Procter & Gamble has also aired a commercial for its Herbal Essences shampoo that promises an "organic" experience and shows a woman writhing and moaning as two men wash her hair. According to complaints posted on the web, she declares at the end of the shampoo, "OK, boys, it says to repeat if necessary. That is, if you are up to it."
It isn't even that raunchiness is a guaranteed moneymaker. In the year after airing the famous Paris Hilton soft porn ad, Carl's Jr. and Hardee's profits declined in comparison with previous years. The Parents Television Council reported that "sales at restaurants open at least a year were flat at Carl's Jr., while Hardee's same-store sales fell 1 percent, well below last year's increases of 6.4 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively."
The Parents Television Council does good work monitoring the good and bad guys in the popular culture world. (They've rated Proctor & Gamble as among the top 10 worst advertisers both for the sleaziness of their ads and for the content of the programs they sponsor.) But it would be misleading to suggest that the only reason to protest lewdness is that children are watching. Nor are the feminists correct to condemn pornography only because it objectifies women. This stew of smuttiness coarsens our sensibilities. It appeals to our lowest selves. It makes a mockery of words like delicacy, refinemen- and modesty.
And it makes it much more difficult to recover from the flu.