I don't know if anyone has heard this story outside of good ole Alabama, but if you haven't
then I got a good laugh for you.
They just banned a California wine from being sold here, because of the racy and
offensive label.
Offensive to right wing Christian nut jobs. The birther types. But the thing that
gets me, is how policy can be made, but yet it is some kind of moral police.
All I can say: Only in Alabama.
Here is the offending label: I know, it is crazy and stupid.
The wine is produced by Hahn Family Wines in Soledad, Calif. Efforts to contact officials with that company were unsuccessful Thursday. A page on the company's Web site devoted to the Cycles Gladiator wine states that:
"Americans then might have been shocked by the thought of a woman wearing pantaloons or bloomers pedaling a bicycle, but the French understood what sold products — thus the 'uninhibited' appearance of the Cycles Gladiator advertising poster."
The Parisian painter G. Massias produced the advertising poster in 1895, according to the Web site.
Title 20 of Alabama's administrative code, which pertains to the ABC Board, states that:
"No advertisement may include any illustration(s) of any person(s) consuming alcoholic beverages or any person(s) posed in an immodest or sensuous manner, nor shall any advertising contain profanity or offensive language."
Here is the company's take on this whole wine too sexy to see. You are gonna laugh your
ass off.
Ban of wine with nude on label is marketing boon
7/30/2009, 2:07 p.m. CDT
PHILLIP RAWLS
The Associated Press
(AP) — MONTGOMERY, Alabama - Alabama's ban on a wine that features a nude nymph on the label became a business opportunity for a California vintner who is preparing a marketing campaign to capitalize on being "Banned in Bama."
The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board recently told stores and restaurants to quit serving Cycles Gladiator wine because of the label. Board attorney Bob Martin said the stylized, art-nouveau rendition of a nude female with a flying bicycle violated Alabama rules against displaying "a person posed in an immoral or sensuous manner."
Bill Leigon, president of Hahn Family Wines in Soledad, California, said Thursday that visits to the company's Web site have increased tenfold since news of the ban broke late last week, and callers from across the country have been asking where they can buy the wine.
Well, thanks Alabama, you fucking idiots who run the ABC board. WTF. Indecent, this poster was designed in the 1800s. What a bunch of wackos. I think Victorian America still exists, well, in theory. Or not, because most people think this is an assinine policy at the very least.The ABC board (Alabama Beverage Commission), ignorant, ya think!
Hope you enjoy todays crazy in Alabama. Now you know why I
call it Fear and Loathing. I fear the ignorant of Alabama,
and I loathe their politics and mightyer than thou attitude.