Jan 27 2009
Chav-Free Holidays = Awesome!
I’ve been surprised and even shocked at some of the marketing ploys that some companies have released in recent years to get a bit of publicity but I have to say that I think I heard about the best one yet today. It certainly made me smile. In fact, it made me want to book a holiday immediately! Activites Abroad, a company offering husky dog safaris, sent an email to their mailing list stating that they were offering chav-free holidays. Absolutely awesome!
Now for those of you that have no idea what a chav is, it is defined as: “is a slang derogatory term applied to certain young people in the United Kingdom. The stereotypical image of a chav is a white aggressive teen or young adult, of working class background, who wears branded sports and casual clothing (baseball caps are also common) who often fights and engages in petty criminality.” Basically they are the scourge of society at the moment. Chavs are renowned for causing trouble, drinking in the streets, perpetrating acts of violence and claiming benefits. It may be a stereotypical term but one that really is warranted given that the people falling into that category seem to revel in the description.
Activities Abroad have defended their advertisement of chav-free holidays as many have critisized the use of the term. Those that describe themselves as that and enjoy being labelled as such, and I came across plenty in my former job, would laugh about it. The company stipulated that they were standing up for the middle class, which also came under fire, but I want to kiss them all! I’m most definitely working class and am by no means middle class, but everyone has a right to a holiday without drunken teenage louts ruining it. The middle class frown on the behaviour of those youths and so do I. You cannot tar all teenagers with the same brush so teen-free holidays would be unfair on those that are just out to have a fun, relaxing break. However, why should we put up with the chav population when we work hard to pay for their benefits whilst they sit around doing nothing but smoking weed, drinking cider and beating up family men for bottles of wine?
A father of five called Mick Eccles was killed in Lichfield yesterday, which is very close to my home and not somewhere you would expect a murder to happen. He was beaten to death by chavs because he wouldn’t give them the bottle of wine he had just bought from the local off-license. One of those boys was just 15. It really is disgusting that these people think it’s OK to take a loving and hard working family man’s life for a bottle of wine, so why not label them? In fact, it’s about time that someone started standing up for the rest of us. Good on you Activities Abroad - keep up the good work!
