‘Pro-life’ Ads on Coat Hangers? Yep

December 13, 2012 by 29 Comments

My friend Robin Marty has an article at Reproductive Health Reality Check that will leave your jaw agape at the sheer audacity of it all. A dry cleaning company in Cincinnati is using hangers that say “Choose Life” on them, in support of their anti-choice beliefs.

You would think they would know well enough to leave one place untouched, though. Wire coat hangers.

You would be wrong.

Springdale Drycleaners of Cincinnati, Ohio, has been etching “Choose Life” ads on wire coat hangers used to hang dry-cleaning.

Words fail.

Filed Under: Reproductive Rights 29 Comments
About Ed Brayton

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

  • http://www.holytape.etsy.com holytape

    “Well, I was about to, but then I looked at the coat hanger. The ad really made a coherent argument. So I decided to keep my little rape gift.” – said no one ever.

  • joeina2

    I don’t think they’re making a “wire coat-hangers are used for abortions” stab. I think it’s just the only medium they have available to them.

  • Akira MacKenzie

    Audacity or obliviousness? In this day and age I’d say the chances that this is was the idea of an anti-choice goon thumbing their nose at pro-choicers or a bilvering fool who didn’t make the connection between coat hangers and abortion are about equal.

  • dingojack

    what dos the message say?

    Something like:

    “Warning not to be used for a botched back-yard abortions. Suffer and die you filthy, filthy slut.”

    no doubt.

    Dingo

  • Didaktylos

    File this under “So terminally clueless that if it weren’t for velcro they wouldn’t be able to fasten their own shoes.”

  • http://cheapsignals.blogspot.com Gretchen

    “Etching” the ads on wire coat hangers sounds like they were inscribing the words on the hanger itself, which would be a lot more impressive (and pointless) than what they did– print the message on the white paper wrapper that usually encloses such hangers from a dry-cleaner. A great place to put a message, really….just, well, not this particular one.

  • Larry

    The total clueless-ness is strong in this one.

  • Sastra

    I say now we put “Pro-choice” ads on rosaries.

  • busterggi

    At least they don’t have joan Crawford’s picture on them.

  • anubisprime

    joeina2 @ 2

    I don’t think they’re making a “wire coat-hangers are used for abortions” stab. I think it’s just the only medium they have available to them.

    Of course the perpetrators are…they might be utterly clueless but never let it be said they do not like to be as graphic, brutal and as obnoxious against their perceived audience whenever opportunity arises!

    They think shock against the target minds in their midst equates to scoring a bulls eye for jeebus!

    The unspoken rule is never smell another xtians stench…I doubt if one xtian would cite the nonsense as bad taste….ever!

    Anyway even common sense would dictate that it is a rather thoughtless gesture because many many young women in the Western world died of septicaemia, a little forethought and they would have printed their effluent on the tab!

    It is on purpose, never doubt the bad taste of the gawd’ soaked legions…they are not intelligent enough to be subtle or have integrity….or indeed a point!

  • http://www.facebook.com/den.wilson d.c.wilson

    Joeina2 @2:

    A sign in the window would have been less tasteless.

  • http://www.gregory-gadow.net Gregory in Seattle

    If you need any further proof at how utterly unconnected to reality these people are, here you go.

  • http://www.facebook.com/den.wilson d.c.wilson

    Ed:

    In what has to be supreme irony, the banner ad for this blog post is a petition to defund Planned Parenthood.

    I really want to see how the algorithms for those ads work.

  • eric

    Well, either they pass the printing cost on to their consumers or they take a cut in profit. Either way, here’s hoping their competitiveness drops.

  • chisaihana5219

    Yes it’s tasteless. But I’m all for it. As a pro-choice person and long time supporter of Planned Parenthood, I’d be happy to see stores put messages on their products or in their windows. Then I would know where NOT to shop. Of course I live in an urban area where there is lots of choice. That does make a difference.

  • Doug Little

    This is a joke right?

  • garnetstar

    Words don’t fail me: “Could you direct me to a different drycleaner?”

  • glodson

    I was just thinking about this….

    This is just a bad idea. Not even considering the message, but putting a political message on your product is just stupid. You will likely lose customers who are offended. However, you aren’t going offset that loss with new customers because of the message. I mean, I would find a new dry cleaner, but the pro-life guy with a trusted cleaner isn’t likely to change his habits just for the message.

  • http://www.ranum.com Marcus Ranum

    Religious morals. Stay classy!

  • http://thebronzeblog.wordpress.com/ Bronze Dog

    At first, I thought of it as just another business using themselves as an ideological platform. Would be annoying enough for me to take my business elsewhere. Then the coat hanger part hit me. Wow. Top tier assholery. It’s bad enough that they’ve been adding steps for women to get safe abortions, generally trying to embarrass or guilt trip them. Now someone’s trying to twist the knife on women who’d have nowhere to turn to if the wingnuts had their way and banned safe abortions.

  • raven

    This isn’t really new.

    IIRC, Saint Reagan wanted to name a nuclear weapons system, the Peacemaker. Which name is also sometimes applied to the Colt .45 handgun.

    I can see it catching on.

    Handguns will be etched with messages like, “Choose life, don’t shoot yourself in the head”.

    Rifles like the recent shooter used in Oregon will have cheery messages like, “Not for use in malls or schools”.

  • raven

    LGM-118 Peacekeeper – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGM-118_Peacekeeper

    The Peacekeeper was a MIRV missile; it could carry up to 10 re-entry … from the U.S. nuclear arsenal in 2005, leaving the LGM-30 Minuteman as the only type of … and ports, and the system had little or no capability as a counterforce weapon.

    It was the peacekeeper.

    A missile carrying up to 10 independently targetable nuclear bombs.

    wikipedia: The Peacekeeper was a MIRV missile; it could carry up to 10 re-entry vehicles, each armed with a 300-kiloton W87 warhead/MK-21 RVs. A total of 50 missiles were deployed after a long and troubled development period.

  • raven

    wikipedia: The new ICBM missile was originally planned to be called “Peacemaker”, but at the last minute was officially designated the LGM-118A Peacekeeper.

    Not quite as wrong as I thought. It was going to be called the Peacemaker but, IIRC, too many people thought that was one Newspeak word too far.

  • Ichthyic

    Handguns will be etched with messages like, “Choose life, don’t shoot yourself in the head”.

    LOL

    most leading message, ever?

  • amycote

    As Kyle’s Mom from South Park sez: What what WHAT?!?

  • Chiroptera

    Oh, the irony.

    “Left wingers mistake real news story for Onion parody.”

  • http://itsmyworldcanthasnotyours.blogspot.com WMDKitty (Always growing and learning)

    I admit it, I laughed.

  • thebookofdave

    I had a convulsive spit-take, especially after following the links. Apparently, the dry cleaners are lauding this gimmick as a brilliant advertising strategy, even though it’s been turning off customers during the two years they’ve been using it. Does evolution by natural selection apply to commerce? I think we’re about to witness a test case in the field.

  • Pierce R. Butler

    This reminds me of an episode several years ago, when I was escorting at a local women’s clinic.

    As a patient came through a line of anti-choicers on the sidewalk, some of them tried (futilely) to engage her in conversation. One anti shouted desperately at her back, “You don’t have to go in there! You have a choice!”

    I managed somehow to get her through the door before collapsing.