People-power win after Sydney teacher Paula Orbea launches petition against ‘misogynistic and degrading slogans’ on Wicked Campers vans

PEOPLE power has prevailed in the fight against Wicked Campers’ “misogynistic and degrading” slogans. You won’t believe the things they were saying.

The Wicked Campers Grave yard on Mcleod street is where the not so wicked, wicked campers go to die. The site is home to itinerants with some vans being used as a free bed and some backpackers retiring their wicked camper from life also using the yard as a free camp site. Pic Tom Lee

WICKED Campers have agreed to clean up sexist or misogynistic slogans from their fleet of vans after a public outcry this week.

The company has today issued an apology and committed to reviewing and removing offensive marketing from all of its campervans in the next six months.

Paula Orbea, the Sydney school teacher who started the 110,000-strong change.org petition against Wicked Campers, says it’s a stunning people-power victory against sexism, with the result coming just four days after she started the petition.

In an email from Wicked Campers received by Paula, she says the company has offered a personal apology and has now removed the sexist slogan Paula’s daughter saw.

“Wicked Campers owner John Webb wishes to acknowledge the prevailing community opinion by REMOVING the slogan in question and making a commitment over the coming six months to changing slogans of an insensitive nature,” the statement reads.

Ms Orbea said she was “overjoyed by the result” and commended Wicked Campers for “eventually listening to consumers that their misogynistic slogans weren’t acceptable”.

“This was a people-power win,” she said. “The change.org petition worked just as it intended, with more than 110,000 people signing, it was an overwhelming show of community support.”

The story began on Saturday morning when Ms Orbea took a stand against the company after her 11-year-old daughter saw a van with a particularly offensive slogan.

The high school teacher launched an online petition to “eliminate misogynistic and degrading slogans and imagery” from Wicked Campers.

The offending slogan on a Wicked campervan.

She was compelled to take on the company when her daughter saw a van in the NSW Blue Mountains that said: “In every princess, there’s a little slut who wants to try it just once”.

“My daughter was upset by this because she felt, as a girl, that the slogan was referring to her and it made her fear being perceived that way,” Ms Orbea wrote on the change.org petition.

“This particular phrase promotes pedophilia and resonates very badly with everyone who thinks it’s abhorrent to sexually assault a girl, especially by groomed males who think ‘she wants it’.”

Ms Orbea said people either reacted with amusement or disgust to these slogans.

“Those who gain pleasure are the problem — yet they have a platform to spread their vile perspectives,” she said.

Another Wicked Camper comment that has been slammed as “misogynistic”.

Ms Orbea said she had been overwhelmed by the number of people who backed her strong stance.

“Generally, 90 per cent, if not more, have said ‘Good on you’ because everyone has had it. It’s really struck a chord,” she told news.com.au.

“The line (of what’s acceptable) keeps getting pushed forward. I think it is a culture and people just turn a blind eye to it. (But) I don’t know anyone who would think that that’s funny.”

Ms Orbea said the slogan was particularly heinous given the recent court case involving Rolf Harris, where the Australian entertainer was jailed for assaulting young girls.

“A slogan like that condones it and normalises it,” she said.

Sexually suggestive slogans are a common site on Wicked Campers.

Do you find this offensive?

Some detractors have said that Wicked Campers are simply exercising their freedom of speech, but Ms Orbea said this argument didn’t hold water because people were forced to see their “moving billboards”.

Wicked Campers hires out cheap campervans to a market of young backpackers.

This racist slogan on a Wicked campervan sparked outrage in 2009.

The company has been censured by the Advertising Standards Bureau in the past, with a March ruling finding that a slogan on one of its slogans — “Fat girls are harder to kidnap!” — breached the Advertiser Ethics Code.

“The board noted that kidnap is illegal and considered that this advertisement is making light of, and encouraging, behaviour which is against prevailing community standards on safety”, the bureau’s report read.

The business declined to respond the to report, however.

A sign outside Wicked Campers.

Do you find Wicked Campers slogans offensive? Comment below or join the conversation on Twitter @newscomauHQ.

Originally published as People-power win after Sydney teacher Paula Orbea launches petition against ‘misogynistic and degrading slogans’ on Wicked Campers vans