Are Saggy Pants New York's Biggest Problem? These Billboards Say Yes
Teenagers always do the opposite of what their elders and betters want them to, and that will be the likely result of the "Stop the Sag" billboard campaign in Brooklyn, N.Y., aimed at persuading young men to pull up their sagging jeans.
New York State Senator Eric Adams has installed six billboards in the borough. The ads show two men, with their underwear showing above their low sung jeans. "We are better than this!" the billboards plead. "Raise your pants, raise your image."
Given New York's current problems -- unemployment, massive cuts to the city budget and a sales tax increase -- it's not entirely clear that low-riding waistlines are Brooklyn's biggest problem. But that's because this Onion-esque campaign isn't aimed at teens. It's aimed at Adams' core constituency: older black voters.
That's not evident from Adams' video (below) in which he situates low-riding jeans in a socio-historic context of black oppression. The video begins with some startling racist imagery -- be warned before you hit "play" -- from old 19th and 20th Century advertising. Violins weep in the background as Adams alleges that today these images are "self-imposed":
Sagging pants have become a degrading and self imposed icon ... the origin of this style comes from a prison culture.Adams, sitting on his surprisingly messy desk, then adds:
Let us not be the ones making our community seem foolish. If we raise our pants, we raise our image.Teens will likely be pleased that their latest fashion affront has caused offense within the government (in just the same way I liked it when adults crossed the street to avoid me when, a long time ago, I wore a mohawk and a leather jacket with a skull on the back).
This is all irrelevant. Adams' billboards are really a clever set of election ads targeting voters who want a candidate who understands that serious people wear suits -- with belts that sit at the waist. Viewed from that perspective, American Idol's "Pants on the Ground" moment wasn't so much an act of oddball madness but a plea from the heart of America's black baby boomers.
Image by Flickr user toboyotter, CC.