Gossip Girl: Advertising Porn?

A few days ago I was wasting time on the Internet at work. I came across a Gossip Girl cover shoot for Rolling Stone Magazine. I don’t know the legal issues regarding posting copyrighted photos so you just have to click on the link to see the photo. Quick description: the photo has Blake Lively (S) on the left and Leighton Meester (B) on the right. They’re holding an ice cream cone between them and they’re both licking it. You can see melted ice cream on Leighton Meester’s tongue.

I found the photo disturbing. I didn’t really take the time to try and determine why I was disturbed by it, I just knew I was.

Then I came across this excellent blog by Spider Problem. If you’ve read a previous blog of mine, you know I think this is a blog that people should read. The blog entry attacks this photo shoot without hesitation and I have to agree.

For the handful (mayby I should just write "three") of you who read my blog on a semi-regular basis, you probably realize that I try to keep my blog at the PG-13 level. Let's see if I can keep this PG-13: that melted ice cream on Leighton's tongue; think a pornographic photo shoot and what the ice cream cone implies and then use your imagination -- or just read the Spider Problem blog.

I know Blake Lively and Leighton Meester won’t read this blog, but here’s what I have to say to them: Admittedly, Gossip Girl likes to push the envelope. Last year, there were the OMG and OMFG ads all over the place. But this photo is just too much. Both of you either made an error in judgment or you were used by “about 6 executives that work at Rolling Stone.” (Quote from the Spider Problem blog.) Don’t you realize that your audience is tweens? And don’t say that the melted ice cream on Leighton’s tongue is being misinterpreted as implied porn. There are probably a handful of high school and college advertising classes discussing this photo right now and how it is an implied expression of a porn shoot. This photo is easy bonus points for anyone who brings it to class to discuss.

If you want a stronger toned blog in regards to this photo, read the whole Spider Problem blog.

Note: I'm not saying that I'm a perfect person and can stake a claim to sexual purity. So I don't want to throw stones here, but I just have to write a blog that makes a point that this photo shoot went too far considering the audience for this show.

Full disclosure: I hope that Spider Problem doesn’t use the following fact against me (should they come across this blog -- I think they're one of three who read this blog on a semi-regular basis) and therefore remove my quote from their myspace page: Gossip Girl is my guilty pleasure. I’m sorry. I do watch it. I’m truly aware I’m outside of the demographics for this show. I’m also aware that it probably doesn’t fit with my persona of writing about the Los Angeles local music scene (as well as economics). This is why it is a guilty pleasure - I know I shouldn't watch it, but I do.