Burton, a snowboard manufacturer, is facing backlash over selling boards that have pornographic and sometimes bizarre images on them.
($429.95 for porn without a password?)
Sarah Mausolf of the VAIL DAILY reports that the Burton “Love” boards feature images of Playboy models. Though the “nipples and genitals have been covered or cropped out of view, their posteriors remain on prominent display.” Burton’s “Primo” boards, feature “cartoonish pictures of self-mutilation.” One board has an image of a person “cutting off his or her own finger with scissors.”
Now, the obligatory uproar has ensued, as over 100 folks marched on Burton’s Vermont headquarters recently.
Burton’s response to the reax? Go to hell.
Burton Snowboards CEO Laurent Potdevin: “Burton supports freedom of artistic expression. Board graphics are artwork, and art can be offensive to some and inspiring to others. … We will keep these boards in the market and have no intention of recalling them.”
Some vacation destinations are now, predictably, beginning to ban the boards. The BURLINGTON (VT) FREE PRESS reports ski resort Smugglers’ Notch has noted that employees “would not be allowed to use” the two styles of Burton snowboards when on the clock.
Vail-owned resorts also “prohibit employees from using the Love boards, or any other inappropriate, offensive or suggestive equipment while on duty.”
I’m guessing before long, no one will be able to use the boards on any resort slopes.
The ASPEN DAILY NEWS reports that despite the bans, the boards are selling well. Colorado-based ski shop Polar Revolution Owner Sammy Shea said that the boards “have been ’selling like crazy’ and he hasn’t heard any negative feedback”
Cristina Kumka of the RUTLAND (VT) HERALD reports that attorneys said resorts “can ban the boards from their mountains entirely without viable legal repercussions,” but in Vermont, many resorts “don’t intend to limit what the public chooses to [snowboard] with.”
Right, sure they don’t. Not now. When the economy is struggling and the resorts are desperate for visitors. Just wait until tourism rebounds. Those boards will be gone shortly thereafter. Not that I’m complaining. There’s no reason to have porn wherever children frequent.
3:46 pm on October 29th, 2008
This attention and "controversy" is only going to increase snowboard sales.
3:51 pm on October 29th, 2008
I just might have to take up snowboarding now.
3:59 pm on October 29th, 2008
Though the “nipples and genitals have been covered or cropped out of view, their posteriors remain on prominent display.”
Gives new meaning to the term "riding ass".
4:00 pm on October 29th, 2008
How does cutting off your fingers with scissors make you a better boarder?
4:01 pm on October 29th, 2008
For $429.95, I expect full frontal nudity.
4:07 pm on October 29th, 2008
I can get behind Burton's Love boards.
4:09 pm on October 29th, 2008
You really can't see the boards while they're in use. Only when snowboarded are holding them up while waiting for the ski lift.
4:17 pm on October 29th, 2008
Snowboarding is a bizarre sport to begin with, so these "artistic" boards fit right in just fine.
8:36 pm on October 29th, 2008
I'd ride those girls all day & night.
9:33 pm on October 29th, 2008
What do you call these? Porn snowboards? Snow porn boards? Porsnowboards?
1:53 pm on October 30th, 2008
"There’s no reason to have porn wherever children frequent."
you can see more on cable TV then you can see on these boards. Give me a break