Cell Phones Are Expensive

Right above the stairway to the Clinton Blue Line there is an advertisement for high-rise apartments. On the ad, there's a picture of a young, urban, professional type woman - you know, one of those clip-art type pictures that ad designers take from one of many clip-art CD-ROMs they have around. Nothing terribly interesting, right?

Except that the woman in the ad is wearing a sheer white shirt and you can see what appear to be her nipples.

At first, I thought I was just imagining it - perhaps it was the way that the light hits, or maybe I was just projecting a bit of titillation onto what could be just an innocuous ink smudge or something. But the more I looked at it, the more I realized that those were indeed nipples.

And the more I looked at it, the more I seemed like some sort of pervert to onlookers, I realized.

While walking to the stop with Jen one day, I decided to get a second opinion. I told her all about this ad and the nipples and everything, and once we got to the entrance, lo and behold, the nipples were gone. I'm assuming someone finally noticed and corrected the ads with some simple touch-up paint or what have you. Of course, this did not stop my girlfriend from thinking I'm some sort of delusional pervert who walks around imagining the nipples on poor, unsuspecting billboard models.

And not to make a mountain out of a molehill, but I'm curious as to how this slips by everyone at the ad agency, the CTA, and the company that owns these high-rise apartments. Or was it planned? Did someone, somewhere think that this lady's nipples would help sell apartments somehow? I mean, nipples are harmless and hardly cause for alarm, but it's still a little puzzling when they're on display in a real estate ad. Or at a Superbowl halftime show, for that matter.

Posted by Dan on Monday, October 10, 2005 at 2:16 PM | Permalink