Toronto Printing Company Uses Jian Ghomeshi Quote as Advertising

Today in “too soon,” a Toronto printing company is sending out mailers that are a playful little reference to the Jian Ghomeshi scandal. You know, the guy who nine women are accusing of sexual assault. That Ghomeshi.

A Toronto reader sent us a copy of the mailers. The image up top is the outside; “I like to dominate with my print communications” is clearly a clever reference to BDSM, since BDSM fan Ghomeshi claims he’s merely being persecuted for being a fan of the rough stuff. Great! This is going great! Let’s see the inside:

And that is a direct quote from Ghomeshi’s non-apology on Facebook (“Let me be the first to say that my tastes in the bedroom may not be palatable to some folks. They may be strange, enticing, weird, normal, or outright offensive to others. We all have our secret life”) repurposed for printing. “A slave to superior customer service.” We see what you did there.

The Toronto reader says she received the mailer at work today. “When I called them this morning they didn’t so much as offer an apology,” she writes, “or tell me they would look into it. They simply said, ‘okay.'”

An employee who picked up the phone at Corktown printing confirmed that the mailer was real.

“It’s a little satire,” she told us. “If you looked at it you can see that. There’s no intention for it to be offensive.”

Update 4:50 p.m.:

The ad agency responsible for the mailer, Agency Next Door, has issued a statement proclaiming themselves “surprised and sorry” that anyone might have been offended by the mailer. Here’s the full statement:

Agency Next Door does not and never will condone or tolerate the abuse of women.

The “Quote Worthy.” campaign in question was meant to expose the ridiculousness of the original defence as posted on Facebook by a local broadcast celebrity. Our intent was to make fun of the celebrity in question’s own unbelievable explanation for his actions.

We are surprised and sorry that someone has interpreted our mailer to include the victims in this particular case. We support their voices and rights 100%.