Surely it is true that young drinkers are more likely to be victims of robbery, violence, and rape, as well as being more likely to end up vomiting in the gutter and choking to death on their own puke.

The advertisement, though, is aimed at parents and surely it is a parent's worst nightmare that their daughter would end up being raped as an end result of the irresponsible behavior of the parents in buying, promoting and allowing alcohol for their underage children.

Of course advertisements are not usually intended to be peer-reviewed items of social studies research, though the underlying ideas are often based on same.

Probably, though, it would have been more tasteful to show a girl or boy, or both, choking to death on vomit, as this is sex neutral. I suspect that both rapists and their victims are often drinking, but it would be much harder to portray the dangers of turning your son into a rapist by plying him with beer, so the ad people probably decided that having their daughter raped was a parent's worst nightmare.

I really object to the knee-jerk reaction of so many feminists who seem to say that any suggestion that a woman's behavior contributed to her rape is "blaming the victim." To use less emotionally fraught examples, it's like saying that you shouldn't tell people to wear seat belts, you should tell people not to get into accidents; you shouldn't tell people to lock their houses, because when you do that you're blaming them for having their house burgled.

It's all well and good to say that men shouldn't rape, but in the real world, women need to be aware of ways that their behavior can make them more vulnerable to rape, and abusing alcohol is the single most important contributing factor. Besides, the fact that someone in some way made themselves vulnerable to crime doesn't excuse the crime. If you leave your house unlocked and someone comes in and steals your stuff, it's still theft. The fact that a woman makes herself vulnerable doesn't mean she "deserves" to be raped.

There is no diminishment of the criminal act in this ad, no suggestion that the perpetrators were somehow justified. They look like criminals, and a decent person would hope they are caught and made to pay for their crimes.

If fairness is at issue, you could make a version of the commercial showing a young man getting arrested for date rape from what he thought was consentual sex, but from when he wasn't in a capacity to tell the difference. Sorry you were too drunk to understand "No" son, but that isn't going to keep you out of jail. (SLAM - as the cell door shuts)

It seems indisputable that a rape is more likely when alcohol is involved - why is it that there is such a reaction when this is pointed out? Surely there isn't a desire to see this trend reinforced thru a lack of caution. Is it denial? Is it because it conflicts with notions of equality?

The act of rape is most likely older than our species, and I am confident due to the innate differences in biology between the sexes, that women have been disproportionately victimized by it. I find it hard to believe that this will ever change, especially when technology such as drugs or stunguns are available that can render anybody, regardless of their gender, helpless. The rational response to this unpleasant reality is to deal with it productively, and try to decrease the risk factors. This ad seems to be a reasonable attempt at that.

Is what it is referred to among the professionals. A person's ability to observe their surroundings and avoid a potentially threatening place among a group of people that one would rather not be involved with is greatly impaired when any type of intoxicant is involved. An inexperienced person usually has much less of a threshold of intoxication, as well, so the effects are compounded. I think many of us remember (unfortunately), our first serious alcohol buzz.

Shock tactics work in this jaded world of ours and the truth of the matter is that this particular PSA has engendered controversy, thereby achieving it's ends. People are discussing it and if a single child is rescued, be it from a sexual predator or from getting into an automobile and starting it, I have absolutely no issue with the methods employed.

I know the pain of a lost child, the emotion of an advertisement deemed inappropriate is nothing, believe me.

Which do you think, realistically, *might* actually work: telling men not to rape women, or telling women to exercise care, and avoid intoxication without a babysitter? Sure, it'd be NICE if people could just be told not to rape, rob, batter, or vandalize, but if someone is intent on causing harm, they're going to do it. Normal people who want to avoid being victims are a better audience.

I'm an ardent feminist, and if I ever have children of either gender you bet I'm going to press the message that being drunk alone in public is an invitation to get mugged, raped, or otherwise victimized, (or arrested!), to say nothing of getting home without a sober friend to help you out.

The presence or absence of alcohol in a teenager's bloodstream has little bearing on her ability to fight off a cadre of would-be rapists.

The presence of alchol in a teenager's system could cause her to pass out. That would definitely hinder her ability to fight off or flee from one rapist or a cadre of rapists.

Alcohol clouds our judgment if we drink enough of it. And teens tend to drink until drunk more often than adults do... and they tend to drink until they're reeeeeallly drunk. Male or female. Thing is, males aren't as likely to be raped as females are. But they are as likely to become crime victims as females when they are drunk. They often get robbed or beaten or both when stumbling around on the streets.

Being raped is far worse than being robbed. It can be worse than being beaten (I certainly won't diminish the life-impact on a male who has been beaten, since a detective and a DA came to my apartment last week in order to take photographs of the street below my window. The previous tenants of my apartment called the police when they heard and saw a young man being beaten. That young man is brain damaged and his parents are determined to see justice done. The young man had just left a local bar and he was drunk, thus vulnerable). So warning young women that they can be vulnerable to rape when drunk isn't so crazy.

I don't think they are blaming the victim. Should we scare young people about getting really drunk? Yes, I think we should. And I don't think it is hysteria to do so. Young men and women are more likely to be crime victims when drunk because of their inexperience which can lead to poor judgment, their lack of experience at taking care of themselves, and the fact that they tend to get very impaired when drinking, thus they are more vulnerable to criminal predators. I remember being a told true stories when I was a teenager about things which happened to young people who were drunk. Those stories had more influence on me than those ridiculous "This is your brain on drugs"-type PSAs.

The point is to show teenagers how vulnerable they are when they drink to the point of stumbling around at night, getting confused and winding up somehwere they don't want to be - something they wouldn't do if they weren't shitfaced. Would it help quell feminist ire by showing a PSA where a young man is stumbling around drunk and gets the crap beaten out of him by a cadre of thugs?