Massachusetts State Rep. Carole Fiola snapped this photo of a billboard on Route 195 in Fall River that’s been turning some heads.
By Kim Kalunian, WPRO News
A local state representative is up in arms about a leg.
Massachusetts State Rep. Carole Fiola has created a bit of a social media firestorm after some of her constituents brought a certain billboard to her attention, calling it sexist and inappropriate.
The billboard in question is by Gulf Electricity and features a stockinged woman’s leg flicking on a light switch with the pointed toe of her black high-heel. The caption reads, “Are we turning you on yet?”
Fiola went to see it herself, snapped a photo and shared it to Facebook last Friday. She wrote: “I’m on a roll today. Just pulled over on I-195 this am to take this picture. This billboard sets women back 50 years. Thanks to @Jean Fox for telling us about it yesterday. I’ve left a message for Gulf Electricity and I hope they call me back. What do you think? #weveworkedtoohard”
“I said it was offensive. I think it’s tasteless. I think it’s stupid,” she told WPRO News. “Some people think it’s funny, I don’t.”
The Facebook post has since been shared 40 times and has more than 200 comments. Some people agree with Fiola, some think the billboard is funny, and others don’t seem to care.
But Fiola was irked, so she made a call to Gulf to ask what they were thinking when they created the ad, which sits high above Route 195 in Fall River.
“I think from a marketing perspective they could have gone 100,000 other ways to get their message across,” she said. “But certainly it’s working, because we’re talking about it.”
Fiola says Gulf never returned her call, but contacted a Massachusetts state senator to say they have no intention of taking the billboard down.
“They don’t have to,” said Fiola. “That’s their right as a private company.”
Fiola said she’s still hopeful they’ll reconsider and thinks Gulf would gain credibility by pulling the ad. She said she has visited the Gulf Facebook page and noted a marked difference between their online advertisements and the sexy billboard.
“I wonder if these advertisements are not targeted to lower income-type communities,” she said of the billboard. “And I don’t know where the rest of them are – the billboards – but I’m not quite sure if socioeconomics plays a part in their decision of where to put them.”
Despite her concern over the Gulf ad, Fiola wants her constituents to know the billboard isn’t taking up all of her time, and she made sure to note she’s hard at work on many other issues.
