As we reported earlier this week, a happy ending seemed in sight for Thinx period underwear CEO Miki Agrawal. She refused to abandon her company's creative vision after approval for its ads was held up because they were deemed inappropriate for riders of the NYC subway. What followed was a standoff between Agrawal and the advertising contractor for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). Ultimately, Thinx won, striking a blow for any other company hoping to market a useful, innovative product to an audience of thinking women with, you know, senses of humor.
Of course, this victory couldn't slip past without a few rumblings from on high. In an MTA board meeting earlier this week, MTA chairman Thomas Prendergast offered his own opinion on the ads, which feature images of women in underwear, as well as halved grapefruits and egg yolks. "On a personal level, I just found parts of those ads offensive," he said. [Ed. note: One may find oneself pondering why a man who is married to a woman and has a daughter would find ads that make playful allusions to menstruation — a reality of the female experience — "offensive."]
He also added that freedom of speech is "not the primary function [of the MTA]. It's moving eight and a half million people a day safely and reliably to their jobs and their places of enjoyment." Luckily, these riders get to spend most daily commutes viewing nothing but the best, least offensive ads — whose perspectives on female bodies somehow went unchallenged.
Thinx's ads will still go up as planned, with a celebratory "domination" of the Bedford L stop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, next month. It was really nice of Prendergast to throw in his two cents, though.
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