A Gas Station In Russia Offered Free Fuel To Anyone Showing Up In A Bikini. So A Lot Of Men Did.
Having been working in the media industry for long enough, I was of the opinion that I have probably seen all sorts of funny, radical, innovative, cool and even pretty pointless kinds of advertisements over this course of time. From people dressing up as salads and pizza slices, to some businesses rolling out special offers to promote their name, I thought I had seen it all. But clearly, I was wrong, because the only one kind of promotional gimmick that I hadn’t seen was of the sexist kind, and turns out Russia has won that race. Because in a total WTF kinda news, a petrol pump in Russia recently offered free fuel to anyone who came in wearing a bikini. So much for not objectifying women.
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The Olvi Gas station in Samara, Russia, in an attempt to boost its name and run promotions, came up with what they thought was a unique promotional stunt of giving out free fuel to anyone who comes dressed in a bikini. Of course, the free fuel that had essentially meant to be for the ladies who would’ve stepped out in their two-pieces looking hotter than sun, was not reserved to just them, as the Russian men took advantage of the apparent loop hole and gave it back to them, by showing up in bikinis themselves. Seems like it was the appropriate kind of a karma hitting Olvi, but we are here for it.
And while the pictures snapped of a few men dressed in bare minimum two-pieces and some even sporting heels was indeed slap stick funny, what wasn’t funny was the kind of this blatantly sexist jab to garner publicity. Wanting to advertise your business and make it go viral is a different thing, but to blatantly objectify women and reduce them to a sex object sporting swimwear for their desperate and pervert pleasures is an entirely different thing and one we do not support.
Be it Russia or any other part of the world, the fact that women are not meant to be a treat for your eyes or for you to manipulate and exploit in the name of free stuff needs to be made clear. In fact, a scheme like this would never even see the light of day in a country like India, and no it won’t be because we are less sexist than the Russians. We are, if it’s even possible, more sexist than anyone in this world, but the reason it won’t work as a plausible promotional stunt is because with every woman who rolls up in a bikini in India at a gas station, there might be a un-numbered van rolling right in, to kidnap her and force upon her crimes we would rather not think about.
Which is perhaps why, next time before people decide to stoop down to such cheap and demeaning tactics, maybe you want to make sure it doesn’t make you seem like a sexist pervert. Guess they’re right about one thing though, ‘This happens only in Russia’.
