Masters of public relations at work
UPDATE: This poster (apparently) isn’t an official AVFM poster, but they have endorsed it. See bottom of post for details.
Is the appearance of this poster at a Toronto train station an example of inadvertently terrible timing, or an act of astounding assholery?
The poster in question was spotted at Toronto Transit’s Ossington station yesterday, a day after reports of online threats against University of Toronto women hit the media. Classy, AVFM, classy!
Adding to the ick factor: As one Twitterer pointed out, the bus line that goes through the U of T campus connects to the subway at Ossington Station.
Even if the timing of this little poster campaign is purely coincidental, it’s a little hard to fathom how anyone associated with AVFM would think that the best way to recruit Toronto women to their cause would be to essentially tell them: “We have no respect for you and no understanding of feminism; we like to imagine you suffering; come join us for some epic mansplaining!”
But AVFMers seem to have perpetual troubles telling the difference between “brilliant PR move” and “shitting their pants in public.”
Twitter parody account @TTCwelps had what is probably the best response to the poster.
And here’s a reminder that not everything that starts out with the phrase “hey ladies” is automatically terrible.
UPDATE: Here’s an official statement on the poster from AVFM’s Facebook page. It’s a little … confusing, in that they’re not entirely sure if it’s one of their posters or not.
