Mis-Communicator of the Week: Bloomingdale’s

For some in Europe the horror of the attacks by Daesh terrorists (I'm not going to offend Muslims by referring to them by the term they prefer) in Paris finally brought home the brutality of this organisation.

The violence Daesh has sown across Iraq and Syria has cost the lives of thousands - many killed in Medieval ways - and many thousands more suffer awful violence daily.

Women and children are not immune from this violence and are subjected to sexual slavery and rape on a scale not seen in war for centuries. Some women - depending on caste, ethnicity or religion - are even believed to be 'sub-human' so suffer the worst of the violence.

There is much that separates western, liberal democracy from the barbarism of Daesh. For today we will concentrate on women. There are still issues around equality of opportunity and pay which are raised in the media on a regular basis but rape as a habit, a pastime, a normal activity to involve yourself in without a second thought? No. Simply no.

Yet a global brand has allowed an advert to run which suggests that a bit of rape between friends is ok. In the ad a young, attractive woman is laughing (perhaps a little tipsy) while a man is next to her looking, shall we say, calculating. Between them the slogan “Spike your best friend’s eggnog when they’re not looking.”

I'm not against freedom of speech and believe in the right to offend (two other concepts that are alien to Daesh) but this advert from Bloomingdale's advocating intoxicating a friend, and suggesting something a whole lot more sinister for me crossed the line of acceptability.

How this advert was signed off is a question only Bloomingdale's can answer. It was a terrible oversight which does not fit with the modern, developed, world and is why Bloomingdale's is my Mis-Communicator of the Week.

Mis-Communicator of the Week is written by Edward Staite.