It’s really funny to rape women, beat them, force them to have sex with other men for money, and then take all their money. Which is why this internal sales promotion for gadget seller TigerDirect is so awesome! Start by selling a customer a notebook computer, then PIMP it up with all sorts of accessories. In turn, the more you sell, the more you get entered into a raffle to win some PIMP prizes so you can PIMP out your crib with pimpin’ a new computer and a pimp 50″ plasma TV with surround sound and a Logitech Harmony 1000 Universal Pimp Remote Control! The promotional flyer proclaims, “Now you have a controller in one hand and a cup full of Gin & Juice in the other. You got the nice gifts and the greens $$$$$$ in your pocket. Now you’re OFFICIALLY PIMPING!” Pimps are a hilarious American icon of entrepreneurship! PIMP PIMP PIMP! Full promotional flyer and contest rules, inside…
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grow a backbone if this offends you. unprofessional, yes, fkn hilarious, yes.
Gotta meet that post quota somehow!
@TheUncleBob: exactly.
Hrm: If you’re feelin like a PIMP, go on brush your shoulder off, Ladies are PIMPs too, go on brush your shoulder off.
Meanwhile, MTV will PIMP your ride.
You can [www.pimp-my-profile.com] . You can also [www.pimpmyspace.org] .
You can find your Inner Pimp with j.holiday [www.youtube.com] . You can Pimp like Twista. [www.youtube.com]
If you’re in Oregon, right now you can [www.pimpmysnowman.com] .
If you’re browsing on a Mac, you can [pimpmysafari.com] .
BFD. Language is liquid. It changes. While once pimp was about brokering sex acts, it’s now about making things tacky, in only the way that excess cash and zero taste can. Grow up and move on.
Clearly someone needs some gin and juice.
I agree that the definition of “pimp” has changed. Some of it is generational. I’m a teacher, and used to have minor heart attacks when my students used the word. I’ve since come to understand that for them, it has nothing to do with prostitution, racism, etc. It simply means either to fancy something up, or a well-dressed and rich man who’s a bit of a character–what once would have been known as a dandy.
Not to say that kids should be using words without understanding their meaning. Sometimes I say, “This word has a history and context you know nothing about and need to understand how people will respond if you use it out in the world beyond this school.” Same conversation when they use the n-word, which they also don’t think is insulting–to them, it’s a friendly way to tease a buddy.
Silly White boy. Grandmaster T is addressing the Negroes. This wasn’t meant for whites.
@waldy:
Good post. And all that is fine, just as long as the kids understand that if they use those words at the wrong place and time, they might get a serious spanking from someone that doesn’t watch MTV.
Are…. you…. kidding…. me????
You have a problem with this? Really? Of all the things in the world you could have a problem with today THIS what it? THIS?!?!
Because ALL pimps look like that. The cliche purple suit, feather in the hat, cubic zirconia rings and assorted gold plated accessories.
Even real pimps might be offended by your statements, not all of them are as bad as you are claiming. Perhaps you should check your stereotype at the door Ben. How many pimps do you know? Is your opinion based on the news reports of pimps who have committed these crimes? Do you think that the news would run a “feel good special” on a pimp who wasn’t sleazy? After all, isn’t journalism all about the emotion centers of people? We can’t glorify the profession of being a pimp. There would be moral outrage. However, showing just how horribly they CAN be works. By your incredible deductive reasoning I should believe that all female teachers are pedophiles because I keep reading about them having sex with their students.
If you don’t know, then check your stereotyping at the door and move on.
“Pimp” is now in the public domain.
Huh. Never thought I’d find so much pimp defending. Where are these people when a hooker turns up dead?
Everybody talking about “Pimp My Ride” makes this ad *not* offensive needs to take a long look at that picture of a black man, wearing purple velvet and leopard skin, with a giant chunk of bling on his fingers, and STFU.
…about how “Pimp My Ride”…
The mentality of saying that children dress up as pimps or people use the word pimp makes it OK is really stupid. Just because other people do it, does not mean that you follow the leader.
I wonder if the female employees felt empowered that they too could be pimps.
@ClayS: “If you understand what the word “pimp” really means, the whole thing is offensive. If not, you probably think that referring to women as bitches is OK as well.”
Only my daughter…
Its all about context. Tigerdirect uses “pimp” as an expression. By pimp, they mean “to make more glamorous or extravagant.”
Anyways, REAL pimps dont dress like that – only wanna-be, joking ones do.
this is embarrassing.
Given their marketing scheme here, my guess is that Tigerdirect’s marketing guys would have no problem when their 15 year old daughters come home some evening in a pimpmobile and announce that they’ve found a great job and will now be packing up their stuff into that pimpmoblie and movin’ on out.
Honestly, I think you guys are either a) overreacting or b) living in the past. Being a pimp is “cool” now. Go to any Halloween party and I guarantee you’ll see at least one or two people dressed as pimps. Go to any party supply store and I promise you can find a pimp costume. It isn’t associated with rape and domestic abuse anymore. Nowadays its associated with someone who is cool, has lots of money, lots of women, and lots of street cred.
I think I understand now … when obnoxious white hipsters and their kids adopt offensive cultural stereotypes as Halloween costumes, they’re no longer offensive!
Thanks for pointing that out!
I don’t think it’s offensive it’s super corny though… Why not have the director of sales make a rap about the super complicated (and therefore needing a spreadsheet graphic to explain) spiff structure.
@ohnoes: I’m inclined to agree.
I am a woman and I worked with domestic violence organizations and I am a geek. With that said I don’t find this offensive, stupid for using the alcohol idea, but really the word “pimp” as others have said doesn’t always refer to prostitutes and violence.
This article really isn’t news and frankly is a waste of space on this site.
@HeatherNumber1: Looking for Ben Affleck.
Sorry Ben, but people have been using the phrase “pimped out” to infer something has all the options and extras for about a decade now. I don’t see you ragging on MTV for “Pimp My Ride.” If you can pimp out a car, you can pimp out a computer.
“This is a laptop, so they’ll need a docking station”
Um…what?
Not offensive…But mighty lame. An outfit like that is only available at Party City or some costume shop. It probably would have been funny in 1982 or so.
You know what’s more offensive?
The GAWKER art ads that have images of underage looking girls with panties showing.
@lovenoelg: Hear hear.
I haven’t ever associated “pimp” with anything other than someone who is dumb and trying to get ahead on nothing but flash and ego. I guess I’m lucky that way.
I think Tiger Direct’s regular advertising (*only $100 more than NewEgg after $150 mail-in-rebate that we automatically deny) is more insulting than this.
The ad reminds me of those really old pyramid scheme things in magazines where you can win a $10,000 gaming setup or something if you just solve five (increasingly difficult) puzzles and send in money with each. I guess people never learn as they get older.
Actually wait, it reminds me instead of Jersey camera sites where you call in for a riduculously low price on a camera, then you get told you have to pay hundreds more for a lens, power adapter, memory card, and so on, then you have to pay again if you want it shipped to you. Oh that’s right, we’re talking about Tiger Direct… the only company with such a low opinion of their clientele they thought CompUSA was a good blend for their business.
sounds exactly like the compusa spiff schemes. same old, same old
If all we are worrying about is terms like PIMP, we are doing all right.
Why don’t you chill out, bitch? It’s a great ad!
But do you know what’s really offensive? The University of Notre Dame has taken to offending Irish Americans by having a mascot that actually looks like a leprechaun with his dukes up!! What an incredible racial stereotype! And they call themselves the FIGHTING Irish! OMG! I am so offended. Now, just because I have red hair people will try to steal my crock of gold. Damn them!
Randal Graves: Since when did porch monkey become a racial slur?
Dante Hicks: When ignorant racists started saying it a hundred years ago!
Randal Graves: Oh, bullshit! My grandmother used to call me a porch monkey all the time when I was a kid because I’d sit on the porch and stare at my neighbors!
Dante Hicks: Despite the fact that your grandmother used it as a term of endearment for you, it’s still a racial slur! It’d be like your grandmother calling you a little kike!
Randal Graves: Oh, it is not. My grandmother had the utmost respect for the Jewish community. When I was a kid she told me to always treat the Jewish kids well, or they’d put the sheeny curse on me.
Dante Hicks: What the fuck, man?
Randal Graves: What?
Dante Hicks: Sheeny’s a racial slur, too!
Randal Graves: Oh, it is not.
Dante Hicks: Yes, it is!
Randal Graves: She never called any Jews ‘sheeny’, she just used to say sheeny curse a lot. It was cute!
Dante Hicks: It wasn’t cute! It was racist!
Randal Graves: I disagree, man, she was just an old timer, that’s the way people talked back then! It didn’t mean they were racist… but my grandmother did refer to a broken beer bottle once as a nigger knife… you know, come to think of it, my grandmother was kind of a racist.
Dante Hicks: You think?
Randal Graves: Well, I still don’t think porch monkey should be considered a racial term. I’ve always used it to describe lazy people, not lazy black people! I think if we really tried, we could re-claim porch monkey, and save it.
Dante Hicks: It can’t be saved, Randal! The sole purpose of its creation, the only reason it exists in the first place, it to disparage an entire race! And even if it could be saved, you can’t save it because you’re not black!
Randal Graves: Well listen to you! Telling me I can’t do something because of the color of my skin! You’re the racist! I’m taking it back, you watch!
[customers enter]
Randal Graves: Hey, what can I get for you, you little porch monkey?… Its cool, I’m taking it back.
@deserthiker: “crock of gold?” I thought it was Lucky Charms – they’re magically delicious…
@SexCpotatoes: Well Played
@SexCpotatoes: Very nice; very true; very relevant. Yay!
@jjason82: Thank you for being the perfect example of the kind of moron I’m about to eviscerate below. It’s always nice to have a model on hand.
@lovenoelg: Pretty close to what I was thinking. So frightening levels of ignorance combined with equally scary levels of mercenary tastelessness equals a harmless joke, now, does it? NO. IT EQUALS A LOT OF IGNORANCE AND TASTELESSNESS. Just because some shock-jock advertiser has figured out how to manipulate your emotions so that all you notice is the pleasant zing! of stimulation doesn’t mean that words lose their meaning, decades of abuse suddenly go away, or the horrors of society’s warzones just move aside so you can be a prick without having to feel like one.
The people who print things like this “ad” are vile shitheads, but you people defending it because its rock-bottom tastelessness doesn’t offend you enough personally are worse, IMO. Thank goodness you’re the only person on the planet, or you might have to pay for that attitude someday, eh?
Oh, and thank you to the editors for pointing out a gross, grievous act of insensitive near-obscenity by this money-hungry corporation — that’s exactly what this site is here for, and I’m glad to see it’s still your focus even though so many of your commenters just want you to shut up and let them laugh it off. Maybe you should start an alternate site for them — the sheepherder.com maybe.
@waldy: Wow, you’re a teacher? How about *educating* them a little? I bet they stop thinking “pimp” and “nigger” are so funny after a good healthy dose of American history or urban sociology…
One more thing: I want to stand corrected a bit concerning the content of the comments here overall. The true idiots are actually relatively few in number, which I didn’t realize until I went back to flag the worst of ‘em. It’s just that the voices of sanity are also fairly few. Sorry ’bout that.
@Mary Marsala with Fries: your life must be very exciting and relaxing!
Pimps are in fact…funny.
The glorificationof pimps and thugs makes me sick. These are monsters doesn’t anyone else see that?
That print “ad” reads like the script to Pimp My Ride. Oh wait I think I get it… WE’RE the ones being raped and sold for sex [read:sold shit we could get cheaper elsewhere or don't need at all].
Actually, they kinda are pimping their employees… they get on the phone, say all the things we want to hear. We pay the big bucks, the majority of it goes to their boss and they get tossed $25 for every 5 points.
Can I just point out that “pimping out” has nothing to do with the profession and far more to do with the choice of clothing. As many have mentioned here, maybe a PIMP will be offended, but why should we? The concept is pretty stupid here, but the idea of pimping something out has to do with the extravagance of PIMP-wear. The clothing they wear and wore back in the day was always overly flamboyant… just way too much and trying too hard (and also VERY out there). Thus the term today… when you pimp something out, you’re taking it to the extreme of fanciness/flamboyance/expense. It’s over-done basically… Anyway, I’m surprised though that TD sends inter-office memos like this. That’s pretty sh**ty company policy they’ve got going on there.
ITT a bunch of people get whiny and hypersensitive about a pop-culture rebranding of the word “pimp.”
Get over it. The document isn’t condoning the rape of women, the only thing it’s referencing is (as someone said earlier) making things as tacky as possible in the cheesiest way possible.
@Mary Marsala with Fries: Sure, the flyer is unprofessional and tasteless. But the only way WORDS can be offensive to someone is if that person LETS those words have power over them. It also has a lot to do with context.
Thank god we live in the USA and have a little thing called FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Well, at least until you PC grammar-fascists get into power, eh?
Sounds pretty pimp to me.
Who cares? Everything else everywhere gets “pimped out” so why should this all of a sudden be a problem? Pimping everything is cool now, heck I even saw 5 year old kids dressed up as pimps on Halloween last year.
I’m glad that some people’s lives are so easy and carefree that they need to focus in on stupid things like this to get riled up over.
This internal ad is goofy and a bit stupid. Offensive though? Please….
Stop generating righteously indignant articles Consumerist. You can do much better than this.
Pimps ARE funny.
@KogeLiz: Madness.