did (she even has a transcript)  Extract:

Here is what I love about this ad: it treats rape apologist attitudes as a problem, regardless of whether or not they refer to a specific rape. There is no indication in the commercial that the woman has actually been raped. There is no indication that she will be raped. There is no indication that the man who makes the “she’s asking for it” comment is actually planning on raping her, or anyone else, for that matter. And still, in spite of all of this, his comments are dangerous, they have a real impact, and they are worthy of our attention. They’re worthy, in fact, of a PSA about how incredibly fucked up they are. All on their own.
And that, I think, is absolutely fabulous.

Here’s what else I love about this ad: while there’s no indication whatsoever that the man is a rapist, there’s no way to tell for sure that he’s not, either. As Thomas has pointed out many times at Yes Means Yes, while not all men who make rape apologist jokes are rapists, rapists do tend to make rape jokes and apologist comments. Leaving the man’s motives up to interpretation thus manages to do two important things: tell guys who aren’t rapists but think that rape is something fun to joke about that it’s not, as well as tells guys that if their friend is making these types of comments, you should probably point out that it’s not cool. As bystander behavior is incredibly important, I have to say that I love this potential dual effect.

Yeah, what she said.  Read the whole thing, and the comments, too, and click the info button under the Youtube video. RCS had good reasons to launch this, check it out at their homepage. They even have a website for the ad campaign, http://notever.co.uk/  Check it out.  It just tickles me silly.

Ps. If you clicked the YES box in the top picture, you're a worthless piece of shit. Just letting you know.