Conservatives Enraged Over Pro-Choice Manhattan Mini Storage Ad

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 8:50pm

A Manhattan Mini Storage billboard on Manhattan's West Side Highway is again stirring up both opprobrium and approbation.

A large sign at 44th Street and Twelfth Avenue shows a wire hanger with the words "Your closet space is shrinking as fast as her right to choose."

An earlier ad for the company read, "Your Closet's Scarier Than Bush's Agenda."

The president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, William Donohue, told The New York Sun the sign was "insulting and highly offensive." The president of a Manhattan-based nonprofit organization, Morality in Media, Robert Peters, said he did not know why the company would want to turn away a significant number of potential customers, such as immigrants from more conservative cultures. But the associate vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of New York City, Roger Rathman, applauded the billboard. "We think it's fabulous," he said. "We salute Manhattan Mini Storage for helping to make New Yorkers as aware as we are of the growing restrictions on reproductive freedom in this country."

Most Manhattan residents support abortion rights, a spokeswoman for NARAL Pro-Choice America, Mary Alice Carr, said. She said it is great when a company wears "its pro-choice values on its sleeve -- or on its building."

Read more at link:
Mini Storage Billboard Aims At Abortion-Rights Activists

[Calvin]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 9:02pm

William Donohoe is a pompous blowhard.

If you knew how many ridiculous commercials I had to hear in the South proclaiming their supposed love of Jesus and commitment to "traditional values" -- roofers, restaurants, even a pair of attorneys -- you'd vomit.

When those companies all agree to stop promoting their personal politics, I'll proceed to get outraged along with Billy boy.

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 9:57pm

brilliant!

[Kringas]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 10:05pm

If you knew how many ridiculous commercials I had to hear in the South proclaiming their supposed love of Jesus and commitment to "traditional values" -- roofers, restaurants, even a pair of attorneys -- you'd vomit.

Word, Hizzonah! When I was in St Louis there was a commercial for a furniture store where the owner makes a big friggin deal about how they're closed on Sunday because it's the lord's day and blah blah blah blah, and I really want to send him this book that just showed up in my mailbox one day. The name escapes me at the moment, but it was this crazy screed about how the Sabbath is really Saturday and how all Christians who worship on Sunday are going to hell.

I am in love with this ad. It makes me want to put some stuff in storage and have an abortion.

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 10:22pm

Well, I find the ad offensive. I don't look to storage centers for political guidance. I respect the owner's right to his/her opinion and the right to express that opinion, but if I were looking to rent storage, I would avoid that place. For the record, I would also avoid a place that had an anti-abortion sign.

[Calvin]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 10:23pm

They also had an ad about Dick Cheney not too long ago. I think it said, "You're closet's so narrow, it makes Dick Cheney look liberal."

And one about Paris Hilton. Something about the closet being so shallow that it made Paris look deep.

My favorite "Jesus is good for business" commercial used to be the attorneys, Simmons and Fletcher, in Houston. They'd quote Bible verses for no reason and told the "Render unto Caesar..." story to show...well, I don't know. Because Jesus loved to sue, I guess.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 10:23pm

I don't understand what's offensive. Women's right to choose IS rapidly disintegrating. Roe v Wade will be overturned in our lifetimes.

Betsy Donahue gets her panties in knots over the slightest provocation. She's more sensitive than an Iranian ayatollah with a fatwa in his pocket.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 10:25pm

well, duh, it's called manhattan mini storage, not duluth mini storage.

[Calvin]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 10:26pm

madbrian, have you seen the voting patterns of Manhattan? It's savvy marketing. It's not like the company is worried about what Bubba Joe in Alabama thinks of their company, because he won't be storing his Roto-Tiller there anyway. Just like, as I was pointing out, they pander to the Jesus lovers in the South.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 10:31pm

Updated On: 8/16/07 at 10:31 PM

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 10:34pm

Calvin - I'm having trouble reconciling your mockery of Southern Bible thumping ads with your comment about the storage ad being savvy marketing. I find both offensive, and wouldn't patronize either. I don't shop for a pro-choice storage facility, just as I don't seek out a religious lawyer, roofer, etc.

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 10:35pm

I found the ad rather shocking and borderline offensive myself. I'm not sure where I ultimately stand on abortion but I don't think it's necessary to bring such a polarizing issue into a marketing campaign for a storage facility.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 10:38pm

madbrian, you just don't f*cking get it! it uses scare tactics against pro-lifers (i.e. rethuglicans) and if you can't get behind that then you have no right to be on a broadway themed message board. how dare you even question this!?! you should be ashamed of yourself. get with the program or get the f*ck out!

[Calvin]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 10:45pm

brian -- they're BOTH savvy marketing techniques. Let them run whatever they think sells their products. My mockery is more about Bill Donohue's sudden outrage. This is the only ad of its type I'm aware of, but those others have been around for years. And I'd think appropriating the cheif deity of your religion to make a buck should be more outrageous to a religious leader than a single company's ad in one of the most progressive cities in the U.S.


Updated On: 8/16/07 at 10:45 PM

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 10:46pm

Calvin - fair enough...you find them both savvy, I find them both offensive...agree to disagree?

[Calvin]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 10:49pm

Sure. And remember: Just because I find them savvy doesn't mean I personally like them.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 11:01pm

I recently got a price quote from Throw Yourself Down the Stairs to Spontaneously Miscarry Piano Movers.

Dirt cheap.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 11:04pm

i thought you were going with "partially deliver a baby before killing it as it kicks and call it anything but murder movers."

[tazber]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 11:09pm

Well it certainly elicits a reaction whichever side you're on but it doesn't make me want to rent storage space.

[Kringas]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 11:11pm

My friend did the Throw Yourself Down the Stairs to Spontaneously Miscarry Piano Movers thing in high school, but I think she used the off-brand. Then she dropped out and went crazy. She looked a lot like Patty Duke crossed with Fairuza Balk in The Craft.

[HDThoreau2]

Posted: 8/17/07 at 12:24am

I'm conservative, and I could care less about that ad.

[Jane2]

Posted: 8/17/07 at 12:56am

"I recently got a price quote from Throw Yourself Down the Stairs to Spontaneously Miscarry Piano Movers."

LOL! My laugh for the day although it's already tomorrow.

[Kringas]

Posted: 8/17/07 at 9:36am

I remembered the name of the book! It's National Sunday Law. Freaky thing just showed up in my mailbox one day.

National Sunday Law

Updated On: 8/17/07 at 09:36 AM

[Calvin]

Posted: 8/17/07 at 10:26am

See, they could have tied in with the storage ad better. Something like:

"Your closet's full of more wire hangers than a South Dakota abortion clinic."

[Anakela]

Posted: 8/17/07 at 10:55am

I am in love with this ad. It makes me want to put some stuff in storage and have an abortion.

Love it!