By Chris Butler | Tennessee Watchdog
NASHVILLE — Tennessee’s new taxpayer-subsidized campaign to preach the dangers of drunk driving is, according to one city bartender, “rude and offensive.”
TAKING A STAND: Nashville bartender Tiffany Canon says table-toppers and coasters designed to prevent drunk driving do anything but and are instead offensive to women.
The TN Governor’s Highway Safety Office, affiliated with the Tennessee Department of Transportation, features the campaign on its official Booze It and Lose It website.
The bartender, Tiffany Canon, and others say the campaign could encourage women to develop eating disorders or commit other acts of self-harm.
In one of the campaign’s radio ads a man who’s had too much to drink tells a woman she’d “be cuter with the lights off.”
A series of videos on the website involve a drunk man clumsily hitting on women and commenting on their looks.
“Plastic surgery would do wonders for your jaw structure and definitely your nose,” the man says.
Word of this campaign reached East Nashville’s Facebook page Saturday.
As Dylan Lane Morris asked:
How much these advertisements cost taxpayers — and who specifically created and approved them — is unclear.
Officials with the TN Governor’s Highway Safety Office were unavailable for comment Monday.
TDOT spokeswoman B.J. Doughty, meanwhile, would only say the agency never intended to offend anyone.
“This new initiative was designed to reach the young male demographic, who are statistically more likely to drive under the influence,” Doughty said.
I’M SO SORRY MR. MITTENS: One series of graphics as a part of a state campaign to discourage drunk driving features a drunken man using a live cat to clean up his own vomit.
“Our office continually experiments with new strategies in order to be effective with various target demographics, and we will be closely monitoring the results.”
State officials sent coasters and table-toppers promoting the campaign to the restaurant and bar in which Canon works, she said.
“These were up for a day until a customer who was upset actually read them and brought it to my attention,” Canon said, adding that she and other employees removed them immediately.
Canon, meanwhile, said state officials don’t require her to display the paraphernalia and that she and other workers generally display them only as a courtesy.
“The message here is the only way to pick up a man if you’re an average-looking woman is if the man is drunk. The end game of preaching against drunk driving is something I love, but this clearly was not executed properly.”
The coasters and table-toppers convey the same general message as the radio and video ads.
One warns if you’re not careful you might “buy a drink for a marginally good-looking girl, only to find out she’s chatty, clingy and your boss’ daughter.”
Another table-topper produced by Tennessee that has offended many.
Most of the people on East Nashville’s Facebook page, meanwhile, think like Canon, although a few call it an overreaction.
But there’s more.
In a story titled “I’m so sorry Mr. Mittens,” the campaign’s website tells a story about a drunk man who uses a cat to mop his vomit.
Canon sent a complaint email to state officials.
“Even though I’m just a lowly server, I can get really feisty about things,” Canon said.
“Especially if I think someone is not being nice.”
UPDATE: One day after this story originally ran, the stories and radio and television ads on the Booze It or Lose It website are no longer available for the public to view.
Contact Christopher Butler at [email protected]
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