Bondage gear and legal advertising

I almost didn’t dignify this with a post, but I am trying to be more light hearted in here. The article speaks for itself.

As a practical matter, I’m not sure what I think of it. We’re supposed to be an ancient and honorable profession. I think that advertisements like this detract from respect for the profession. In undergrad at Gustavus, I was in a group that did a research on legal advertising. Our group concluded that while none of our focus group participants thought that any lawyer advertisements we showed them (a random sampling of a weeks worth of mid-day legal advertisements mostly of the “Have you been hurt in an accident?” variety) were unethical, they almost uniformly thought the advertisements made them think less of lawyers. This seems to fit that pattern.

My problem with these advertisements, to the extent I have a problem, stems not so much from their content as their message. Honestly, I could care less if what’s-her-name appeared buck naked, full-frontal, etc. As far as advertisement goes, it doesn’t matter if these are really her or some model she hired to be on her billboard. The troubling part is the self-gratification based attack on an institution that arguably forms a fundamental part of our societal structure. While I don’t see myself as particularly pro-marriage (mostly, I suspect, as a political matter), I don’t think an attorney, a member of a theoretically dignified profession, should attack it either.

On the other hand, these advertisements are without a doubt provocative and memorable, all the more so for the incidental press they receive. One cannot put a roof over their head with, pay off student loans with, or eat the dignity of the profession. As much as the bar does not want to admit it, we are a business. Businesses succeed when they sell their product, which means people buy their product, which means people come through the door, which means people remember the advertisements in the first place. These advertisements will do that, although I suspect they will drive quite a few customers too. I also suspect that the Cook County judges have to constantly remind themselves that, whatever they may thing of Ms. Billboard, her clients may have perfectly valid reasons for their divorces and they should not be punished for their lawyer’s actions.