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To some, she's the savvy spark that reminds drivers to stay safe. To others, she's a degrading stereotype. But everyone has an opinion about 'Bridget,' the sexy face of a Halifax safe-driving campaign.
"We were quite surprised and disappointed with the approach," said Irene Smith, executive director of the Avalon Sexual Assault Centre, a feminist organization in Halifax, the largest Maritime city.
"It just seems to me that it's offensive to many, many women who've experienced any form of sexual violence or harassment or been subjected to sexist jokes and innuendos."
The campaign was launched a few weeks ago by Halifax Harbour Bridges, as a means to curb speeding, tailgating and texting on the two bridges along the harbour, where fender-benders have been known to cause "annoying backups for the thousands of vehicles that cross the Macdonald and MacKay bridges daily."
Enter the fictional Bridget, with smoky eyes and slightly pursed lips, gushing radio innuendos like "a heavy foot doesn't flip my kilt." Not only does her smouldering glaze adorn the bridges' toll baskets, but she even has a Twitter account, with a tweet saying, "You know I like it when you go slow."
The timing of Bridget's appearance—during Sexual Assault Awareness Month—was particularly unfortunate. So far Smith's appeals to have the campaign pulled have been unsuccessful.
The $50,000 campaign funded by bridge tolls was intended to be playful, according to communications manager Alison MacDonald.
"We wanted to have a campaign that's a little humorous, tongue-in-cheek, and we also wanted the messages to come from a person and not an organization," said MacDonald.
One dissenters claimed tossing coins at Bridget's face was like being "in a strip club."
Bridget would seem to have men as her prime target (with the presumption that the only way to get through to them is via their groins). But what about dangerous women drivers out there? And believe me, they are out there in droves. On what level does Bridget appeal to them?
Cheeky and creative, or yet another lazy campaign using sex to sell an idea?