Inspired by MTV's car make-over show "Pimp My Ride," public relations flacks hyping fancy bathrooms and e-commerce front-end software are latching onto the "pimp" platform as well.

And now a Canadian company is marketing cellphone ringtones called PimpTones.

Bell Mobility is selling a series of cellphone ringtones called PimpTones that make light of prostitution and refer to women as "bitches," "skanks" and "hoes." The short messages can be downloaded from the Bell website for a $2.50 fee and programmed to sound whenever the cellphone rings.

Unlike conventional ringtones that play melodies or short clips of popular songs, the PimpTones are voice recordings of actors speaking in a street vernacular about "players" and "hoes" (whores). Some of the explicit language in the ringtones is beeped out, but can still be easily understood.

Bell pulled two of the ringtones off its website yesterday after the Citizen called to ask why it would sell a product that seems focused, however satirically, on a profession that exploits women.

The company removed a clip entitled No Love For Hoes, in which a receptionist is heard saying that there are "skanks" and "hoes" calling on line one, and another in which a female voice says, "Money, clothes and hoes is all a player cares about."

But Bell continues to offer others in the same PimpTones series, including a clip with angry male voice saying, "Bi-(BEEP)-ch, do I look like a motherfu-(BEEP)-ing track suit?" (A track suit is slang for a low-class person who wears athletic gear.) "Well, no," a young female voice replies. "Well, quit sweating me, ho!" the man says.

In one clip, a young woman's voice says, "So, Mack-a-ho, your escorts for the Las Vegas Gentleman's Ball have arrived." (Mack is slang for pimp or, in verb form, means to seduce or have sex with.) Other clips use the word bitch and humorously threaten slaps or kicks if the phone isn't answered.

A Bell Canada spokeswoman said the clips were offered in response to customer demand.

Um yeah. I can just see all those Canadians clamoring for PimpTones.

Coming soon: a Great Books series callled "Pimp Your Intellect."

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Posted by Matt Rosenberg at August 5, 2005 04:10 PM