I'm not a fan of 50 Cent, at all, never will be.

Now that that is out of the way, from a purely advertising standpoint: The billboard promotes violence and sexuality in an aggressive way, but what about the racial aspects of it? Obviously, this movie is representing 50 Cent the way he wants to be represented, but I have a problem with the billboard because it's so stereotypical - another tough, from-the-streets, gangsta black man just trying to get revenge, respect, become a rapper and get laid. Is that the message we want to send to people? It is? Oh, okay, I was just checking.

Maybe I missed the memo that it is now cool to bust a cap in someone's ass while holding a microphone. And does 50 Cent ever wear a shirt?

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I beg to differ. I think the ad, while not appropriate around a school, totally depicts what the movie is about. The movie is about 50 Cent's struggle to choose between life on the streets and making music. So the fact that he has a gun in one hand and a microphone in the other with his body in the middle is truly a great representation of that struggle. About the fact that he doesn't have a shirt on, I believe any shirt, except maybe a tank top would have taken away from the picture. He has a huge tattoo on his back that says, "Southside" which is where he grew up and where the movie takes place. So that tattoo being in the middle of the picture is definitely appropriate. But is it appropriate by a school, absolutely not. I personally believe that the billboard industry needs to better police itself or regulations must be placed on them to ensure that children are not subjected to these images. I belief that billboards should be cleared by the community board that represents the community they will be in BEFORE they are placed in that community. This process needs to be more proactive not reactive, because by the time that a company complies with the community's demands to take the billboard down (and now look good for adhereing to the community's concerns), they have garnered millions in free publicity and that alone will make it worth the effort and will practically guarantee that it will happen again by another money hungry, greedy company that places monetary gain over morals and their bottomline over the greater good.

Recently, here in New York, we had a situation where a strip club put up a billboard right by a school. So this situation is much more prevelant and bigger than 50 Cent and this one movie. It's about not subjecting kids to all these excessive images of scantily clad women, beer ads, violence, etc.. Companies are always going to push the envelope but they must understand that if they don't police themselves they'll be held liable, fined, etc., instead of just being rewarded with more publicity. The incident in New York I referred to, ended with the strip club making all the evening news shows and then the company "showing concern" for their community's objections and "voluntarily" taking the billboard down. Now that's a happy ending if I ever heard one. The company received more promotion than they could ever afford and the community feels that they MADE the company buckle to their demands, but in the meantime the children in that school were subjected to these images for weeks, if not months, and I'm sure the strip club's competitors are wondering why didn't they think of that and are probably scouting other billboards, hoping they too can garner all this free publicity. What's to stop the next company from conspiring with a neighborhood group and setting up a situation like this as a publicity stunt? The company gets free publicity, the neighborhood group looks like it's on it's job and also gets favorable publicity. So everyone wins, everyone but the children who in the meantime were subjected to these offensive messages.

If the rules governing billboards were changed there would be no adverse effects to the billboard industry and the products would still get the promotion they need. The only change will be how the messages are depicted in the ads. The point of the 50 Cent movie is to promote the movie, there's definitely other ways to do that without promoting or glamorizing violence. Point is that advertising and marketing professionals that are truly good at what they do will still be able to still get their message across while adhereing to any rules imposed upon them.

Now having said all that, do I feel 50 Cent is wrong? No, not at all, he's playing within the rules but we need to see to it that the rules or laws are changed. I feel the film company that is producing and distributing the movie is to blame, because ultimately they decide what images are used to promote their movies.

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