Today on "No Sex Please, We're British": Without double entendres, we'd have no entendres at all

(Apologies to Alan Ayckbourn)

A “cheeky” poster in a Peta campaign against the consumption of dairy has been pulled from display after only one day after complaints from a local football club. The billboard image shows a startled woman whose face has been drenched in a white liquid substance next to the words “Some bodily fluids are bad for you. Don’t swallow. Ditch Dairy.”

I’ve always admired PETA’s ability to garner attention to their cause. Sure, sometimes they’re a bit over the top, and occasionally things can get pretty silly, but PETA excels at grabbing people’s attention. They know that even if you piss people off they’re thinking and talking about your cause. If people are talking about something, they’re thinking about it, and when they’re thinking there’s an opportunity for awareness and change. It’s what the kids call “viral marketing,” but it’s a technique that would have worked well during the Mad Men era. There’s nothing truly new about viral marketing, but when you combine it with the reach and speed of the Internet, awareness of your cause can go from 0 to 60 in no time flat.

The symbolism of the campaign is clear to anyone who’s ever heard the term “money shot”…and if you haven’t, well, you can Google it. PETA excels at creating a reaction, and in this case they’ve offended the sensibilities of the sexually repressed…or at least those who can’t describe it without resorting to euphemisms:

The billboard design, which was described by the local paper as like “the aftermath of a sex act”, was commissioned and set to be displayed throughout December after a Swedish study claimed that an increased risk of bone fractures and mortality are linked to dairy products.

Perhaps the good and decent (and sexually repressed) folks who run Notts County Football Club didn’t want to run the risk of parents having to explain anything to their children.

“Mommy, what does ‘aftermath of a sex act’ mean??”

Game, set, and match. Well played, PETA. The billboard may have come down, but people are talking. Mission accomplished.

Will someone please get that poor woman a towel?