The Volokh Conspiracy

A lot of advertising uses sexual appeals (not just nice-looking people, but something well beyond that). But it usually doesn't involve people fully dressed is snow gear:

Still, some people are up in arms, according to Consumerist:

A Target billboard depicting a woman spreadeagled over a Target logo with her vagina centered squarely on the bullseye has some parents and feminists all riled up. One of them, Amy from ShapingYouth.org, contacted Target to see if they realized, you know, that their ad had a woman's crotch centered on a bullseye.

Advice Goddess Amy Alkon has, I think, the better view: People dressed in snowgear who are in that position are usually making snow angels (or, in rare instances, doing a highly bowdlerized version of da Vinci's Vitruvian Man), not preparing for sex or showing off their vaginas.

Of course, we're all free to think that "when correctly viewed, everything is lewd," and titter at whatever we find titterable. But making a fuss about how vile these ads are says more about the fussmaker than about the ads.

This, of course, brings up this old chestnut:

A man goes to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist shows him an ink blot and asks him what he sees. "A man and a woman having sex," the patient says.

The psychiatrist shows him another ink blot. "That's a man and two women having sex," the patient says.

The psychiatrist shows him another ink blot. "That's two men and a woman having sex," the patient says.

The psychiatrist says, "I'm afraid you're excessively obsessed with sex."

"Me!?," says the patient. "You're the one who's showing me the dirty pictures!"