Suzie Debrosse speaks to the crowd at the protest outside of Burton’s headquarters. (Burlington Free Press)

By Kailee Bradstreet and Mike Lewis

Suzie Debrosse and Lezlee Spregler are not happy with some of Burton’s latest design decisions. The two women helped lead a protest on October 23 against Burton’s new line of boards at the company’s Vermont headquarters. For those who have not yet seen the new lines, Burton’s Primo graphics depict self-mutilation and their Love graphics feature several Playboy models posing nude. The boards have raised eyebrows with some since they were released, and continue to gain attention from the mainstream media. But many argue that youth can be exposed to this type of nudity and violence in many other forums.

For the entire story, including a statement from Burton’s CEO Laurent Potdevin, click HERE.

Spregler and Debrosse are both mothers who are strongly active in their Vermont community, whether it’s speaking out against the commercialism of children, supporting battered women and children programs, or taking a stand against violence and female degradation in the media, they said. They contacted Transworld Business after reading the Burton Protest story on the site, and wanted to share their views. Here are a few of the questions we posed to Spregler and Debrosse, mainly derived from questions readers’ posed on our forums, and the women’s responses.

TWB: How were these boards brought to your attention and how did you got involved in this cause?

LS: I was actually on their web site because we have a snowboard family, except me - I’m the skier. My six year-old son, my fourteen year old daughter and my husband all snowboard. I often go on websites to see the newest stuff. We’ve been customers of Burton for almost eight years, and so I was looking at their stuff, came across the [Primo] Coalition line, and was really surprised. At first I didn’t even know quite what to think, you know?

Long story short, [my husband] Jeff and I contacted Burton asking for a reply to, you know, “What are you doing with these boards, bringing them out into the public sphere where our kids are and stuff? What’s going on with that?” I didn’t receive a reply, except for the standard reply. It was both the Primo and Love that both kind of hit me in the face as I was looking.

TWB: What would you say is your overall goal in this? To raise awareness? To get Burton to stop making this product?

SD: I think it’s somewhat beyond Burton at this point. It’s not about Burton stopping making these boards - that would be great, but It’s really more of the bigger picture of awareness. Raising consciousness and awareness around issues of corporate responsibility of putting stuff out into our culture that denigrates women, that could lead to violence against women, and also just gratuitous violence. Inappropirate gory images that just don’t belong on a mountain. I know they’re out there, in video games, movies, on tv - we get that all the time. But I can turn that off. I can choose not to get that movie, I can choose not to buy a product in the store. But I don’t have that choice when I’m on a chiarlift on a montain and I’m trying to enjoy a day of skiing and boarding with my family.

LS: For us, this is not a freedom of speech issue, it’s a corporate responsibility issue. We feel that Burton is digging their heels in, as many corporations do when they get to be that sort of big corporate entity. I think that’s what’s so disturbing about Burton is that they’ve lost their humanity in our culture, they’ve just become this big company. You know, we want to have dialogue with them. Suzie, who is a media literacy educator and works for the University of Vermont and St. Michaels College, has offered to come in and show them some films - has said “let’s have a dialogue.” It’s not about telling one company how to run their business, it’s about opening dialogue in our community. And Vermont is very good at that. We were one of first states to sign onto civil rights legislations. We were one of first states to have civil unions for our homosexual community. We definitely believe that people have the right to choose the way they want to live.

TWB: What were you hoping for with writing that original letter?

LS: We were hoping for a response that was more personal and more respectful to us as their customers. And what we got from the CEO is he is just calling us a group of isolated individuals. He is trying to marginalize who we are. This has spread country-wide…I think what happens in a lot of the blogs and in the dialogue we see, people really don’t realize the impacts. They don’t understand what cutting is in our culture. We’ve always maintained we are a campaign of information. We don’t want to badger people we really just want to have a dialogue.

SD: What would I have wanted to hear from Burton? “Oh, that’s a good point, we’ll pull those boards right off the market, ladies.” [laughs] No, obviously not. But I think any corporation has the right to produce any product they want and then as a citizen and as a democracy, we have the right to let them know when we aren’t happy and conversely when we are very happy, and it goes both ways. We should be telling corporations when they do something right, as well. I’d like to see Burton say,”You know what – given the reaction we’ve gotten and how its spreading, we’ve obviously made a mistake.” Think about how much corporate good will and positive publicity they would get from that, if they could just take a step back and say “We can pull these two boards,” or “We made a mistake,” or “We will think in a different way the next time we make something edgy.” Edgy doesn’t have to be misogynistic and edgy doesn’t have to be violent, self-injury. Both boards are just one step too far.

TWB: Why do you think you’ve decided to take up issue with Burton and not with other companies who have done very similar things?

LS: Like Suzie, I certainly have contacted other company’s when I see a product. I’ve been in communication with Levi’s about it’s “Unbutton Your Beast” ad. You can Google it, and I think Levi’s has pulled it and they have done that I think because it’s offensive. It’s offensive to our men to be thought of like that. But the reason Burton has been singled out is because they are our neighbor - unfortunately for them. If it was a company out in California we wouldn’t be able to muster up a protest out there.

TWB: What is your next step with this?

LS: We are not trying to bring down Burton. We maintain that this is an educational issue. Suzie lives out her life to educate people on this issue, so I know that is her next step. Part of my next step is looking into the legalities of putting soft porn into the playground of children. What’s the legalities of taking playboy magazine and dropping it into the middle of playground? I’m just interested - I’m not saying we are suing anybody - I’m just interested as a citizen. How does that play out? When do we say this is the line, enough is enough? I think people should have the right to make their own choices within their own home. It’s kind of like the same thing with smoking. Smoking has become kind of taboo out in public, because we understand the ramifications of second hand smoke. I think it’s the same thing with this. I don’t want to see this kind of thing out on a children’s playground.

** EDITOR’S NOTE: For more in-depth coverage on the issue surrounding Burton’s graphics, please be sure to pick up the December edition of Transworld Business.

Tags: burlington vermont, burton love and primo graphics, lezlee spregler, suzie debrosse

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