Press Releases That Cross My Desk, one in a series

I get a lot of, um, unusual press releases at work. Here's one of the latest, from the Center for Nursing Advocacy (Not sure what they want me to do with it, but here goes):

For Immediate Release: August 9, 2003

Contact: Sandy Summers
410-323-XXXX or 443-253-XXXX

Nurses decry Skechers ad campaign featuring Christina Aguilera as dominatrix nurse

August 8, 2004 -- The Center for Nursing Advocacy has launched a campaign to protest a new global ad campaign by shoemaker Skechers that features pop star Christina Aguilera as a "naughty and nice" nurse, and over 600 nurses have written to protest the ad in the campaign's first few days.

The ad, which shows Ms. Aguilera in a sexually suggestive dominatrix outfit confronting a patient in a hospital bed, reinforces stereotypes that nurses are sexually available and abusive to their patients, at a time when the global nursing shortage is a major public health threat. The Center understands that the ad will be seen in magazines and retail locations all over the world.

"We understand the comic intent behind this ad, but at this point it's the last thing nurses need," said Sandy Summers, Executive Director of the Center for Nursing Advocacy. "We're working hard to attract talented people to the profession, and to improve working conditions by helping the public understand how critical nursing is to patient outcomes. But this ad exploits both the "naughty nurse" and the battleaxe/Nurse Ratched stereotypes that have plagued nursing for decades. Who would want to attend years of college to join a profession that people link, even subliminally, with fulfilling patients' and physicians' sexual needs? Or with inflicting pain to satisfy nurses' own desires while at work? With this kind of image still around, it's no accident that even today less than 10% of U.S. nurses are men."

"In fact," Summers notes, "nurses are highly skilled, autonomous professionals who save or improve millions of lives every day. Nurses constantly assess patients, and they intervene to stop deadly threats like infections and medication errors." Summers adds: "Studies show that when there are sufficient numbers of nurses to take care of patients, mortality plummets. But today, there are not enough nurses at the bedside, and a lack of understanding by health care decision-makers and the public about the importance of nursing care is a key factor. Harmful media images of nurses affect how people think and act, just as media portrayals of other health-related matters have been shown to do."

I, for one, am happy to see Christina finally making it over to the free clinic. Not sure they have an immunization, however, for "skank."