An ad inspired by Donald Trump’s 2005 hot-mic audiotape comment about groping women by their genitals has been banned from use in San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system.
Thinx brand underwear, designed for wear during a woman’s period, created an advertisement depicting a model wearing the garment with a caption reading “P—-y-grabbing-proof underwear.”
“Periods are political. Sexual assault is political. We want to showcase that in our ads,” said company founder Miki Agrawal, reported CNN Thursday.
Ms. Agrawal, who according to Federal Election Commission records donated $250 to Mrs. Clinton’s primary campaign in September 2015, also lamented that the decision by the transit agency “speaks volumes to the patriarchal double standard. [Trump] can say it, and it’s locker room talk.”
But locker room talk or no, the use of the word simply violates BART’s advertisement guidelines, an agency spokeswoman said.
“Crude descriptions of sexual anatomy, regardless of sex, are vulgar. This is not the kind of atmosphere appropriate to generate inside BART stations,” Alicia Trost told CNNMoney in a statement.
“BART shall not display or maintain any advertisement that …. contains words recognized by the community as vulgar, indecent or profane for display in a public setting that includes minors,” reads an anti-profanity stipulation from the transit agency’s advertising guidelines available online here.
But Ms. Agrawal and her company are not completely out of luck. According to CNN, BART did approve an alternative Thinx ad for display in the system, one which depicts a model, hands at her sides tucked inside a pair of underwear, with the caption reading, “Glass-ceiling proof underwear.”
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