We came across the following in Toronto’s entertainment weekly Eye and Car Advertiser today.
Interesting coincidence. We used to know a Jacob Allderdice. We’ve been wondering what he’s gotten himself up to lately.
Advertising morality
Christopher Hutsul speaks of a “lofty moral bar†supposedly set by the advertising department of the Toronto Star and Car Advertiser (“Turn off the red light?†Letters, Nov. 15). What, exactly are those morals? The Star spreads its pages willingly to any automobile advertiser that flashes enough dough. Meanwhile on its editorial pages we read nothing but the usual bumph about diabetes epidemics caused by automobile dependency, deaths caused by automobile pollution, loss of farmland caused by automobile-induced sprawl, and financial ruin coming to Toronto “driven†by automobile-based suburban tax–base drainage (or something like that).On the other hand, this is also true of EYE WEEKLY.
The good news is, in your rebuttal to Hutsul, you admit that advertising policy and editorial stance are linked. Now how about a policy banning car ads in EYE WEEKLY? JACOB ALLDERDICE
Good luck, Mr. Allderdice. We sure aren’t holding our breath for this one.
[editor’s note: after an extensive search in our archives, we found the original Hutsul letter that provoked Sr. Allderdice’s wrath, and print it in all its glory below. Note Mr. Hutsul, a former cartooner at Eye Weekly and Car Advertiser, has his own website, located here. –ed.]
The Editors respond: Mr. Hutsul would have us turn our back on the women and men who work in a legal industry that is so marginalized that it makes basic workplace safety difficult to ensure. Doing so would further marginalize them and drive more of their commerce into the shadows of the black market. Perhaps in some parallel universe that constitutes raising the “moral bar.†Back in this universe, however, we’ll continue to recognize the legitimacy of sex work and continue supporting calls to have the courts and legislatures recognize the need of those who do it to be treated like workers and businesspeople entitled legal protection and basic human dignity.