Black, blue and very bad taste: the Rolling Stones billboard that still sparks controversy

There was a feminist outcry when the band used a tied-up model to promote their 1976 album. Is rock’n’roll more enlightened now? Even by the standards of 1970s rock’n’roll, it was in bad taste: a billboard on Sunset Boulevard of a bruised and bound woman sitting on a gatefold cover of a new Rolling Stones album that proclaimed: “I’m ‘Black and Blue’ from the Rolling Stones – and I love it.” The 1976 advert triggered an outcry: Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW) wrote in the newsletter Breakthrough that the ad campaign “exploits and sensationalises violence against a woman for the purpose of increased record sales” and “contributes to the myth that women like to be beaten, and condones a permissive attitude towards the brutalisation of women.” Continue reading...