2007-02-22

In which I feel inclined to dust off my soapbox again�

I read this article in the Metro this morning:

Telus says it will stop selling porn
New York. Telus Corp., Canada�s second-biggest phone company, reversed its decision to sell pornography on mobile phones after customers including the Catholic Church threatened to cancel their service. Telus was the first Canadian wireless provider to attempt to profit from demand for adult images and videos on handsets, a market that Toronto-based researcher SeaBoard Group estimates will generate $900 million worldwide by 2008. Last week, Raymond Roussin, the Archbishop of Vancouver, urged religious schools and churches to end their contracts with Telus because of the content.

Notice how it was the customers� threats of service cancellation that made the difference, not the fact that pornography is degrading to women and a responsible phone company would not be supporting that industry.

That article made me a little disgusted, but when I read this in the Toronto Star, I just couldn�t believe it:

Telus director of media relations Jim Johannsson said the adult content wasn't hard-core pornography. The content was "basically nudity,'' and "there was basically no sex."

Seriously?

Dear Mr. Director-of-Media-Relations,

Please tell me this is not the great justification: the content was �basically nudity� and there was �basically no sex.�

Because let�s face it:

Your Company? It was basically degrading women to gain market share.

And you? If you think that�s ok, then you�re basically an ass.