Childhood memories: Sophie Ellis-Bextor naked

Sophie Ellis-Bextor naked in a tonne of 'hundreds and thousands' sprinklesUK charity The Children's Society has launched a campaign to gather "hundreds and thousands of childhood memories that will contribute the Good Childhood Inquiry, the UK’s first independent inquiry into what makes a good childhood. This will help us understand how to make childhood better today."

Fair enough, but to promote the campaign the charity has photographed elfin pop singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor naked in a tonne of multi-coloured 'hundreds and thousands' sprinkles (pictured).

Does this strike anyone else as slightly inappropriate? I assume the charity would want to associate childhood with wholesomeness and innocence – not virtues that the promotional photos really convey to me.

I'm not complaining too strongly, mind.

9 comments:

Jacqueline said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jacqueline said...

I found an error, here it is again.

Yes, I agree that a frolicking, naked woman doesn't seem quite the right promotional tactic.

Maybe they think it will get the attention of the men out there and thus make giving a bit hotter than it was before.

Not being interested in seeing naked women myself, they lost my contribution, however!

A little shortsighted and makes me wonder who came up with the idea (likely a guy) and why (because he thought she was cute).

Anonymous said...

Yes it is a bit odd, I'd have thought they might use smiley happy children or something similar (I don't mean naked!).

Um... do tell us again JD what Sophie Ellis-Bextor, rolling around naked in hundreds and thousands, has got to do with language use??

TootsNYC said...

"hundreds and thousands"--we call those "jimmies" where I live.

Maybe that's our language link?

Otherwise, it's mostly a "news judgment" issue.

Anonymous said...

TootsNYC, do you call the multicolored ones "jimmies" too? Where I'm from in Northeast US we call the brown ones jimmies, the multi ones sprinkles. I've heard it said that origin of the term "jimmies" for the brown ones is racist, although I've also heard that suggestion totally refuted.

JD (The Engine Room) said...

It was an example of when good copy + good images = unfortunate result. The opposite of synergy, whatever that might be.

And not at all 'any excuse to put a picture of Sophie on the blog' or 'get sneaky Google hits from people looking for naked photos of Sophie'. Because that would be wrong.

On the other issue, I think we call the multi-coloured ones 'hundreds and thousands' and the brown ones 'chocolate sprinkles'. I might be wrong though, because before yesterday I never really took an interest in them...

Anonymous said...

The picture of Sophie Ellis-Bextor made it to all the London freesheets yesterday (probably where JD picked it up from) so the tactic undoubtedly got them the publicity they were seeking. Probably didn't do too badly for Sophie Ellis-Bextor herself, to be honest, as it's the first time I've heard of her in years.

Anonymous said...

Just saw the "jimmies" question by MRP.

Where *I* grew up, we called them all "jimmies," regardless of their color or flavor.

But we also called wounds "owies" and soft drinks "pop."

JD (The Engine Room) said...

Yes, I would call soft drinks 'pop', but probably only fizzy soft drinks. I guess that would make 'fizzy pop' a tautology?