Students Petition Advertisements

A student at the University of Massachusetts, Paul Gels, has recently developed a petition against specific advertisements that have been created by the Campus Vacations Incorporation, a travel agency group. According to Gels, the advertisements being displayed are sexist. In the advertisements, the company is promoting one of their regular events, SnowJam 2013, according to The Daily Collegian.

In the advertisement, a young man is dressed in ski gear, and tons of women in bikinis are by his side. When Gels got a look at the advertisement, he immediately believed it was sexism. Gels currently majors in marketing, and could not believe that a company would go as far as to create such a sexist advertisement. Gels said, “I thought it was a joke.” He believes that the advertisement is disgusting because it portrays women as sex symbols instead of actual human beings.

While Gels is majoring in marketing, his minor happens to be Women’s Studies. He has used his anger of the advertisements and decided to put the energy to good use, creating a petition in hopes of being able to raise awareness of the sexism in this advertisement. Gels set up his petition on change.org and his initial goal was to get at least 500 signatures total.

The name of the petition is Tell Campus Vacations: Stop the Sexist Ads. He provides a detailed explanation of the advertisement for those who have not had the chance to see it yet. He also claims that the advertisement is simply making women out to be objects of desire and sex, instead of women. Gels’ says that while many women are interested in skiing, the women depicted in the advertisement are obviously there to just meet men, instead of actually enjoying a ski trip. The advertisement clearly makes it seem that women are not interested in anything but looking good and hanging with men.

Aaron David, the Director of Marketing for Campus Vacation Inc., recently wrote an e-mail about the petition that Gels created. David wrote, “We apologize if anyone has found our image to be offensive in any way. We definitely respect the opinions of those that petitioned and will be more sensitive to the issue for all future designs.”

The petition that Gels created has already reached a total of 350 signatures and counting. It has gained attention from a large number of students at the university, many of whom have written comments along with the petition. A female commenter made it clear that the women in the advertisement should have been dressed in warm clothing, just like the men in the advertisement.