Zack and Miri Make a Fuss

Zack and Miri might be able to make a porno, but they can't mention it in public.

Apparently, some newspapers, TV networks, cable channels, and outdoor advertising venues are refusing to carry ads for Kevin Smith's new mainstream comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Why? Because of what's deemed as the "objectionable content of the ads" -- namely, the name.

The movie, starring Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogen, is exactly what you would imagine from the likes of Smith and Rogan, the men responsible for Mall Rats, Superbad, and Pineapple Express: it's a goofy parody about a pair of friends who decide to make (really low-end) pornography to get out of debt.

Fox Sports had broadcast Zack and Miri commercials during Los Angeles Dodgers games, but dropped them after some viewers complained, the Associated Press reports. Across the country, the city of Philadelphia has refused to hang posters for the film at bus stops.

Has nobody told these critics that we're in a recession? With ad spending just at the beginning of what's likely to be a long, slow, downward spiral, shouldn't they ease up a little on the whole "puritanical values" thing?

The word "porno" doesn't violate any of the indecency standards of the Federal Communications Commission or the Motion Picture Association of America, but parents are nonetheless concerned over the effect of the ads on their children.

Diane Levin, an education professor specializing in child development at Boston's Wheelock College, told the Associated Press that she found the use of stick figures in the ads (above) particularly subversive when it came to corrupting our nation's youth.

That's ironic, because the Weinstein Company (which is distributing the film) substituted the stick figures for actors in an effort to go above and beyond in placating the M.P.A.A.

Furthermore, Levin said that the posters at city bus stops "send a message to children that working in the porn industry is an acceptable occupation."

If parents really believe that's the danger with ads for Zack and Miri Make A Porno, they aren't giving children enough credit. Children are actually quite good at figuring out that -- whether its porno-producing roommates, pandas that know kung fu, or demon-fighting boy wizards, just because you see it in a movie that doesn't make it true.

In fairness, I saw Pretty Woman as a child and drew dubious conclusions about the desirability of the occupations depicted therein.

But the important thing is that I had enough sense to realize my own misunderstandings well before I was old enough to actually become a merchant banker.

by Liz Gunnison

Photograph of a Zack and Miri billboard in Los Angeles by Matt Sayles/Associated Press

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