Photo courtesy Victor Zaptana.
Adams Morgan has a problem with more than just snakes falling from the sky. An advertisement promoting the neighborhood’s dining scene has been called “troubling” by one local group that works to end street harassment.
The ad from the Adams Morgan Partnership Business Improvement District shows a woman’s shoeless foot touching a man’s leg under a table behind text reading, “Al fresco. Al frisky. They’re both on the menu in Adams Morgan.”
In a post on Collective Action for Safe Spaces’ website, a digital advocate Victor Zaptana wrote, “It’s disturbing to see the Adams Morgan’s BID take a step in the wrong direction by trying to draw people to the neighborhood by insinuating you’ll get laid if you go there. This is something I would expect of an Axe body spray ad, not an organization that is supposed to represent the interests of businesses.”
“Whether it’s in relation to Adam’s Morgan or any other DC neighborhood, advertising that conflates alcohol with sex sends a worrisome message,” CASS said in a statement beneath Zaptana’s post.
The ad’s appearance coincides with CASS’s launch of Safe Bars, which will train bar staff, including bouncers, how to respond to and prevent sexual harassment and assault.
“We hope that AdMo BID—and other DC BIDS—are receptive to the documented need for local bar staff to be trained on these issues,” Renee Davidson, CASS’s communications director, tells DCist in an email. “In the meantime, we also hope AdMo BID rethinks an advertising campaign that promotes the troublesome equation of alcohol and D.C. nightlife with unrestricted sex.”
Davidson says that Lauren Taylor, the founder of the anti-harassment group Defend Yourself, is meeting with the Adams Morgan BID Wednesday to introduce Safe Bars.
Collective Action for Safe Spaces is also planning to launch a late night ride program for D.C’s women and LGBT population.
The person answering the phone for Adams Morgan BID said its executive director Kristen Barden was out of the office. Further calls were not answered.
