OAA Apologise for "Career Women Make Bad Mothers" Campaign

[OAA]

The OAA are running a campaign to demonstrate the power of outdoor advertising to drive people online. This is being done in conjunction with a new website called ?Britainthinks.com? which encourages debate amongst the people of Britain.

We regret any misunderstanding that led to feelings of offence on the part of members of the Mumsnet community.

The intention of the website is to generate debate by posing questions that are deemed to be socially relevant by members of society.

We did not intend to cause any offence and we would stress that the questions posed were not the opinions of the OAA or any of its members.

Three posters were designed to initiate the debate using sport, life and politics and these are supported by dozens of other questions on the website itself.

Regrettably the question relating to ?career women? has caused offence and the OAA unreservedly apologises to anyone who has been offended. This was not our intention and, to ensure that this misunderstanding does not persist, instructions have been given to remove this poster.

Subject to the vagaries of the weather, all copy will be removed as soon as possible. The sites currently carrying this poster will be either blanked-out or carry one of the other designs. The poster will also be removed from the ?Britainthinks.com? website. All Digital posters have already been removed.

I agree with Dittany, the original offense was towards women, so the charity should be about women. I second women's aid or somesuch, as they have so little money and do work very close to Mnetters hearts....

Fawcett are running the End Violence Against Women campaign here

Shelter is enormous because homelessness and housing duffs are an enormous problem.

while I do see that shelter really does help women - just seems a great op to support a less well funded charity which targets the needs of women specifically

Or for women's aid you could have "Sometimes you don't feel safe at home. Agree?" which would work with the women's aid logo

Shelter is enormous because homelessness and housing duffs are an enormous problem.

Cats protection league

What about the donkeys? They only have £11,000 each to get through the winter

I am still very bothered by the fact that some sort of threat of further action if we don't do this poster has been implied.

SDT, if we ask beta and OAA to support a charity with the posters, then they can do what they wish with our request. It means the request in not about MN, shows us to be uninterested in playing their game, and we will see how they respond. To not do it would be bad PR, and MN comes out smelling of roses whatever.

It is not unusual for people to request a donation to charity as a settlement of a dispute...this would be the same thing, surely?

I think it would be a good op for all involved. We make the request, they agree or not. End of MN involvement.

i really don't want to collaborate with (beta) at all, it was only a day ago the guy was wanting the personal details of some of our members and threatening to fuck MN right up. (i think that's the legal term).

the idea of passing the space onto charity is a good one, i amn't bothered which. WA is good, lending weight to the End Violence Against Women is okay. but part of me is fed up seeing women as victims of Bad Shit all the time, meh, i wonder if that's why the Shelter suggestion seemed so appealing?

I do think this thread is a marvellous example of how genuine debate can deliver resolutions that serve all involved. Surely that is the point of the whole Britainthinks campaign (apart from the underlying cause of promoting outdoor advertising)

I think Shelter is a better idea. I feel certain we should steer clear of the wimmins' issues trap.

they did offer to make a donation of £1000 to a charity of our choice if we came up with a suitable strapline, so presumably they can see the logic of passing it on?

i take it that they're keeping an eye on the thread, being busy-busy 24/7 lahndan types in the 80s mode?

To be fair to beta, it was an unusual situation, and legal advice would have been sought, and legal advice is not always about crisis management. I would bet Beta are slightly regretting their knee-jerk legal salvo. As evinced by the conciliatory tones later.

As long as we don't mention their bits or are mean about individuals, they ain't going to do nothing. It is not in their interests. I would hazard a guess that this whole dealing with internet forum fury is a whole new ball game for them too, and they are playing catch up.

"I don't think there's anything feminist in doing an ad for Shelter, nor does it actually help the women who were insulted or hurt by this ad. Not that there's anything wrong with wanting to promote what Shelter do"

Don't you think homeless people need more help than a few women who have had their feelings hurt?

I do.

Well Fawcett are about "closing the gender gap" rather than WIMMIN WIMMIN WIMMIN which sounds more inclusive I always think

Gosh yes their total income is around 600k which is absolutely teeny-tiny for all the good work they do

Yes, that makes a lot of sense, MadameDefarge. I'll add my vote to this option.

Dittany - sexism is underfunded because it's constantly hijacked by the right on camp who sadly turn people off it as a cause. Anti sexism needs to be mainstream an v v ordinary; it doesn't need to be a victim and live in a yurt. Sorry but that is what I think .

I think women's aid or fawcett

(until the next poster changes my mind)

or the cats protection league OBVIOUSLY