Tennessee Cancels Drunk-Driving Campaign After Sexism Complaints

The state has cancelled its latest anti-drunk driving campaign, just one day after it came under fire for sexism and celebrating binge drinking.

The campaign was meant to break through to young men. Instead, the jokes about girls being “hotter” when you’re drunk and going home with older women led to cries of misogyny.

Kendell Poole, the director of the Governor’s Highway Safety Office, issued a written apology for the second time in as many days, saying the ads weren’t meant to cause offense.

He added that the campaign from the Knoxville-based Tombras Group was being pulled, at the firm’s expense.

The agency received $77,096 to distribute placards and coasters in bars and to set up a website. That site, called Legends of the Stall, featured stories about bar benders, one ending with the hero mopping up vomit with a cat.

State officials say Tennessee taxpayers didn’t foot the bill. The campaign was paid for with a grant, through the federal government’s “Booze It and Lose It” program.

Poole didn’t address whether anyone in his office reviewed the advertising materials beforehand.

A spokesman for Gov. Bill Haslam says the governor had not seen the campaign but “doesn’t like it and is pleased that it has been suspended.”