Usually when I hear that some bluenose bureaucrat is getting all uptight over something the average grown-up wouldn’t even notice, it’s happening right here in my own backyard. So imagine my surprise to learn that it isn’t Utah’s state liquor board that’s banned a particular brand of wine because its label features an image of a naked woman and a bicycle. No, it is in fact Alabama that has a problem with a century-old Art Nouveau illustration of a curiously nippleless nymph. The winemaker is naturally developing an ad campaign based on the ban, and I suspect that more people have seen the “offensive” label in the last 24 hours — because of the news coverage and blogs like mine — than would have in months or even years if the prudes had just kept their tut-tutting to themselves. The sorts who worry about this sort of thing never, ever learn the lesson that making a fuss only attracts more attention to the thing they don’t want people to see.
Jul312009