Adidas pulls plug on offensive World Cup t-shirts

Following a formal complaint from the Brazilian Tourism Board, Adidas has stopped the sale of two t-shirts that according to President Dilma Rousseff both offends Brazilian women and promotes sexual tourism.

The t-shirts in question are one that bears a bikini clad woman and the play on words "Lookin' to Score", which needs no further explanation and an "I (heart) Brazil" tee that represents a thong bikini clad behind.

I agree that the t-shirts are indeed offensive and were designed specifically to promote sexual tourism. I further firmly believe that Adidas should not have only removed them from sale, but also issued a public apology to all Brazilian women for portraying them as nothing more than sexual objects to be used for the pleasure of any man who arrives on Brazilian soil. Sometimes even respectable companies can do things that surpass all boundaries of good taste.

That said, I think that the complaints about the t-shirts came from a source that has the least credibility of all, a government that is also trying its hardest to sexualize Brazilian women, and promote sexual tourism. One need only look at the Ministry of Health television ads promoting the use of condoms during Carnaval. Yes, there is a very serious health issue at stake here, but the ads do more to sexualize women, portray them as so lacking in morals that they'll sleep with just about anyone during the festivities so condom use is as ultimately important as combating terrorism is to the USA.

And then there's Carnaval itself where the greater portion of the population take to the streets wearing less cotton than you'll find in the average bottle of Aspirin. Brazil is a culture that sexualizes women from an early age. Brazilian mothers tell their sons that they can do whatever they want as long as they don't dump the responsibility of an unwanted child on grandma! They  also drum into their daughters from infancy that they've got to have perfect bodies, look and dress sexy in order to attract a man. As if attracting a Brazilian man is like winning a lottery of some kind, believe me girls Brazilian men are no prize by any stretch of the imagination.

The government probably owes an apology to Brazilian women as much as Adidas does and the complaints about the t-shirts should be coming from Brazilan women themselves, not from a government that's equally to blame for the offense.

I'm sorry, but a government that promotes THIS (photo below) as the most important aspect of the Brazilian culture besides soccer does not have any right to complain about unnecessarily sexualizing women.



Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team