What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Brad_in_MA sends in this head-scratcher of an "awareness" stunt:

Thousands in Portland take to bikes for naked ride

PORTLAND, Ore (Reuters) – It was a typical early summer evening in Portland: cloudy skies threatening rain, temperatures in the mid-60s, and thousands of naked bicyclists gathered near the city's waterfront for a clothing-free night ride.

The Portland version of the World Naked Bike Ride was about to begin.

Oh boy. Thousands of filthy, naked hippies all riding their Schwinns in some vain attempt to... Um... What? What are they raising awareness of, exactly? Hippies in Portland? They claim to be trying to bring attention to the need to go green, use less fossil fuels, blah blah blah. But the "naked" part of this says otherwise.

It says nothing more than "Look at me!"

Since these are bicyclists one would hope that this spectacle would be less vomit-inducing than the naked anti-war protests so prevalent during the last presidential administration. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader why, even though we've opened up at least two additional fronts in the ongoing "war" *and* kept Gitmo open, these protests have ceased, but that's fodder for another post.

Look, when you decide to "raise awareness" of [insert any cause you want here], as soon as you add "naked" in the title, you change the focus of the event from "raise awareness" to "look at me stunt". Nudity is not shocking, although the standard poor physiques shown in these such events can certainly be. All it does is change the focus of your event from whatever it was you claim to want to raise awareness off to the fact that your participants will be au naturel. Instead of a "green ride", it's the "naked ride".

Congratulations. You managed to make this all about you. Yawn.

That is all.