dude, so not a work safe image.

And Consumerist wonders why it gets blocked by work filters?

Argg! Not work safe yo

Um, where's the content...is there a reason for this other than prurient interest? How exactly does banking with HSBC = anal rapage? And yeah, including phrases like anal rapage in your content will set off filters.

ben's just checking if you're paying attention :)

Umm...posts like this make me unable to recommend Consumerist to friends and family. Way too over the top.

Is this supposed to be the photo of "BBB bends over like a tranny pre-op saving up for surgery."--another way too over the top analogy by the esteemed editor. I'm thinking anal sex humor is a an area where excess is far too easy to do. Wonkette can pull it off, but I'm pretty sure this thread doesn't.

Yeah, you guys really push the envelope with raunch factor sometimes.

Also, posts like this don't really highlight the fact that you have to click 'HSBC' right above the Read More area.

This is so incredibly far from being funny or relevant. I usually love Consumerist but the fact that you're making light of rape (or at least giving your real estate to somebody's idiotic joke) is mortifying.

Oh, wait. Is it okay because the woman in the photo looks like a porn star? If she looked like your next door neighbor would you still post this?

I appreciate Consumerist's edginess but I'm not sure who you're trying to reach with this garbage.

Ugh, tasteless. You do know most people read blogs from work, don't you?

Yeah, it stuff like this that keeps me from being able to recommend Consumerist to my 70-year-old father. :-(

I had an inkling that wasn't going to happen when a November post said something alongs the lines of "It's Christmas, Motherfuckers."

I have to agree. The headline titles and the images are starting to distract from the story.

I like it.

Grow a sense of humor, folks. You shouldn't be using the internet at work anyway.

This is inappropriate and I agree with the above posters that stuff like this is why I do not recommend Consumerist to family members. What is the point of this story anyway?

Yeah, rape is hilarious!

This is so incredibly offensive, her makeup, the hair, it's a crime!

Fleshbot, a given.
Deadspin, possible but they would hide it with a NSFW
Wonkette, didn't they become relevant becuase of porn?

Consumerist...not so much. I was home in MA this weekend and was going on about how great the site is and sorry guys, this doesn't work here.

If you are gonna cry anal rape at least have some facts to back it up. I can't find any information here. At least show me some bitemarks on the pillow or something, sheesh!

Damn, Ben, are you having a nervous breakdown?
Pull it back and be the Blogger this place used to know!

Boo, to the naysayers!

If this user-generated content isn't shoppers biting back, I don't know what is.

If you'd like a site to recommend to gramps, spring for the paid subscription to Consumer Reports.

People that are this easily offended probably don't belong on the internets.

WMeredith took the words out of my mouth. This isn't Consumer Reports (thank God), and Ben isn't John Stossel. The Consumerist has certainly enjoyed a higher profile thanks to 20/20 and the like, but the newer readers and commenters here have no real appreciation of the ironic, snarky, dark humor that this site was built on.

You can be pro-consumer and still have a twisted laugh now and then. (Heck, you have to.)

FWIW, I thought the Gawkeresque Wal*Mart gallery was a brilliant piece, too.

What del_ruby said. That's just plain ugly, to say nothing of the way it plays into the patriarchy. By portraying violence against women this way, even if it's "just for laffs," you're perpetuating it and making it even more socially acceptable than it is. Doesn't matter that the tone is "everyone gets raped by banking here" - just look at that image.

I'm not easily offended and I have a pretty sick sense of humor but, ugh. This sucks.

thwarted says:

Yeah, rape is hilarious

Yeah Im sure thats EXACTLY how he meant it, you guy/girls should lighten up, its a joke, not even a crude on at that.

Yep. It's funny. Here's a helpful suggestion. When at work. Do work. If your work DEMANDS you read blogs and DEMANDS that those blogs be PG13, then I guess you've got a problem.

I have never been a fan of using the word "rape" in a financial context. Interestingly enough, though, women and men can be anally raped. So I guess it's equal-opportunity violence. Still not terribly funny, though.

This isn't Consumer Reports (thank God), and Ben isn't John Stossel.

Thank God Ben isn't John Stossel, because John Stossel is damned annoying.

I love all of the "woo, look at us, we're so edgy" comments. It kind of reminds me of the "We're punk rock and you're Guy Lombardo" moment on firedoglake, which incidentally is the exact moment that I stopped reading firedoglake.

WRT the image itself: Not as bad as the ads that I've seen on some (non-sex-related) sites, and I suspect that most of us have started riding the scroll wheel when we surf at work, anyway. But I really have to speculate about the employment status of people who can't see what the fuss is all about.

newer readers and commenters here have no real appreciation of the ironic, snarky, dark humor that this site was built on.

Actually, I am a long time reader and commenter who finds this shit pretty offensive... the ongoing problem is that Ben (and some readers) don't know the difference between "dark humor" or "snark" and truly offensive comparisons.

It's a shame, because the Consumerist has such incredible potential to be a truly great site. And since my ongoing bitching in the comments doesn't work, I'm off to right a strongly worded letter to the Gawker overlords.

blah blah blah. I like it. It is dark. It is humorous.

All too often I see signs (whines?) indicating what a thin-skinned victimized nation of wussies we are becoming.

You don't like it? MOVE TO THE NEXT ARTICLE.

sheesh. grow a backbone. sack up!

VIVA Consumerist

A facetious depiction of anal rape (any sort of rape, in fact), is funny? Really?

I found it tasteless and obnoxious, but I guess I'm just a humourless dinosaur who doesn't think that trivialising rape is worth my chuckle.

So what if this is the internet? This blog is usually an intelligent and sensitive defender of basic consumer rights with an irreverent edge, but juvenile jokes like this undermine the blog's authority and its reader's respect for it.

If Walmart sold a t-shirt trivialising rape this blog would be high-horsing like crazy. So for Mr Popken, Nazi t-shirts and homophobic landscapers are bad, but depictions of rape and homophobic jokes are not.

But hey, fuck it. Let's go to town on the "edgy" humour angle. Lets revise the easy-bake oven post with an edgy and irreverent child abuse joke. Let's go back to the child's porn-filled laptop and throw in an "ironic" paedophilia punchline or two? That would be a total laff-riot.

And by the way... this is not "Ben's blog". If it was his blog, I would keep my mouth shut. He is the editor of The Consumerist, hired by Gawker Media. So as a "consumer", I feel well within my right to bitch about the editorial voice which I find to be increasingly offensive.

I could forgive the "joke" if there was some actual content, but even after clicking through, all that's there is the same image. No explanation, no info on what HSBC might have done wrong.

If Wal*Mart sold a T-shirt trivializing rape, at least half of us own one by the end of the day.

mathew, I agree. If there was a cogent article about someone getting "screwed up the ass" by HSBC, then the photo (while still somewhat offensive to me) could at least be considered relevant.

But just the picture? It's not that slow of a news day...

The only two issues I have is one, I usually read from work like many others.

The second issue I have is that I couldnt find any story here. I am interested in the story, if there is one, because I am currently attempting to open an account with HSBC and I would like to know why banking with HSBC is akin to getting analy raped.

Again, you don't have to be offended to question why this post exists; there is no substance to it. It is shock for the sake of shock, and nothing more. Give me a reason to hate HSBC - not a reference to a very crude and violent action.

Was there a point to this story? Besides being able to put a NSFW image on your front page?

Didn't a commenter or reader get ridiculed and probably banned for equating bad service and rape? So why the post now?

Hot. What vid is that screencap from?

AcilletaM: good memory. This blog has indeed taken the high ground on rape analogies before.

I swear...some people have no sense of humor. This ain't your grandparents' site.

All the snarky content on this blog would make my mother blush. That's why I read it!

Actually, I read it because it is brilliantly informed and addictive and a must read for those who don't know how to handle greedy, blood sucking corporations.

Trust me. I lived in England for a long time and the companies there make the ones here look like freaking Mother Theresa's convent.

Don't get cheesed off because a headline or picture offends you. You are one. We are many. Get over it. Grow up.

This bloody puritanical, Bible lovin' country needs to know that not all things are within 'acceptable' boundaries. So what????

Get. Over. It.

Is this funny or clever? I just don't get it. Is there a joke here? I usually love anal rape jokes.

mojohealy writes:

AcilletaM: good memory. This blog has indeed taken the high ground on rape analogies before.

Indeed. The post states:

Yesterday, Ben and I received an email from Bruce C. ...On the one hand, Bruce C. seemed to have a quasi-legitimate gripe, and we admired its clearness and tersity. On the other hand... holy crap! Did Bruce just play the rape card?

So, WTF is going on now???

>tinfoilhat
Somebody is conducting a psychological experiment on us.
>/tinfoilhat

Wow this sucks, I'm at work and that wasn't work safe. I'm not offended by the rape comment, but do think it's over the top. I can refer my friends here, but definately can't recommend consumerist to my family cause posts like this.

I thought it was quite funny, but I do sometimes equate anal rape with different aspects of Corporate America. Especially when it is financial.

Like someone else said... we are becoming a nation of thin skinned wussies.

@Musician78
"thin skinned wussies"?
What about rascism? Is it OK to post a picture of a rascist stereotype on a consumer-interest blog? I doubt anyone would agree with that.
But a picture suggesting rape and violence against women? According to you, that's fine.
And I just don't see the difference.

It's all done in humour. I am Irish, and it doesn't bother me in the least when people make jokes about drunkin Irishmen. I often go around calling myself a balding fat Mick for Christ's sake. Damn. Like I said, as repeated from another equally intelligent blogger, thin skinned wussies.

The thread isn't advocating anal rape, it is just associating the adverse affects of Corporate America and what it metaphorically does to the consumer.

People just take too much stuff way too seriously. If you get that upset about a humerous webpage, then perhaps you should ask [Comcast] to disconnect you.

Ever see "All in the Family"? Was that offensive as well? That show was chock full of racial/homosexual stereotypes, yet funny as hell.

I don't get what is so difficult to understand about that and why people get so damn uppity.

Yeah why isn't this weblog boring and generic so it can pass FCC muster?

If you can't read/see this at work, maybe you shouldn't be reading this at work.

does anyone know what movie that's from?