“This whole sagging pants culture seems to have swept the city and the country,” said Adams, a Democrat. “Children will be children. But as adults, we need to be on record and tell them they’re doing something wrong.”
The billboards are 22-feet-tall and will be erected along heavily traveled streets, primarily in Crown Heights. Each billboard features two male models whose pants are hanging so low their underwear is showing.
The message will read: “Stop the Sag!” and “We are better than this!”
Platt’s “Pants on the Ground” audition on “American Idol” swept the nation via YouTube and other sources, but it’s doubtful that he knew he would spark a real movement. Adams says his actions were in part spurred by Platt’s passion.
“I saw it,” Adams said of the Platt video. “I thought it was funny. But when you look at it more closely, you see how big this matter is. When we sag like that, we’re playing into it. We look like clowns.”
“On a practical level, how do they even walk?” he continued.
But what do the targets of the intervention think about the controversy? A Crown Heights youth chimes in:
“It’s more comfortable below the hip,” he told a CBS reporter. “It’s good for [Adams] to try and change it, but I doubt it’s going to happen.”
“Older people just don’t get it,” he continued. “It’s a young thing.” –gerald radford
