MAdGE
What is this?
Is it fetish porn for bored dairy farmers? Is it a teenage boy’s mammarian fantasy doubled?
I spotted one fly-posted outside work yesterday and thought it was some sort of surrealist art-prank. But no. It’s a picture billboard campaign poster for MAdGE, or Mothers Against Genetic Engineering, a group of slightly batty middle-class mothers lead by ex-Thompson Twin Alannah Currie. They are combating the lifting of the moratorium on the release of genetically engineered organisms in New Zealand through a series of mildly bizarre publicity stunts (their most notable earlier success was in flashing their bras at MPs in parliament).
According to this morning’s paper, the billboard was designed to “spark debate about genetic engineering and to protest about designer milk”. There’s more to be found in the original press release, including a truly daft rant entitled “Mothers, Milk, and Cows”.
I have a lot of sympathy for their aims – I’m pretty sure New Zealand would be better off going GE-Free while we still have a chance of making it happen. But I’m not sure if this poster communicates exactly what MAdGE intended. Judging by this thread at Metafilter and other posts around the blogosphere I’m not the only one.
Sarah
4 October 2003, 09:32 #
I have to admit their continuing dumb-arsed-ness just makes me want to go and plant GE something in my non-existent backyard in response. If, by some miracle, the moratorium is not lifted, it will be in spite of them, not because of them. They do not only their own cause, but a lot of other people's, no favours with their "look at me! look at me everybody! look at me!" antics. It's all enough to make a girl want to get her tubes tied.
Alan
4 October 2003, 16:52 #
They are irritating, aren't they. You can't help but suspect that through their general lack of credibility they are harming the whole anti-GE thing.