Nicely done, Nashville: Sexist anti-drunk driving campaign pulled

Tennessee’s most recent effort to prevent drunk driving was laugh-out-loud sexist. The Booze It And Lose It campaign, paid for with a federal grant and run by the Governor’s Highway Safety Office, was aimed at young men — the people most likely to drive drunk — and chose sexism as a method for driving home the message that drinking impairs your judgement. 

Pretty sure a lot of people in the Governor’s Highway Safety Office were drunk when this one was proposed and approved.

“After a few drinks the girls look hotter and the music sounds better,” the campaign materials tell their target audience, which appears to be straight men who don’t mind being condescended to.

The good news is, people complained, and the campaign’s been cancelled.

“My first reaction was cool, we got free coasters,” one Nashville bartender told the Tennessean. “But then one of my customers pointed out what was on them, and my jaw dropped. They were anti-feminist. It was ridiculous and rude to both genders.”

The director of the GHSO released a statement in which he issued a barely-apology — you know, “we apologize for any offense,” we wanted to be edgy, “It was never the intent of the GHSO to be insensitive or insulting to women,” the usual crap — and the entire campaign has been pulled.

Now go home, Tennessee — you’re drunk.