I'm only offended that this is so lacking in content. Especially since I just finished going through the ordeal of opening an account with HSBC after a post on Consumerist about the high APY on savings accounts. Is Consumerist going bipolar?

I personally was not offended or angered, I'm just pointing out that the users here have gone to bat for this site to defend it. Why ruin it for them? For an article with no relevance, no substance and no humor?

This isn't a monkey's tea party, someone has to approve the stuff that gets posted. I like this site and don't want to see it ruined by simple carelessness.

The most annoying thing about this post is the complete lack of ANY real content about the subject. What about HSBC? Is this The Consumerist or Hustler Humor?

How was this useful or necessary?

If you can't read/see this at work, maybe you shouldn't be reading this at work.

The thread isn't advocating anal rape, it is just associating the adverse affects of Corporate America and what it metaphorically does to the consumer.

People just take too much stuff way too seriously. If you get that upset about a humerous webpage, then perhaps you should ask [Comcast] to disconnect you.

Ever see "All in the Family"? Was that offensive as well? That show was chock full of racial/homosexual stereotypes, yet funny as hell.

I don't get what is so difficult to understand about that and why people get so damn uppity.

Like someone else said... we are becoming a nation of thin skinned wussies.

AcilletaM: good memory. This blog has indeed taken the high ground on rape analogies before.

Indeed. The post states:

Yesterday, Ben and I received an email from Bruce C. ...On the one hand, Bruce C. seemed to have a quasi-legitimate gripe, and we admired its clearness and tersity. On the other hand... holy crap! Did Bruce just play the rape card?

So, WTF is going on now???

All the snarky content on this blog would make my mother blush. That's why I read it!

Actually, I read it because it is brilliantly informed and addictive and a must read for those who don't know how to handle greedy, blood sucking corporations.

Trust me. I lived in England for a long time and the companies there make the ones here look like freaking Mother Theresa's convent.

Don't get cheesed off because a headline or picture offends you. You are one. We are many. Get over it. Grow up.

This bloody puritanical, Bible lovin' country needs to know that not all things are within 'acceptable' boundaries. So what????

Get. Over. It.

The second issue I have is that I couldnt find any story here. I am interested in the story, if there is one, because I am currently attempting to open an account with HSBC and I would like to know why banking with HSBC is akin to getting analy raped.

But just the picture? It's not that slow of a news day...

I found it tasteless and obnoxious, but I guess I'm just a humourless dinosaur who doesn't think that trivialising rape is worth my chuckle.

So what if this is the internet? This blog is usually an intelligent and sensitive defender of basic consumer rights with an irreverent edge, but juvenile jokes like this undermine the blog's authority and its reader's respect for it.

If Walmart sold a t-shirt trivialising rape this blog would be high-horsing like crazy. So for Mr Popken, Nazi t-shirts and homophobic landscapers are bad, but depictions of rape and homophobic jokes are not.

But hey, fuck it. Let's go to town on the "edgy" humour angle. Lets revise the easy-bake oven post with an edgy and irreverent child abuse joke. Let's go back to the child's porn-filled laptop and throw in an "ironic" paedophilia punchline or two? That would be a total laff-riot.

All too often I see signs (whines?) indicating what a thin-skinned victimized nation of wussies we are becoming.

You don't like it? MOVE TO THE NEXT ARTICLE.

sheesh. grow a backbone. sack up!

VIVA Consumerist

Actually, I am a long time reader and commenter who finds this shit pretty offensive... the ongoing problem is that Ben (and some readers) don't know the difference between "dark humor" or "snark" and truly offensive comparisons.

It's a shame, because the Consumerist has such incredible potential to be a truly great site. And since my ongoing bitching in the comments doesn't work, I'm off to right a strongly worded letter to the Gawker overlords.

WRT the image itself: Not as bad as the ads that I've seen on some (non-sex-related) sites, and I suspect that most of us have started riding the scroll wheel when we surf at work, anyway. But I really have to speculate about the employment status of people who can't see what the fuss is all about.

This isn't Consumer Reports (thank God), and Ben isn't John Stossel.

Thank God Ben isn't John Stossel, because John Stossel is damned annoying.

Yeah, rape is hilarious

Yeah Im sure thats EXACTLY how he meant it, you guy/girls should lighten up, its a joke, not even a crude on at that.

I'm not easily offended and I have a pretty sick sense of humor but, ugh. This sucks.

You can be pro-consumer and still have a twisted laugh now and then. (Heck, you have to.)

FWIW, I thought the Gawkeresque Wal*Mart gallery was a brilliant piece, too.

If this user-generated content isn't shoppers biting back, I don't know what is.

If you'd like a site to recommend to gramps, spring for the paid subscription to Consumer Reports.

Consumerist...not so much. I was home in MA this weekend and was going on about how great the site is and sorry guys, this doesn't work here.

Grow a sense of humor, folks. You shouldn't be using the internet at work anyway.

I had an inkling that wasn't going to happen when a November post said something alongs the lines of "It's Christmas, Motherfuckers."

Oh, wait. Is it okay because the woman in the photo looks like a porn star? If she looked like your next door neighbor would you still post this?

I appreciate Consumerist's edginess but I'm not sure who you're trying to reach with this garbage.

Also, posts like this don't really highlight the fact that you have to click 'HSBC' right above the Read More area.

Is this supposed to be the photo of "BBB bends over like a tranny pre-op saving up for surgery."--another way too over the top analogy by the esteemed editor. I'm thinking anal sex humor is a an area where excess is far too easy to do. Wonkette can pull it off, but I'm pretty sure this thread doesn't.