Haredi New York City Councilman David Greenfield has reportedly asked the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to remove Lane Bryant’s seminal #ImNoAngel ads from subway lines that travel through the haredi neighborhoods of Borough Park and Midwood.
Above: David Greenfield
Haredim Want NYC Subways To Censor Lane Bryant Ad Meant To Empower Women
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Will New York City soon censor subway ads to cater to haredi demands?
Haredi New York City Councilman David Greenfield has asked the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to remove Lane Bryant’s seminal #ImNoAngel ads from subway lines that travel through the haredi neighborhoods of Borough Park and Midwood. Yeshiva World reported.
The ads, which are not sexually suggestive, show women of all shapes and sizes wearing bras and panties and are meant as a direct jab at Victoria’s Secret, whose ads show only Playboy-style models.
Nonetheless, the ads upset haredim, and Greenfield claims he has received numerous complaints from haredi families with small children about them.
“Our local neighborhoods are not Times Square. These are where families live and children walk the streets. It’s not just subway riders who see these ads that literally wrap an entire train. People see these ads from their streets, their cars, and even their own windows facing the elevated line. We’re asking that the MTA be sensitive to the concerns of families by removing them from the subway or, at the very least, moving the ads to other lines,” Greenfield said in a prepared statement.
The MTA has reportedly previously declined to run sexually suggestive ads in the past – most recently declining to advertise an overly-suggestive ad for DUMBO Moving and Storage – but the Lane Bryant ads are not sexually suggestive, and the underwear the women are wearing covers more flesh than average bikini swimsuit.
In Jerusalem, haredim have repeatedly rioted, destroyed bush shelters and damaged buses over ads on public buses that depict any female – even completely clothed toddlers, cartoon drawings or women’s portraits shot from the neck up only. But their original objection was to ads that showed female teens or and adults who were, according to haredim, immodestly dressed.