Elections Ads Too Racy for UC

The Undergraduate Council (UC) Election Commission took a page from H Bomb magazine yesterday, posting get-out-the-vote UC Facebook fliers featuring scantily clad men and topless women, with the words “vote here” emblazoned over their chests and the Harvard insignia further below.

Calling the posters “distasteful,” UC President John S. Haddock ’07 said he objected to the fliers’ use of nudity. “Anything that could be seen as objectifying men or women is inappropriate,” Haddock said. “We’re supposed to make people feel comfortable with their student government.”

Haddock emphasized that the Election Commission is independent from the UC itself, saying that neither he nor anyone on the UC had seen the fliers before they appeared on Facebook.

The head of the Election Commission, Joshua G. Allen ’09, one of the posters’ designers, said he removed the fliers within hours of putting them up, after receiving complaints from a number of Harvard students.

“We didn’t want something up there that people might find discriminatory or distasteful,” he said. “So when we thought there was something up there that people might find distasteful, we took them down,”

Allen, however, defended his decision to use the images.

“The fliers showed no nudity. They were not pornographic or sexual,” Allen said. “Basically the point was to grab people’s attention...We wanted people to notice the ad.”

“There’s nothing lewd in any way about it,” Allen added.

UC Vice-President Annie R. Riley ’07 said she disagreed with Allen’s use of the human form to spark interest in the election. “I don’t like the way they objectified the human body in order to get the attention of Facebook users,” Riley said.

“I regret if they offended people and I’m sorry that they were ever put up. I hope that people will still vote in the election.”

—Staff writer Margot E. Edelman can be reached at medelman@fas.harvard.edu.