Video Banned Over Nipple

(Dublin, Ireland) A video produced to encourage people to vote in next month's European elections has been banned in Ireland because it shows a bare breast. The video, made by the European Parliament's Audio-Visual Department, was intended to depict the elections as making choices by showing a baby deciding which breast to suckle. Although breast feeding is not offensive to most Europeans, it's considered inappropriate for the mostly Catholic Irish population.

In Britain, film advert regulators found the suckling shot racy, likening the image to "the sort of breast shot you would associate with a men's magazine".

A member of the four-man, four-woman Cinema Advertising Association (CAA) panel, which took the decision, said they found that they ended up looking at the breast and not the baby.

"It was literally the breast full screen size with an erect nipple side on and the infant gazing across at them," said Greg Lyons, a copy consultant at the CAA.

"The panel found themselves looking at something that was very difficult for them," he said. "The infant was contemplating the breasts in rather an adult way."

Now, how does an infant contemplate "in an adult way?" It seems like Mr. Lyons might be reading too much into a picture. Nonetheless, to me, the salient point to be made about this whole episode is the rather Freudian symbolism of having a political choice likened to choosing which breast to suck. How true it is!