During the Super Bowl, Teleflora ran this commercial, which shows talking rotten flowers insulting a woman, snapping, "no one wants to see you naked." The comments on Teleflora's Flower Blog sum up how offended people were by the ad, but don't think that only ten people bothered to complain to the company. According to a tip, the company has been rotating the ten different complaints, and the angry comment the tipster submitted still hasn't shown up.

Several readers emailed the company directly with their complaints, and forwarded us the following response from Teleflora:

We are very sorry that we offended you in any way by our commercial.

Despite the fact that we have been around for 75 years, we are a small
company and it was our sincere desire to break through the clutter with
our advertising. Teleflora is proud to support our network of 20,000
local florists around the country. These are small businesses who make
up the backbone of our country.

May we send you a $15 gift certificate along with our sincerest apology?
Our hope is that you can see for yourself the Teleflora difference of a
hand-designed and hand-arranged bouquet, delivered by your local
florist.

$15 off per order valid through 2/10/09

Promo Code: SBOWL

Thank you for being in touch.

Though Teleflora claims it was innocently trying to create memorable ads, it's not the first time that the company has used insensitive language in its promotions. Last Mother's Day, the Wall Street Journal reported that Teleflora had to apologize after sponsoring an "America's Favorite Mom" contest on NBC. Among the various categories in which moms could be nominated — including "military mom," "single mom," and "working mom," — was the "non-mom mom," which the now-closed website described as the "grandparent, stepmom, or mom to adopted children, each one raising and loving a child," according to This Woman's Work. After complaints, Teleflora changed the name of the category to "Adoptive Moms" and issued a statement saying, "After closer examination, we can see how this may have been offensive to moms who have adopted children — moms who are indeed real moms to their children in every sense of the word."

But apparently the company didn't examine itself closely enough, judging from the fact that their Super Bowl ad is still posted on the front page of their website  sans apology  along with their "guy's guide," which aims to help men pick out Valentine's Day flowers by matching the blooms to a woman's personality. The only hard part is deciding whether your loved one is an "it girl," "the girl next door," a "girly girl," an "uptown girl," or the "free spirit" who "has her own ideas about the world." (Yes, some women can think for themselves!)

The website also displays two of the other commercials in the "creepy degrading flowers" campaign, which are arguably even worse than the Super Bowl ad.

In this spot, a woman's coworkers send her flowers to congratulate her on her new baby, but the talking flowers say, "hello baby, goodbye promotion."



And in this ad, a woman's siblings send her flowers which insult her for being a philosophy major and make a crack about her inability to keep a boyfriend.

Related: Non-Mom Mishap at ‘America’s Favorite Mom’ Contest [Wall Street Journal]
So Awesome [This Woman's Work]

Earlier:Personal Foul: Super Bowl Ads Delivery Old-Fashioned Sexism

Comcast cable viewers in Tucson watching the Super Bowl on KVOA-TV had their video feed switched to a scene from a pornographic movie running on the channel Club Jenna after the last touchdown by the Arizona Cardinals. As you can see from this NSFW video on Gizmodo of what was shown, it seems like it may just be an odd commercial, until the man pulls off his pants and starts swinging his penis around. KVOA issued a statement saying they would "investigate what happened and make sure our viewers get answers," but we bet the answer is that some disgruntled employee was inspired by Tyler Durden's creative film splicing in Fight Club. [BBC, Gizmodo]

Yes, tonight, apparently, is a night for Bowls. So whether you're watching the Super Bowl or the Puppy Bowl, you can talk about it here, along with anything else that may be on your mind this Sunday evening. As always, let's keep it light, people. For those of you watching the Super Bowl tonight, have fun. And for the rest of us, here's a Sunday song to get things started:

Thanks for another lovely weekend, and have a nice night!

[Image via Natalie Dee]

There are two kinds of families in this country: football families, and everybody else. Football families begin traditions early; my best friend growing up was in full face-paint at the age of 5, cheering on her beloved New England Patriots with her mother and father, who were diehard fans. They bonded over football games, crocks of baked beans and cocktail weenies, and spent their weekends at local games, bundled up in 800 layers in order to fight off the nasty New England winter weather. Football was love to them, and they still, to this day, celebrate the big game together, regardless of who is playing.

My family, on the other hand, is a baseball family. My father grew up in Western Massachusetts and has had a lifelong devotion to the Boston Red Sox and to baseball in general, something he shared with my sisters and I when we were young. He used to drive me up to Fenway Park in the days when the Red Sox sucked so bad that you could buy good tickets about 10 minutes before the game started, and we'd spend the whole day eating peanuts and popcorn and screaming for Ellis Burks and at Wade Boggs. On our way to Boston, we'd pass under the Newton Sheraton Hotel, which had a giant "S" hung on the side. "You see," my father would say, "even Superman wants to live near Fenway Park."

(I later broke his heart by becoming a Seattle Mariners fan when I was 12, but karma has repaid me by ensuring that the Mariners are the suckiest bunch of sucks who ever sucked, so it's all worked out now.)

I will admit to being a bit jealous of football families on Super Bowl Sunday: there is a type of excitement that can't be faked, and for whatever reason, I just can't get into football. I have tried so bloody hard over the years to get into the Super Bowl; I was in college in Boston when the Patriots won, and you'd think that kind of energy would do it, but I was still pretty meh on the whole thing. You can't pick the sports you love, I guess. I can appreciate a Super Bowl win, but it's not something that means the world to me, like it does for my football-loving friends.

It used to be that even non-football lovers could watch the Super Bowl for the commercials alone; but YouTube and a consistent downhill slide in decent commercials over the past few years has made even that aspect of the game pretty lame, and as for the half-time show, if I wanted to watch a middle-aged man dance around awkwardly in a stupid outfit, I'd just ask my dad to perform his "watch me do a triple axel, Hortense" carpet-figure-skating routine in his pajamas that he breaks out during every Winter Olympics.

So tomorrow, when the Super Bowl Sunday parties roll around, those of you who love the game will have another memory to add to your banks, and some of you will either have the best day ever or the worst day ever, depending on if your team pulls through or not. For the rest of us, there's always the commercials, the Super Bowl Sunday spread, and the knowledge that Opening Day is just around the corner.

As one blonde woman throws off her jacket and proceeds to caress some asparagus, drawing it down her stomach and toward her crotch, another scantily-clad woman licks a pumpkin. Yet another toys seductively with some broccoli. As crappy faux-metal music plays, words flash across the screen: "Studies show vegetarians have better sex." The message is clear: ladies love their vegetables.

The general consensus is that PETA never intended the ad to be run, that they never wanted to pay NBC the $3 million. The Washington Post reports that PETA asked NBC for a list of things they would have to do to make their ad suitable for TV. Out of courtesy, NBC sent the animal rights organization a letter with a list of edits that would have to be made before the "Veggie Love" ad could be shown in primetime. PETA then used the letter to garner more publicity; there is now a link on their website that reads: "Read NBC's Sexually Explicit Rejection E-Mail."

So to sum up: The entire ad is a giant stunt, one that simultaneously exploits women and gets a ton of publicity for PETA. It's a rather ingenious move, one which saves PETA $3 million (although, the number of people who watch the ad online is still probably nowhere near the number of viewers they would have had during the Super Bowl). And this is only the latest in a series of stupid stunts by PETA. The Economist ran a scathing piece on Monday about PETA's sea kitten campaign, which is clearly aimed at children, and uses scare tactics to get kids away from eating fish. In a "bedtime story" on their website, PETA plays up the dangers of mercury, while ignoring the many health benefits that come from eating fish — benefits that a British parliamentary committee called "crucial" to the growth and development of children. PETA is also no stranger to exploiting women for its own gain; they frequently use nude protesters, and not just in their "I'd rather go naked" ads. PETA has responded to criticism about its sexist practices by arguing that, since the organization is run by a woman, they could not possibly be accused of sexism.

The Super Bowl ad has already made the rounds online, with quite a few bloggers weighing in. The writers at Animal New York expressed their disbelief quite clearly:

This is of course complete cow manure. PETA submitted this spot for one reason—the disapproval publicity NBC's rejection is generating (this post included). No, they'd sooner go on a fox hunt riding bulls with their bodies smeared in rabbit blood then waste $3 million on 30 seconds of TV ad time.

And AdRants asks:

Doesn't NBC understand PETA played them? That a trap was clearly set and NBC walked straight into it?

The whole strategy, of course, is to contend NBC allows ads for unhealthy junk food from the lies of KFC but won't allow ads encouraging, in PETA's opinion, a healthier lifestyle. Well, PETA, how about an ad that just said that instead of an ad which depicts women having sex with vegetable?

Over at AdFreak, David writes, in a post aptly titled "NBC won't you please take PETA's money?":

Instead of being prudish, I wish NBC had accepted the ad, charged PETA $3 million and put those whining whale watchers outta business when they couldn't pay. Then we could all wear fur coats, eat veal and watch football in peace.

Unfortunately, this is one of those frustrating times when we all want to ignore PETA, but find ourselves giving them exactly what they wanted: more attention. It is almost impossible to not discuss their sexist advertising and obnoxious antics. We're all for animal rights, but PETA has shown time and again that they are not particularly concerned with the treatment of women.

Veggie Tales, It's Not: PETA's Super Bowl Ad Is Too Much For NBC To Stomach [Washington Post]
Deep-Fried Kittens: PETA's Dangerous New Campaign [The Economist]
PETA Pawns NBC With Go-Daddy Style Banned Ad Strategy [AdRants]
NBC, won't you please take PETA's money? [AdFreak]
PETA's Latest Super Bowl Publicity Stunt [Animal New York]

Related: Interspecies Campaigning, Ingrid Newkirk

And here's something else to think about: What would you think of this stunt if a man were doing it (buying the ad during, say, the Miss America pageant)? Would he seem desperate? Embarrassing? Smart? Romantic? Some of the comments on the Post's site are crude:

"Someone should tell this woman that desperation is not attractive. THAT may be part of her problem."

"Amy: don't ask for my money in order to get married. Spend your own."

"I think she's looking for a guy that doesn't exist and will never exist - the IDEAL man, though she's taking it to an extreme. A good shrink and a dose of humility would help."

"She should spend $500 on a make-over and she could probably get a good guy for free."

It should be noted that Borkowsky is a comedian  her show involves answering machine messages from her mother, which she has been saving for over a decade. So whatever you may think about her, at least she has a sense of humor about herself.

Super Bowl Hail 'Marry' [NY Post]
SuperBowlSingleGirl.com [Amy Borkowsky's Site]

Related: Football...For Ladies [Radar]
2008 Lingerie Bowl Canceled [UPI]

"i know that you are not going to beliewhat i have to say especially after satterday night but when i got your e-mail today i laughed a first but then it started to sink in and my heart started to break as i read over your words.

"i realize that i have [messed] up and I want to talk to you about being with you and how i can make it up to you. this is not a joke i want to have you in my arms and know that you are mine and ythat nothing that i have done or [a friend] has said caould ever change the way that i feel about you. when i think back to the night that i spent with you by ourselves i wish that i would have done one thing and that is, i wish i would have put ... "

Stevens then describes, in explicit terms, an anal-sex act he wanted to do to her. He closes with: "you whore dont ever utter my name again."

So at this point it probably wouldn't surprise you that someone like Jerramy Stevens was accused of drugging a virgin sorority girl and anally-raping her in the alley next to a frat house. It probably also wouldn't surprise you that aiding him in this effort, directly aiding the cause of clemency for Jerramy in this crime, were the University of Washington Athletic director Barbara Hedges, then-head coach Rick Neuheisel, current head coach Keith Gilbertson, the University of Washington legal department  who fought to get the accuser's name released in the civil aftermath after the rape case was dismissed  King County prosecutors Norm Maleng, Dan Satterberg and Mark Larson, and lawyer and loyal UW football fan Mike Hunsinger, who represented Husky teammates in many cases for pennies on the billable hour.

And finally, it probably also wouldn't surprise you that most of these people had the same reasons for maintaining "reasonable doubt" for Jerramy: Girls are gold-diggers, groupies, looking for attention; as if there is no other reason for the existence of women, no other source of affirmation for them, than perpetuating that mythic higher caste occupied by men whose raw, caveman-like aggression keeps the fans in the seats, the donors sending checks, the Fortune 500 companies shelling out a million for thirty second spots, and the wheels of the economy in motion.

The story of Jerramy Steens reminded Anna of a Joan Didion story in an early '90s issue of the New Yorker on a rapist group of Orange County high school football players, the Spur Posse. As explanation for his son's "unlawful sexual intercourse" with one or more girls, one father proffered (and yes she looked this up):

These girls pre-planned these things. They wanted to be looked on favorably, they wanted to be part of the clique. They wanted to be, hopefully, the girlfriends of these studs on campus.

When prosecutors decided not to charge Stevens, Neuheisel and Hedges agreed that Stevens should not be disciplined. Neuheisel's test was this: If a player embarrassed himself, his family or the university, he should be punished. This episode embarrassed the UW, Neuheisel said, but "given the prosecution's decision not to go forward, it looked as if Jerramy was not the reason for the embarrassment."

But what era is this? Who are we? Do people believe these things in their hearts? Does it ever strike them that any other black man in this country with Stevens' record  well, he wouldn't have been able to rack up a record like that, he'd be serving a life sentence by now? You've seen the MSNBC prison specials! Is that some sort of societal achievement, that an athlete's economic importance to his school can put him in the impunity ranks with Jeff Epstein? Because, you know, break a limb; contract a superbug  and it's All Motherfucking Over.

A few days ago Dodai's mom showed me some papers she had from an estate sale held in Alabama in the early 1800s. There was a man for sale, he was crippled; the asking price was one dollar.

"See, he cost less than the teacups," she pointed out.

As it was, all his legal problems have chipped a lot off Jerramy Stevens' asking price.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed him  on the cheap  for $600,000, which was $5,000 above the minimum for a player with his experience.

"He is a big, powerful, speedy tight end," said general manager Bruce Allen. "He has had some off-the-field issues that have hampered him a bit. We had a very serious talk with him today.

Convicted of assault and accused of rape, star player received raft of second chances [Seattle Times]
Related: The 2000 Washington Huskies Were Horrible People [Deadspin]
The Quarterbacks' Sideline Play [NY Times]

[New York, January 22. Image via Bauer-Griffin]

• Kirsten Dunst looks almost as evil in these Miu Miu ads as we somehow believe she actually is. [Sassybella]
  
• The latest ads for British lingerie label Agent Provocateur features model Vahina Giocante playing "a bored housewife drawn into a love affair with a reform school tomboy." Um, based on this image, she doesn't look so tomboyish to us! [Vogue UK]
  
• First no black models, now no black customers: ck Calvin Klein Beauty Collection cosmetics for Caucasians only. [BellaSugar]
  
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• Donna Karan: Still trying to cure cancer through yoga with her Urban Zen initiative. [NYMag]

• Ooh, images from the Jovovich-Hawk for Target line. Yeaaaah, jury's still out. [Sassybella]
• Elle fashion director/ em>Project Runway judge Nina Garcia is no stranger to shilling for Blackberry, but now she's shilling a pink Blackberry. [Fashion Week Daily]
• This year, the Make-A-Wish Foundation fulfilled the dreams of a teenage girl named Yali, who had always longed to collaborate with Kate Spade in designing a handbag. "This was the most inspirational and gratifying experience of my life," says Yali. Um, so how's Yali holding up? What's her affliction? What's the prognosis? Yeah, they don't say. But Kate Spade ooh! [Fashion Week Daily]
• Diane von Furstenberg is now designing shoes. "My shoes are not just pretty accessories; they are functional and serve a purpose." Shoes? A purpose other than retail therapy? Shock. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Here's a handy place to hide your ill-gotten subprime mortgage hedge fund gains: a $18,000 belt. [UPI]
• Alexandre de Paris, Elizabeth Taylor's favorite hairstylist, passed away over the weekend at the age of 85. [Independent]