'Pimp' My Government Agency

Talk about getting it way wrong.

The NSW Roads and Traffic Authority has launched a campaign on their website to have ‘young drivers’ improve their web advertising in a ploy they’re calling ‘Pimp our ads’. For those of us that have been led to believe a ‘pimp’ is a misogynistic woman-selling crook, the RTA has helped us re-think that into a more progressive definition:

‘(P)imp means something that's pretty darn cool. Or as the Urban Dictionary puts it: "More commonly used nowadays as making something cool or better."’

This isn't a joke. Actually, Urban Dictionary's most 'accurate' definition of 'pimp' is as follows:

one who brokers the sexual favors (sic) of women for profits

Sounds pretty 'darn cool' to me! But maybe the RTA missed this post, after all, it was hidden away at the top of the page as the most 'approved' entry.

Anyway, using Urban Dictionary as your source for marketing campaigns? How trendy. Need I point out this is also the same website that defines ‘Bush’ as:

The only presendent (sic) of the United States of America to be all most (sic) assassinated by a pretzil (sic).

Oh my god he must be a dumb f***!!!

Yes, quite – although there could be slight issues with using an online consensus to identify words and names. Especially those that fail to spell correctly the tough words like 'President' and 'Pretzel' - we'll give them the benefit of the doubt though, they were 'all most' right.

Here’s the RTA’s in-house version of events

And they have even started an entirely separate website for this farce

It handily encourages all involved to ‘start pimpin’’. Where do I sign up for the purple felt suit and bevy of crack addicted whores?

I understand this is an attempt to try and make the roads safer for young drivers in NSW, but perhaps the RTA should consider that it's not entirely necessary to label your youth-savvy schemes with monikers usually given to criminals.