A paternity test advertisement near Hampton Roads, Virginia is turning heads in the military community with a not-so-subtle suggestion that military wives are home cheating on their men.
The billboard, which features a soldier standing next to a postman, asks "Who's the Daddy?" and refers readers to Labs to Go, a medical testing company with two locations in the Hampton Roads and Virginia Beach areas, according to their website. A second billboard depicts a woman with a growing nose like Pinocchio and asks "Is the mother a liar?"
The area is home to three Navy bases.
The president of Labs to Go told a reporter that the ads are based on reality. Every day, she said, military members come in for paternity tests. And although the ads have sparked a few complaint phone calls, she has no intention of taking them down. If anything, she said, they have resulted in more business.
While it's easy to see why the ads could be interpreted as funny, it's also clear why they are potentially offensive. Although studies indicate that such behavior is no more frequent in the military community than out of it, military spouses already deal with a broad stereotype of infidelity, especially during deployment and absences.
So what do you think? Offensive or funny?
