the email I sent to Tropfest

Dear Tropfest,

First of all, I’d like to say that I enjoyed my first Tropfest thoroughly and was very impressed by the quality of films – much better than most of the feature films I’ve seen this year.

However, I was annoyed and disappointed at the Tropfest advertisement with Vince Colisimo. The sexualisation of women in order to sell stuff to people has gotten out of hand. It seems everywhere one turns there’s a near-naked, usually blonde, woman with her tits or ass in focus – in Tropfest’s case, there was a roomful of them. It’s not funny having a dirty old man film a bunch of young psuedo-cabaret stars on his deathbed. It’s ordinary, uncreative, demeaning and a bit offensive, not to mention icky and inappropriate. I would have liked to think that your publicity crew could have come up with an advertisement as innovative and interesting as the films that you showed. These days not objectifying women for advertising purposes is the height of innovation and creativity.

I look forward to a unique and inspiring advertisement for next year’s Tropfest.