From the Radio Show: Letter to local business

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Hello all,

On the radio show I often host, I recently brought to the fore a business in my town who uses aggressive, sexually suggestive imagery to advertise their business. Those that listen know the drill and what I’ve asked. Below is the letter I mentioned on the air this morning.

June 16, 2010

Pandora’s Box
6121 Calhoun Memorial Highway
Easley, SC 29640

To the ownership and management of Pandora’s Box,

I am writing in regards to the recent introduction of the panel van, featuring suggestive advertising images, in front of your store in Easley.

First, I wish not to cast judgment or aspersions on you, your business, your employees, or your customers. Simply, my objective is to present a concern of public space and our responsibility to each other in the local community.

Many parents and families monitor closely what they allow in their homes through media. Those same parents, many of our local parents included, are cautious as to what images and messages they allow their children to consume. The prominent placement of your panel van has made the protection and insulation of our children and ourselves almost impossible.

Directly across from your location is a family-friendly fast-food establishment. Within site, children leave karate classes. And families shop in retail stores just hundreds of feet from the van. For families serious about what images they expose their kids to, an entire strip of the city has been eliminated for use. Frequenting any of the businesses around your establishment without having to view the van and its content is literally impossible.

Moreover, whereas on television, in movies, and in magazines, families can easily preclude any questionable content even with passiveness, avoiding your content requires inconvenient action.

Now, I affirm fully that you have neither the obligation nor the responsibility to make parenting or shielding kids from images more convenient or easier. But respectfully, from community-member to community-member, adult to adult, I ask you to consider it. I ask you to consider removing your van and any similar images from such prominent and inescapable locations.

I genuinely appreciate your consideration of this request and your consideration of families’ right of dealing with your sensitive content on their terms and in their own time.

Sincerely,

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Cory Truax @ June 16, 2010