THIS IS IMPORTANT AND I URGE ALL OF YOU TO READ ABOUT THIS!

Tonight, a friend and I were watching TV and this commercial came on that talked about some average joe's daughter becomming, dating, marrying and then later giving birth to what they called an "UNDESIRABLE."

The girl in the commercial was being portrayed wearing clothing that were gothic/metal in nature and so was this guy she dated and married. The child they supposedly bore was also portrayed wearing a black leather vest and a dog collar. The narrator on the commercial described this as though it was a horrible nightmare that any good parent would never want to see happen. I thought to myself, "What sort of group would air a commercial like this?" That was when the commercial said that this could all be prevented if the viewers ordered DIRECTV!

THIS IS THE COMMERCIAL!

If any of you have seen this commercial, then I hope that you are as outraged as I am at the blatantly obvious bashing of the images that tend to reside within our subculture and the rediculous prejudice that saturated every word and image! It is so completely cruel and unjust that such a large company would do something to perpetuate the sterotypes and lables that we all have suffered under since the beginning. This commercial will do nothing good for us and may even cause an increase in the bullying for both children and adult Goths and Metalheads.

Discovering that DIRECTV had a Twitter account (because who doesn't these days?), I messaged them about my outrage and outwardly demanded that they take down the commercial or I would take the matter directly to the FCC. However, both my friend and I know that this is not enough. As such, not only will both of us be writing emails to the company but we will also be encouraging everyone that we can to boycot DIRECTV for using their power over the media to promote stereotypes and the prejudice behind them. I would seriously encourage all of you here at goth.net, my friends and fellow goths, to do the same or I could see things get bad in the imminent future. We just want to see this commercial taken off of the air so that it doesn't lead to something worse.

If you wish to help, then I will post links that will take you to the company's website so that you may email them and will also take you to the twitter account so that you may let your voice be heard (assuming that you have a twitter account, that is.)

I will keep everyone updated once we get this ball rolling and prevent more damage from being done.

TWITTER ACCOUNT: https://twitter.com/#!/DIRECTV

FACEBOOK ACCOUNT: http://www.facebook.com/#!/directv?sk=wall

DIRECTV WEBSITE: http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/content/contact_us

-- Thu Jan 26, 2012 1:24 am --

It's not just Goths or Metalheads, but Punks as well. It's pretty much all-encompassing.

No offense, but I thought that commerical was funny. A lot of goths I know have a good laugh at themselves a lot of the time.

And, face it, our music, fashion, and often our attitudes are undesirable to mainstreamers. That's really kind of the point. Much of mainstream music, fashion, and attitudes are undesirable to me.

-- Nephele
Who thinks that baby was adorable.

I actually love that commercial.

And I totally agree with Nephele.

~spidey

To the OP: I have taken enough shit for how I looked, what I listened to, etc over the years that i don't want to trivialize how this advert hit you. Having said that, I took it to be so much more playful than hurtful in it's 'mocking' of the suburbanite and his terror of a punk grandkid.

Sorry, but I too laughed, and wasn't offended a bit.

Honestly, it's not a commercial worth raging over. I mean, Nephele summed it up best when she said that our appearance isn't something that the mainstream society desires. I mean, if it were desired by everybody, then it wouldn't really be an alternative subculture anymore.

I thought it was amusing, and so did my boyfriend (who is a metalhead). If you take yourself too seriously, you're going to get offended by A LOT of things on the internet, and in real life.

I think it was meant to be funny, not offensive.

And I want a grandson with a dogcollar.

Added to favorites, that add is awesome.

Just because you find it funny doesn't make it any less offensive. Discrimination is wrong no matter who's doing it, be it Jack Chick, David Duke, Ann Coulter or DirectTV. If DirectTV needs to discriminate an tire subculture just to peddle their products, then that just makes them deplorable.

By the way, does anyone remember THIS?:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sophie_Lancaster

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the friends and family of Sophie Lancaster would find this commercial hilarious. Seriously, a girl in the United Kingdom was KILLED because of the very mindset that this commercial reflects. The fact that people find this commercial "funny" leads me to believe that poor Sophie died in vain, and that there will be another Sophie pretty soon because society thinks xenophobia and discrimination are "funny".

Gabriel Van Helsing, there is NO ONE here who finds the tragedy of Sophie to be "funny." Nor is anyone in this thread xenophobic or discriminatory because they laughed at the commercial.

You may have whatever opinion you please, but do NOT insult the members of this board with insinuations like this.

Furthermore, there is no need for you to school anyone here in the tragedy of Sophie Lancaster with Wikipedia articles, as we are all very familiar with that tragedy. I daresay more than you are.

Topic closed, because this is just getting ridiculous now, and way beyond the pale.

-- Nephele