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Like most of the western world (and much of the developed eastern world, it must be said), we in this country face the phenomenon of “boy racers”. I’m sure I don’t need to describe them; one generally needs only to head downtown on a Friday night to see convoys of exhaust-gate lifting, baseball cap-wearing adolescents cruising past the most populated cafes and nightclubs. The gaudy chrome rims and booming stereos of their pride and joy are only part of the boy racer’s attention seeking arsenal; obnoxiously loud big-bore exhausts frequently annoy.
Some months ago, an advertising campaign designed to combat this urban cultural weed began in Australia. Because the behaviour is (when you come right down to it) basically a display of sexual availability and prowess, the campaign seeks to undermine this by utilising the now-familiar innuendo of “small penis syndrome”. The TV advertisements feature people reacting to high-risk boy racer behaviours by waggling their pinky in a derisively suggestive manner:
Normally I roll my eyes when someone makes a “..must be compensating for something, hur hur hur!”-type comment, as I think it is now clichéd at best and at worst, misandrist. But I’m willing to make an exception in this case. On Campbell Live tonight, an expat-Californian (now a New Zealand citizen) initiated his own version of this anti-boy racing campaign by standing in town with a placard saying “Big Loud Exhaust = Small Penis”. I have to applaud him as frankly, I too am sick to death of the farting trumpet notes emanating from overclocked rice burners; I just wish he hadn’t used the heinous Comic Sans font. Barf.
