Monday, April 11, 2011
Purple Feather: Offensive in the Extreme
I am stunned by the embedded video produced by Purple Feather, a UK based company. Stunned. Shocked. Offended. Take your pick all would describe my reaction. I rarely post anything about disability rights outside of the United States. I stick with matters as they pertain to the United States because disability is perceived differently in other countries. Sure I am familiar with issues abroad, especially as they relate to Canada and the U.K., but I prefer to keep a focus on this country. We clearly have enough problems of our own. Yet I do from time to time comment about issues abroad. When I do so it is because i have a very strong reaction to a gross injustice that has taken place. The embedded video fits into this category.
I know nothing about the company Purple Feather, an online content specialist. This company writes online and offline content for websites, magazines, books, newsletters, marketing campaigns etc. I suppose they are good at what they do. Portraying people with a disability in a negative way is something i have railed against in the past. It is nothing new. This video however sets an all time new low. While I rail against ads that portray people who use a wheelchair as dependent, this video takes it even further. No pretense is made about the fact a blind man is begging. Ho hum, an every day event I suppose. Shockingly, from an international perspective it is common--the most common world wide "job" for a person with a disability according the the UN is begging. This man is dehumanized in the extreme. The poor bastard cannot not even write a sign worthy of a beggar. This is left to an able bodied woman. You know those all powerful people that can walk, hear, and see. No thought, none, is given to why people with a disability may be forced onto the street to beg. No thought is given to how a blind person can do the ordinary--you know like enjoy a beautiful sunny day. If you are blind you could not appreciate such a day. If you are blind you are reduced to begging on the street. If you are blind you are helpless, dependent upon others. Enter soaring music and pulling at the heart strings of people that know nothing about disability. Judging by the comments posted on You Tube the vast majority of people that saw the video loved it. Yes, it was "moving", "inspirational", "touching" etc.And how many people saw this so called "moving" video. Almost one million! Of those that took the time to press "like" they numbered a staggering 6,621. People such as myself that pressed "dislike" numbered a meager 67. Now I try to ignore comments such as like versus dislike but this made my blood pressure soar! Worse yet, I think it represents the depth of knowledge people have about disability. Here I would put that knowledge close to nil. I do not think people are stupid but rather uneducated. We simply choose not to teach people about disability. We choose not to think disability rights and civil rights are comparable. We choose not to include memoirs written by people with a disability in secondary school curriculums. We do not have disability studies department at every major university. We choose to ignore the ADA whenever possible in the USA. We choose not to employ people with a disability. We choose to provide sub standard education for people with a disability. It is no wonder we rarely see those pesky people with a disability out in public. When we do see them what do we expect to see? According to this film, on the street begging with a shitty sign. But despair not! A good hearted woman will edit that sign and her fellow exemplars of civilization will drop a few coins in the man's tin jar. Is this 1911 or 2011?
Okay, it is obvious I am mad--very mad. And to borrow the classic film line "I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it any more!" Here is what I want readers to do. Send Purple Feather a very angry email. Go to You Tube and mark this film as offensive content. I for one am offended. This is what I did and I swear if this was a US based company I would call up the CEO and complain vociferously.
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34 comments:
I hate feeling silenced by things like this! You speak against it and your displeasure reaches just your own audience. As you point out, the numbers on the video are much more positive than negative.
How are all those uneducated people ever going to understand why this is so, so wrong?
Sometimes...a lot of times...it feels like no one is listening. That most AB people have no desire to learn, happy to just feel good about themselves for tossing a quarter at someone.
I went and rated it as offensive and suggested that if people want to know why anyone would dislike it, they should read this post. Hope it helps... :(
Ruth, Yes, I am reaching an audience that is already informed. This is a huge problem. I would like to think that if all people with a disability asserted their civil rights along with their friends and loved ones the world would be a better place. This just does not happen. Glad you too rated the film offensive. I would hope organizations associated with blindness would condemn the film as well.
I flagged it before I even read your post. Its disgusting, and it infuriates me. I can't believe how ignorant people are, and how accepting they seem to be of the idea that there is nothing wrong with a blind man begging on the street. To them, it seems perfectly acceptable. Of the blind people I know, not a single ONE of them is a beggar. In fact, they're college educated and live extremely active, vibrant lives. I think the makers of this video need a serious crash course in discrimination and essentially what is a hate video.
I made my first visit to London in 1974. I was on the tube and an elderly man pushed over to me and showed me a sign that he was disabled in the war. (Assumed WWII.)
I later found out that one of the "benefits" disabled soldiers received in Britain was having exclusive rights to beg on public transportation.
Yeah, that's inspiring, too.
I don't understand why people won't learn about this stuff!
Disability rights is relevant to every single person on the planet.
I try to tell people, learn about it now so that if you ever are in a position where you or someone you love becomes disabled, you won't be starting from scratch with no idea of what life will look like.
No one seems to care, though.
Ruth, I have been thinking about disability since I was 18 years old. Why people are resistant to learning remains a mystery to me. I have many theories as to why but none satisfy me. It is as you point out in everyone's best interest.
Oh look! Insult on top of injury: It's not captioned!
William, you said:
"Shockingly, from an international perspective it is common--the most common world wide "job" for a person with a disability according the the UN is begging."
Yes.
And it seems to exclude almost nobody. On the other hand, poverty is disabling.
Have read and thought so much about begging, from Paul Aterios to Harlan Lane quoting a Deaf teacher who discouraged his students from putting up a sign, and also Leah Hagen Cohen, who talked about the "finger alphabet" cards which people used to carry.
It would be well to write to the director and to the company. A personal letter. And to the members of the creative team.
"From one creative to another, please consider..."
"We choose not to think disability rights and civil rights are comparable. We choose not to include memoirs written by people with a disability in secondary school curriculums. We do not have disability studies department at every major university. We choose to ignore the ADA whenever possible in the USA. We choose not to employ people with a disability. We choose to provide sub standard education for people with a disability. It is no wonder we rarely see those pesky people with a disability out in public."
It would be good to make a counter-ad with those words and the tagline: "Is it 1911 or 2011?"
Well, after becoming apoplectic with rage, I told my boss at the Wild Guitar Company how offensive that ad is, and that we should boycott this company immediately. I made sure that I added them to our boycott list, so they'll never see a cent from us! My boss was was also quite offended after I briefed him on the matter, & he's going to tell people he knows to boycott them. I'm in the process of telling everyone I know to boycott them, & I have friends in London! I also recommended to my boss that he tell marketing & PR to write this company a snarky note explaining why they've lost any hope of doing business with us.
My friends who are blind are competent, successful professionals. One of them is a computer programmer & software designer, & the other is one of my professors at the University of Iowa, who's a full professor & a famous writer.
I'll bet Prof. Kuusisto is having a herd about this ad at this very moment. People at the U of Iowa are always protesting stuff; it shouldn't be that hard to get a protest going & get students to boycott them. Bill, you & I should talk to Prof. Kuusisto & see if we can get him to give a speech on this issue- I'll bet we could get a few hundred people to protest, especially now that the weather's nice. We'd probably get some coverage from the Daily Iowan as well. We could really focus a lot of attention on issues faced by people with disabilities and bring awareness of those issues to the student body, and then many more students could become interested in disability studies, which has been a fascinating eye-opener for me. I'm sure many other students would feel the same way if they could hear someone as eloquent & charismatic as Prof. Kuusisto leading a protest. Now that would get people's attention.
Hi Bill,
I read your piece some time ago, and I agreed with it completely. Today, I found occasion to come back to it. My husband was sent a link to the video from a friend, who considers himself quite progressive, and who felt that it was very beautiful and moving. My husband forwarded it to me and said, "another example of the 'typical world' taking charge of a non-typical person's attempt to self-advocate."
Indeed.
I sent back a link to your post to the person who had thought the video was so great. Hopefully, it will make some difference. In any case, I want you to know that, in this case at least, your words are extending somewhat beyond those of us who already get it.
hi . i am not disabled, and i'd like to agree that the video is offensive, certainly in the way you point out, but also that it comes from an ad agency, who have successfully used the "touching" story to promote their own business. asymmetrical marketing? something like that. the nice yuppie woman, not disabled, uses her
marketing expertise to increase the clueless blind guy's
begging income. oh what a nice parable. HELLO WORLD. AN AD agency made this! it's an ad for an ad agency showing an advertising person as the heroine of the story. jeezus, get a clue the rest of you that were so touched by this heartwarming scam.
Thank you so much for what you wrote about this, you summed up my feelings 100%!!! It is so hurtful that AB culture has absolutely NO CLUE what is offensive to us, and then has the gull to get angry at people with disabilities for feeling offended about OUR oppression!! Because they don't get it, that's our problem. I'd love a sad-music video about how we are stereotyped and marginalized by society, daily - and often for their own personal gain (ie, advertising). Now THAT would be okay ;) Keep up the great blogging; reading this helped lower my blood pressure over lunch and allowed me to regain my appitite :) Thank you again.
The comments here are all very interesting. However, the reality is that in many instances, handicapped people have no option but to beg.
If they have no choice about begging, is it better to rail against the injustice that forces them to beg, or to help them improve their return on begging? Is what the lady in the video did not better than either ignoring the blind man, or just tossing him another coin?
You're obviously ignorant. The majority of the homeless have mental conditions. NOT physical. We have lives, fairly normal ones at that. Why would we beg? The government helps substitute income we are not capable of earning, and some of us work even still. Know what you're talking about before you speak.
FYI, this video was actually a rip-off of a short film that won the 2008 Cannes Short Story Award, for what it's worth.
More info here: http://dannybrown.me/2011/04/16/immitation-or-inspiration/
dskohli, you're as ignorant as you are offensive. The majority of the homeless and the destitute in this country have MENTAL illness. Not physical disabilities. Know what you're talking about before you speak so stupidly.
dskohli, As others have pointed out the vast majority of homeless people in urban areas that beg have some form of mental illness. Sadly, the most common job for people with a disability world wide is indeed begging. This is degrading at every level. I cannot justify this in any way shape or form.
Hi, as I did some research on the PurpleFeather video I came across this blog. I notice that there’s a lot of emotion being expressed and I’m genuinely trying to work out exactly what’s driving it. Please don’t get angry at me. I’m just perplexed. Here are some questions that I have:
Is it required that all fictional narrative represent the disadvantaged in such a way that their weakness is compensated for?
Is it wrong to portray any crippled or disadvantaged person having kindness shown to them in a way where their disempowerment is exposed / highlighted?
If the answer is yes to the above, then must all authors work with uniformly gifted characters?
Certainly it was wrong to rip off the idea from Alonso Alvarez Barreda of Wama Films.
To all those who went against this video: in my country (Tunisia) , if you are blind, you often have to beg and still live in misery. This video moved me. I am educated and I believe there is nothing wrong to show the world that the way you communicate affects deeply your life. It is true that Purple Feather did this video to promote its business. So what? Nothing wrong; at all.
I wish they'd make a public retraction via n original, purlefeather concieved message that also goes viral!!!
I too noted how few ppl pressed that dislike button.
i came across ur blog via google research looking for criticisms of their extremely offensive ad.
PS - why don't ppl email here hello@purplefeather.co.uk to demonstrate their disdain?
perhaps some 'form designed protest email' could be comprised and linked also here?
their ad, to my mind represents the worst form of capitalism.
PS - have u had any apology/acknowledgement etc regarding the offensiveness of this ad from purplefeather?
i've started a Facebook Page called "Purplefeather Advertising should Apologise'.
May I invivte you's all over there to contribute and join me in signing the petition.
https://www.facebook.com/PurpleFeatherAdvertisingShouldApologise
Cheers
Jaahda, I sent the company an email as did many I know. They did not have the courtesy to respond.
I'll respond. You are an insensitive idiot, pretending to be sensitive.
Truth Caustic, Calling me an "insensitive idiot" does not exactly add much to the discussion. What do you base your assessment on? More specifically, do you work for the company Purple Feather or are you expressing your own opinion? I cannot imagine how any reasonable person can conclude the short film is anything other than offensive.
I think this is a great blog post (and blog generally). I've also written a post on this video. You can read it here:
http://hannah-thompson.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/offensive-portrayal-of-blind-goes-viral.html
I've given you a little shout-out at the end!
Hannah, What a great post about the video. Loved your mention of undermining autonomy. I spent some time reading your blog. Was very impressed. I especially liked what you wrote about the paralympics. Thanks for your kind words.
Are you aware of what people with a disability have to live on. It's not much. As a matter of fact, I am a person who has AIDS, liver and kidney failure and have had my spine surgically corrected 4 times. I don't know this mans whole story, but if he has to sit on the sidewalk and ask for money than it must be for a good reason. Until you know anything about anyone who has to ask for help, I suggest you volunteer with the physically challenged. Learn about their life. See how they struggle to make ends meet. You referring to him as a "poor bastard" says a lot about you. Referring to ANYONE as a BEGGAR is just disgusting. "The most common job for a person with a disability is begging (according to the UN). You have to be out of your fucking mind. I wish for you that you are incapacitated for the rest of your life (hit by a car, burned in a fire, shot in the spine or since you mentioned that this made your blood pressure soar, perhaps a stroke) and then I'd love to see you begging on the street. I'd give you money and a very long speech on KARMA. Good luck to you. I hope you get that heart transplant that you desperately need. You're not a fucking idiot. You are cruel. You wouldn't give him money, or a sandwich or anything else. You'd probably spit on him out of disgust. When you actually learn what it's like to live with a disability then you should comment on these types of videos. Until that time. you should keep your thoughts to yourself. p.s. What if you had a child that was born disabled. Would you still be as ignorant?
Scott, I am sorry my post made you so furious. I am not sure how to respond. The point I tried to make was the portrayal of this man who is blind in the video reinforced stereotypes about people with a disability. I referred to him as a "poor bastard" because that is what the video makers wanted you to feel. If you had read posts I put up in the Fall of 2010 you would know that I was forced to ask for help-lots of help. You should also know I have been paralyzed for 35+ years and have spent much of my time defending the rights of all people with a disability. Given this I know all too well what people with a disability live on. I am indeed disgusted. I am disgusted any human being would be forced to beg. I am disgusted people needlessly suffer. I am sorry that you have such rage and totally misunderstood the point I was trying to make. I am also shocked by your misplaced animosity. I wish you nothing but the best and hope your health improves.
I have traveled to some of the poorest countries and I can tell you that begging is all people with disabilities have left when they do not have family support. Mental or physical disabilities it is the same. It is not a stereotype. It is an injustice that plays out daily in our world.
There are many countries who do not have unemployment or sickness benefits and education and services are not easily obtained so they are forced to beg in the streets to survive. I have photographed this in Mexico. IT was heartbreaking.
My husbands family were angered at my photos and said I went looking for these pictures to paint a negative image of their country and where did I find all these people. I explained they were all in the center of the city. On every corner and church steps. Every bus stop. It highlighted that as humans we have become numb to the needs of others and the immediate world around us.
Countries like Mexico, India etc have huge populations and if you have a disability then you are unemployable. In Mexico children of poor families are left selling candies and washing car windows at traffic lights instead of being in school getting an education.
We are lucky to live in developed societies where everyone is afforded the same rights to education and employment. That our governments provide funding and support.
Even though this is an advertisement for their business, if it brings some compassion and humanity to people and make them more aware of the plight of people in our world then that is a good thing. We need more positive messages. People helping people. Acts of kindness. There is enough angry rants and abuse going on in this world. There are enough people suffering.
Erin, I truly wish I could take exception to your comment. In many nations, not just Third World countries, begging is indeed the only option for people with a disability. You discussed Mexico but could easily have written about Japan. I am not surprised your family reacted with anger. Too many people do not want to acknowledge the gross social inequities associated with disability. To be forced to beg on the streets is a shocking social failure.
When I started watching the video I was wondering what the good Samaritan was going to do. I thought the good Samaritan was going to pick the guy up off the cold shitty pavement and take him to lunch.
I wasn't surprised the video was generated by someone selling something.
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