Nurse Jakki: cross confusion
Raunchy car magazine Max Power has come under fire from the British Red Cross and fellow Emap title Nursing Times over its resident agony aunt Nurse Jakki.
Max Power received a letter from the head of international law at the British Red Cross, stating that Nurse Jakki was contravening the Geneva Conventions Act by wearing a red cross on her outfit.
Related
By law the cross is a restricted symbol of protection for wartime, and its misuse could mean a £5,000 fine. Max Power was warned that the special significance of the emblem would be "diminished" and "lives may be lost". Nurse Jakki has now adopted a white cross on a green background but the complaint has ignited another row with Nursing Times.
It started in the pages of Emap’s in-house magazine EM which published a letter last month from Max Power’s publishing director Rob Croxall about Nurse Jakki’s "difficulties".
Max Power was taken aback when Nursing Times’ news focus editor Rob Munro responded with fury and criticised the magazine for "damaging Emap’s reputation within the nursing profession". His letter states: "At the risk of sounding po-faced, images of ‘nurses’ in PVC appearing in sister publications do little to increase our appeal to an audience that is central to Emap’s continued success. Surely it’s time for some sort of joined-up thinking on what this company is doing?."
Content from our partners
Croxall said he was surprised by the reaction from Nursing Times.
Max Power has written a reply to EM referring to the many requests it gets from student nurses to appear in various states of undress in the title’s ‘Her in Drawers’ section. It says: "Rob Munro may argue that images of ‘nurses’ in PVC do little to increase our appeal but I’d say the opposite judging by the applications from student nurses. Perhaps Nurse Jakki should lead a recruitment campaign!"
Ruth Addicott
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
