Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #440

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Locals Say New Jersey Shop's Cartoon Cow Is Too Sexualized
By Ben Hooper
Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A New Jersey ice cream shop is under fire from locals who say its cheeky cartoon cow logo is too sexualized for an outside sign.
Amy Tingle, who co-owns Creativity Caravan in Montclair with her romantic partner, Maya Stein, said she was shocked when newly- opened store Dairy Air Ice Cream Co. put out a sign featuring an anthropomorphic cartoon cow provocatively dis- playing her back- side.
"It is offensive and sickening," Tingle last week in an open letter to the business. "A hyper-sexualized, obviously female cow with her ass upended and pok- ing through a cir- cle, tail raised up, waiting for what? I'm not sure, but I
do know that I am repulsed and offended."
She said the logo is found on all of the store's furni- ture, walls and cups. She said it makes women and girls feel "as if we are things for someone else's sexual use."
"This kind of mar- keting scheme is
the reason we cur- rently have a sex- ual predator in the White House," she continued. "This is offensive, not just to women, but to husbands and fathers and broth- ers and uncles and grandfathers who are trying to raise strong young women in a culture that continuously sexualizes them rather than treat-
ing them equally, with dignity and respect."
Stein said Daily Air owner Anthony Tortoriello stopped by their store Wednesday to dis- cuss the logo.
"The owner said it's not what he intended,"
Stein told NorthJersey.com. "But there's a
responsibility as a business owner that extends beyond your per- son. OK, it's a funny joke, but now you're making it a business and now all of your sig- nage revolves around this very adolescent com- munication. Is that what you want? Is that the imprint you want to make on the communi-
ty? Maybe it is, but it comes at a price of seriously offending people."
Tingle said the owner did not agree that the logo was too sex- ualized, but he was open to con- tinuing the discus- sion.
"The long and short of it is that while we don't agree about the nature of the logo, he apologized for it and is willing to continue the dia- logue together," she wrote.
Natalie DeRosa, the ice cream store's manager, said the store is working to address the complaints.
"We have heard the complaints. We take them very seriously and we are acting to change the cow to be more fun and less sexy. Our goal was always fun and not sexy," she wrote.
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