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What are all these men doing? This is a very bizarre ad, and it seems rather unprofessional. To me, it's very inappropriate overall for a professional website. Please tell me that I am interpreting the ad incorrectly. I work in the public sector and I'd hate to have the wrong person look over my shoulder when this ad is up.

Plastic SCM Ad

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I think they're supposed to be handling all her work for her, but really it looks like they're harassing her and she's sick of them. Where is the guy on the lower right looking?? –  meagar Sep 9 '11 at 17:22
I was always afraid to ask. +1 –  genesis Sep 9 '11 at 17:23
I'm confused, how is this relevant here? Did this ad show up on SO? –  Matthew Read Sep 9 '11 at 17:23
@Matthew Read, Yes this is on SO. I have no way to force it to redisplay in the adRotator so I googled for a copy. –  MVCylon Sep 9 '11 at 17:24
Great, thanks for clarifying. +1 –  Matthew Read Sep 9 '11 at 17:26
I thought it was pretty obvious what they are trying to do. Same thing all guys try to do. All the time. –  Won't Sep 9 '11 at 17:30
Ah, I think this came up before, although the OP there didn't verify that this was specifically the advertisement in question. –  Tim Stone Sep 9 '11 at 17:56
This has come up before, but I won't close it as a duplicate. ;) –  Bill the Lizard Sep 9 '11 at 18:12
I thought it was an Ad against human cloning. those 4 guys are clearly clones. –  Jin Sep 9 '11 at 18:17
@Jin, What is the man in the upper right doing? That is the greatest mystery to me. –  MVCylon Sep 9 '11 at 18:19
@Doug: I think he's speaking commands into his mouse. –  Bill the Lizard Sep 9 '11 at 19:51
if this was a TV show, I bet nobody will complain. –  Dreaded semicolon Sep 10 '11 at 8:46
just ignore it...highlighting it here only makes it worse! (a crappy ad will destroy itself by not being profitable)... –  davidsleeps Sep 10 '11 at 12:54
Mmmm... Plastic... –  Shogging through the snow Sep 10 '11 at 15:26

3 Answers 3

I don't want to come across all political correctness. Running this ad isn't 'evil', or part of the giant patriarchal conspiracy.

It's merely tacky. If it were my site, I'd take it down and send them the message, 'go find something else that doesn't reinforce tired stereotypes so much. We don't need the money enough to be running this.'

But it's not my site.

Another possible message to them would be: "N people voted +1 to the proposition that your ads are stupid and tacky. Are you sure that you want to keep running them?"

Assuming, of course, that N>0. Maybe I'm the only person with this opinion.

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The whole point of the patriarchy is that people can do harmful things that reinforce the patriarchy without (a) being evil, (b) being conspirators, or (c) meaning to. It's the way the system is set up. –  TRiG is Timothy Richard Green Nov 20 '12 at 13:08

Is the Plastic SCM ad on Stack Overflow appropriate for a professional website?

I don't see why not.

It may not be to everyone's taste, and I suspect I will find it really dumb once I've figured out what the hell it is supposed to mean, but I fail to see any blatant offensiveness here that would warrant any action on SO's part.

All mainstream websites routinely show ads that are much less safe for work.

People who don't like the ad should direct their complaints to PlasticSCM.

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Ties were required as part of dress code, the internet was blocked, email was only for managers, and phones didn't have voicemail until two years ago. We are a "little" old school. XD –  MVCylon Sep 9 '11 at 17:51
+1 Especially seeing as how often Evony ads seem to appear where you least expect them –  squillman Sep 9 '11 at 17:56
@Doug I personally don't see how SE folks need to adjust to that particular corporate environment you're faced with. It seems to me that you guys are a bit more than a "little" old school and more of an edge case. –  squillman Sep 9 '11 at 18:06
Let's see (counter clockwise from the bottom right): one is looking down her shirt, another is intimating shoving something in his mouth while looking at her suggestively, another is dragging his tie across her while looking down her shirt and the final one is trying to give her some sort of fuzzy thing while her hand is in his lap. Yeah, nothing "offensive" worth complaining about. Personally, the best way to kill an ad is to complain to those willing to show it. –  Chris Lively Dec 13 '11 at 3:13

The main problem I have with the Plastic SCM ads is that they explicitly are for "the DVCS for Windows", and I'm not using Windows, and have no intention to ever use it again (even less for software development).

So, this is clearly a useless ad for me. (I don't remember having it seen in the last time, though - did I manage to block it somehow?)

This image is meant to show this woman "going distributed" (whatever this means) and being overwhelmed, I suppose.

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