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South Boston city councilor says his female constituents aren't SMILFs
By adamg on Wed, 02/07/2018 - 2:24pm
New City Councilor Ed Flynn (South Boston, South End, Chinatown, Downtown) can claim his first victory: Getting posters for the TV series "SMILF" removed from city bus shelters.
In a broadside against the show about the travails of a single Southie mom men would want to, you know, Flynn fumed yesterday:
In recent weeks, many of my constituents have relayed to me their disgust with Showtime’s TV Show “SMILF” and its depiction of the people of South Boston. The proud mothers I know from Southie, who work so hard for their families and our community, have told me they find it unwatchable as it is a degrading, crude and inaccurate portrayal of their life in the neighborhood. At the same time, I noticed advertisements for the show featured at bus shelters around the city. I’m tired of Hollywood making a profit off of these abysmal shows that in no way capture the real lives, character and contributions of the people of South Boston.
Flynn continues he reached out to city officials, who managed to rip those posters out so that the proud daughters of Southie are no longer besmirched by a show written by a woman from Brookline.
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Comments
Ed should really be focused on the real issues
Like buying a suit that's not 3 sizes too big for him.
Or getting the ...
... smokers out of bus shelters.
He should be
He should be but if you heard him speak when he was campaigning you knew he wasn't going to do anything about real issues. He provided no specifics or any plan for real issues...only hyperbole.
some more random thoughts:
- the producers should have filmed this in weymouth. no one is like that in south boston any more.
- nepotism and affirmative action - that's how eddie got his job. if it wasn't for his daddy he wouldnt be a city councilor. its the same privilege has george dumbya bush.
- go eagles.
Thanks Flynna
Because this was definitely the most important and pressing issue we have in Southie right now.
Salaried workers
He gets paid the same whether he tackles the housing market or bus stop advertising. Bingo, low-hanging fruit.
Victory? Sounds like his
Victory? Sounds like his accomplishment is losing ad revenue for the MBTA.
Not Flynn's "victory"
From the Globe:
As for the bus shelters, they are owned by the city, not the T.
The ads had been booked for
(emphasis added)
So the ads were up for two weeks LONGER than they were supposed to be. Perhaps the City needs to look at their contract with the ad provider more closely. Also shoots a big hole in the claims from people who support the nonsense of "place advertising space in every nook and cranny we can shoehorn it into - as demonstrated by the MBTA's recent request to MassDOT to approve the installation of 16 - yes, that's 16 - additional digital display boards at station entrances throughout Downtown Boston - see
http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/Portals/8/docs/ooa/agendas/02_08_18.pdf
that this type of ad space is in high demand.
The city can't claim any
The city can't claim any additional payments from the advertiser if the ad stays up longer than contractually required. The advertiser paid for 4 weeks, they got 4 weeks. They aren't on the hook for any more than that, even if they might benefit from the extra ad time.
As for why the city didn't come remove them sooner - money. If they don't already have another ad lined up, they'd have to pay to send a crew out twice - once to take down the ad, and then again to put up the next one. That cuts into whatever small amount of money they actually make on the ads. And even if they wrote into the contract that the advertiser is to reimburse them for the cost of installing the ads, that probably wouldn't cover taking them down if there's nothing to replace them with. This is standard practice everywhere, and always has been, on everything from bus shelters to billboards.
You are correct though that this ad space isn't exactly in high demand. There are plenty of ads that stay up comically long, even in busy subway stations. There's still an ad I see every morning at Sullivan for a movie that came out in November and most likely isn't even in theaters anymore. That said though, I think there is significantly more demand for digital ad space rather than static.
And that's part of my point
WHY didn't the City have another set of ads lined up to go in place when the allotted time for these ads was up?
Because if the relevant employees
Were great at selling ads, they'd work in private industry making more money.
As I understand it, the City contracts
with an outside company to manage the ad space. Same with the T.
Because maybe there wasn't
Because maybe there wasn't another interested advertiser?
Proving why selling advertising space is not
a consistently reliable source of revenue. Also proving that claims made to the contrary by government to justify the continued and increasingly excessive proliferation of PUBLIC spaces with needless marketing messages for c^*p that people don't need is one of the biggest con jobs going.
So this politician found
So this politician found someone else's parade and got right out in front of it. "I got these ads taken down" for ads that were scheduled to come down already. Talk about parasites...
Like his job, it's a hand me
Like his job, it's a hand me down.
This was supposed to be a
This was supposed to be a reply on the first comment :(
OK, yeah, I can support this.
OK, yeah, I can support this.
I was just waiting for the outrage
I've seen those ads all over town (not just in SB.) I was wondering when someone was going to get upset that an acronym including the F word was plastered all over the place.
F word?
Pretty sure just the letter F was on the signs. Is that now banned?
The letter F is behind a lot
The letter F is behind a lot of advertising and media. Hell, my kid's Sesame Street episode was brought to us by the letter F.
What, the fictional comedy-drama doesn't portray your
life accurately? Ya musta been pissed when you realized that not every Will from Southie is a math genius, too. I'm afraid I have some awful news for you about living teddy bears.
"The proud mothers I know from Southie, who work so hard for their families and our community, have told me they find it unwatchable as it is a degrading, crude and inaccurate portrayal of their life in the neighborhood."
So go direct your own documentary, and leave the writer / director / star / daughter of a Southie mom alone. Eejits.
If it portrayed these
If it portrayed these complainers lives accurately no one would watch it because no one wants to watch a show about boring whiners who apparently have no real problems.
Worst pilot ever
SMILA
What??
You didn't read the stories of everyone in Scranton, PA complaining about the unfair portrayal of residents as morons because of Michael Scott?
How lame of a person do you
How lame of a person do you have to be to take up a city councilors time with your complaints about a TV show? That is some real #whitepeopleproblems nonsense.
Remember the Samsung
Ads on the T?
Casual racism isn’t cool
Casual racism isn’t cool
What do you complain to your City Councilor about?
If you’ve ever seen what comes up at meetings, you’d know that this is simply constituent service.
Eddie
It is not the posters in city bus shelters your constituents are worried about it is the sex offenders that hang around Andrew and Broadway station.
He's absolutely right. Good
He's absolutely right. Good for him.
Did Someone Say Southie TV Show?
Obligatory.
Good job!
Nice work Ed.
We don't have to accept the coarsening of society.
Yes, let's fight the coarsening of society by condemning ads
for a low-rated premium-cable TV show.
It wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that our own President is an abusive, foul-mouthed playground-level bully and self-professed sexual assaulter.
Way to keep your eye on the prize there, Ed.
"We can't do everything so we
"We can't do everything so we must do nothing."
But that's exactly the point.
But that's exactly the point.
Anti-Trumpers are up in arms about his and his staffers treatment of women, Hollywood and the New York media are in turmoil since the exposure of systemic misogyny and Ed points out a disturbing local examples -- and he gets mocked!
The show's title is demeaning and degrading.
Even Frankie Shaw admits that.
I am glad he pointed it out.
If the show had a different title, would be okay?
I'm guessing that no one who is whining about it has seen the show, which sensitively addresses topics like single motherhood on poverty wages, addiction, and eating disorders. I'm guessing Southie has more than a few women with those issues.
But even if the neighborhood were totally immune to those issues, it's still childish and dumb to suggest that a fictional TV show has to accurately reflect your life, or it's an insult to you. Find something less trivial to get worked up about. Almost anything will be less trivial.
Shut Up!!!!
This show doesn't portray S. Boston women badly. It's portrays one women, Frankie Shaw's character and her problems as a single mom. Stop lumping up everyone for political crap.