Love Them and Leave Them, Italian Style

I studied Italian in college and lived in La Casa Italiana for three years, so a number of my college friends make their way back to Italy in any given year and they always share photos on Facebook and send along humorous finds.

Knowing I write about dogs, one shared a funny advertisement that an Italian Animal Rights group is using to promote an abandonment awareness campaign featuring an Italian porn star, Alfredo Siffredi.  Apparently Siffredi is known for rough sex and rear entry.

"If you abandon your dog, I'll fuck you in the ass."

I was pretty sure the image was a fake because the message is crude, even by European standards. Since Animal Rights groups like PeTA are known for pushing boundaries and being provocative, especially with sexual advertising, I decided to see if the image was real. I googled the Italian and found out all about Siffredi and that he was actually retained by Animalisti Italiani Onlus for an anti-abandonment campaign but that their original message was a bit more tame.

"I have seduced and abandoned, but not my dog."

Seeing as Google returns four times the number of results when looking up the spoof ad versus the real ad, I’d say that the internet has embraced the crude humor.  Whether this will lead to anything better for stray Italian dogs, however, is doubtful.  Animal Rights groups entertain their own egos with provocative ads as much as adolescent pranksters entertain themselves with mockery.  Neither is good for much more than a laugh though; it’s hard to take a mission of compassion seriously when the message is so far removed from the cause.  The reason the spoof is funny comes in part from how ridiculous the ad is in the first place.

Provocative campaigns might get attention, but they fail to engender respect.  And I doubt such ads actually lead to changes in behavior.

* * *
Comments and disagreements are welcome, but be sure to read the Comment Policy. If this post made you think and you'd like to read more like it, consider a donation to my 4 Border Collies' Treat and Toy Fund. They'll be glad you did. You can subscribe to the feed or enter your e-mail in the field on the left to receive notice of new content. You can also like BorderWars on Facebook for more frequent musings and curiosities.
* * *

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

About Christopher

Christopher Landauer is a fifth generation Colorado native and second generation Border Collie enthusiast. Border Collies have been the Landauer family dogs since the 1960s and Christopher got his first one as a toddler. He began his own modest breeding program with the purchase of Dublin and Celeste in 2006 and currently shares his home with their children Mercury and Gemma as well. His interest in genetics began in AP Chemistry and AP Biology and was honed at Stanford University.