Melbourne singer songwriter Emily Ulman has members of the community up in arms over her poster for her upcoming album launch, featuring a cartoon of two men stroking each other’s cocks.
The poster resulting in complaints being made to the Advertising Standards Bureau, Ulman now has to face the ABS by Friday 19 November, the day after her album launch for Wear It Well at The Gasometer Hotel on Thursday the 18th. That’s going to suck with a hangover.
As reported by theMusic, the Bureau confirmed suspicions that the complaints were inspired by the sexual lasciviousness of the cartoons.
Not going into any further details, the bureau failed to mention what it was specifically about the image that offended these individuals (ahem homophobia ahem) so we were left to speculate. So speculate we did.
At first we thought the two gentlemen in the poster looked angry, and that the cock stroking, might have been cock grabbing, or cock brandishing as my editor suggested. If that were the case maybe these fine members of the community were only upset over what they perceived as violence?
However after starting deep into the image, certain truths were revealed to me via a Da Vinci Code-esque puzzle and I saw it. The guy on the right is clearly playing with the other guy’s bum, I realised, and those looks of anger could in fact be looks of concentration, as these two fellows took with vigour to the task at hand. You could say it was a productive day at Music Feeds HQ today.
Facing the complaints head on, Ulman gave stiff opposition, defending her poster and calling it “a work of art”, adding that she “definitely didn’t intend to offend anyone and I don’t think it’s breaching any advertising laws.”
She went on to explain that while the poster gets reported every time it’s shared on Facebook, it’s never been taken down, and despite some people being shocked by the cocks, she doesn’t believe the image violates community standards.
Well that settles it. If it’s good enough for Facebook, it’s good enough for me. But why don’t you decide by gazing on the pure unadulterated beauty of the poster here below.
Wear It Well was crowdfunded via Pozible and features Fraser A. Gorman and Augie March guitarist Adam Donovan and was mastered by Mikey Young of Eddie Current Suppression Ring.
