I dunno...I've seen quite a few berginas and that one doesn't look like any berginas I've seen. Most of them don't have a HUGE GREEN BALL emerging from them. Does the caption have something sexual in it?

The question is coming: okay, what is the image on the right REALLY supposed to be?

Mongo want mango.

Yeah...maybe I've been dating the wrong womenfolk, but I've never seen a vajayjay that looked like that.

Hi, can I have the phone number for Ms Streisand, I need to ask her about the effect.

@Smashville_makes his own comments at home:
Yeah, Carrie may want to see a doctor about that.

Is it really that outrageous that somebody selling ad space might want to avoid being involved in a potential libel lawsuit, and not be concerned about an ad that has a very vague resemblance to a vagina?

"Mango" is slang for that region, so I'm not surprised. Am I disturbed? Nah. It's kinda refreshing not having an obvious phallic symbol in advertising for a change.

it's easy to understand.

one is an attack ad, and the attackee fought back.

the other is not attacking anything but good taste.

@Thassodar:

Maybe that is the view from the inside out.

It's obviously a wood nymph giving birth.

This is rather typical of billboard companies. In 2006 when there was a very vicious anti-abortion law up for public vote we saw similar behavior. The various billboard companies would sell space to every anti-abortion group that asked for it. Many of those ads were in extremely bad taste and should not have been on billboards. Meanwhile text only benign billboards that had the measure number and vote no on them caused a big issue for the billboard companies. The opposing group was flipping out and demanding the benign be taken down including making threats to the billboard company.

Whomever can cause the most pain in harassment or lawsuits seems to get their way with billboard companies.

You might have some kind of vitamin deficiency, Carrie. "I see vaginas!" Maybe if it were upside down and was giving birth to leprechaun.

I don't see how this is "censorship" either. If an outdoor advertising doesn't want to run an ad, they don't have to. What's more, they don't owe an explanation to anyone.

@Thassodar: Behold the miracle of birth!

I would suggest replace the offensive word "Vagina" to "Love Muffin". I don't want anybody to be offended.

Or it could@FTWGeek: Or like from Scrubs: "Bajingo, bajingo, bajingo!"

@morlo: Congratulations! It's huge green ball! Uhhh...mazel tov?

What if they had used one of Georgia O'Keefe's paintings instead? Reportedly, she was extremely offended that people saw extreme sexual connotation in her paintings, which she said was never her intention. I can see how they would, though.

@Smashville_makes his own comments at home: "vajayjay"

I loathe that word so much for some reason.

@summerbee: Looks like a daddy kicking a puppy to death for barking when he was hurting his daughter

@pecan 3.14159265: Brilliant!

@Crazytree: And if you knew anything about the "consumer watchdog" group in this story, you'd know this was exactly what they were looking for.
Formerly known as the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, many believe Consumer Watchdog is primarily funded by California trial lawyers.
They are very smart and know how to use the media quite effectively.
So, depending upon which side of the fence you're on, they are either the good guys fighting for the little guy or a bunch of bloodsuckers with the long arms continually looking for someone with deep pockets...

One more time with Anatomy 101. The vagina is an internal structure. What you are looking at is more suggestive of the vulva.

@Thassodar: WTF is a bergina?

@squinko: That's two of us, then.

@squinko: i think he means BAgina.

@HiPwr: It's not like she made it up on her own. She's just discussing the article she linked to.

@RecordStoreToughGuy_IsNeckDeepInCrisis: I know this may sound really crazy, but he could've just written "vagina".

@JulesNoctambule: *heart click*

@squinko: I like it because Oprah uses it.

"My vajayjay be painin'!"

When we wen't out to LA at the beginning of June they were still painting the Absolut thing, we got video of us saying it looked like a vagina.

This is absolutely normal. You think this is interesting?

How about the Pennysaver (A rather widely distributed ad-rag in Canada). It's owned by Quebecor. Quebecor also owns Videotron cable. Videotron cable has tried to shutdown Bell ExpressVu/BellTV nee HTS/Echostar Canada/DishNetwork Canada on the grounds that it's too easy to hack and they are losing customers to them.

The Pennysaver will not permit advertising for any satellite service whatsoever.

Coincidence?

I think not.

@Thassodar: "I've seen quite a few berginas"

The problem with Internet berginas is they photoshop the HELL out of those things! Real ones have green balls in them.

@OldSpinDoc: How about "They're all bad guys, and lets watch them kick the shit out of each other." :P

Whether or not it's "really" a vagina is debatable. Sure, it looks like one and it probably is, but when pressed Absolut could claim that "it's a stylized visualization of flow around a mango" or something, which is what it looks like to me.

It's probably meant to be ambiguous to attract attention. There was an online ad that shows an orange, lemon, and pear in slightly less suggestive configurations.

I'm a little confused about the quote that says ""there's a huge Absolut Mango ad, and it's really not a mango." To me, the mango looks a lot like a mango. It's the rest of the ad that's debatable.

I see a sort of negative space vagina- an object where there shouldn't be one, and nothing where there should be something...

@Thassodar: The caption is probably "In an Absolut world, true taste comes naturally."

@Smashville_makes his own comments at home:

I'd say if you've never seen one like that, then you are dating the RIGHT women.

@Smashville_makes his own comments at home: You've got to feel sorry for Steadman [sp?] when she forces him to eat out.

@pecan 3.14159265:

O'Keefe's anatomically influenced flower paintings were the first thing I thought of when I saw that billboard.

(Forgive me, Georgia.)

@HurtsSoGood: Not gonna work, HurtSoGood. "Vagina" is the commonly accepted word for female genitalia. It is so well accepted and used by the general public that it is used to describe both the internal and external structure, while the word "vulva" is considered to be more "clinical." A word's clinical correctness doesn't always make it the best word in every social situation.

Nobody seems worried about the abnormally large clitoris...

Does Mercury Insurance insure vaginas?

@ElizabethD: I have always seen sexual connotation in Georgia O'Keefe's paintings, but only consistently see it in her artwork vs. in anything else. Can't figure out how others don't see it too.

If I saw one of her paintings as part of a billboard ad I wouldn't think it was offensive but wouldn't want to look at it either.

@pecan 3.14159265: FTW.

I wanted her to go into OB/GYN just for the hilarity of saying "bajingo" during a pelvic.

@FTWGeek: Mmmm...muffins...hey wait, is this part of the gay agenda I keep hearing about, trying to attract me to vaginas by making me hungry for muffins?

@Michael Belisle: "...'true taste comes naturally.'"

That's what she said.

@G.O.B.: Packers WIN. Cutler who?: Not an image I want to consider, but the man probably sleeps on 100-dollar bills. That's the least he could do for her.

@sir_eccles: I clicked on that "Top 10..." link and I knew nothing of Mercury Insurance before this. Bravo Ms Streisand. Bravo.