Are your boobs wearing the right shoes?
November 13, 2009 Leave a comment
I could not resist copying the title from Kate Harding's takedown in Salon.com of these ridiculously sexist Reebok ads.
I could be wrong, but I just don't see these ads as being that effective. We know you can fool men into buying things by ogling women's bodies in ads, but will that really get women to buy products? Harding:
I trust I don't need to repeat my rant from yesterday
on why companies trying to sell women products with images that appeal
primarily to heterosexual men is infuriating. But the depressing
question I didn't get to in that post is: How well does it work?
Sterling-Cooper lost the Patio account with the Ann-Margret ripoff
Peggy objected to, but Reebok paid for these and paid to run them.
(Well, at least one — has anyone seen the boob ad somewhere other than
YouTube?) Some decision-maker was confident that women will be so
enchanted by the thought of being ogled more often, they'll run out and
buy these shoes. And what's really scary to consider is, they might not
be wrong — not entirely, anyway.
I hope they aren't effective, because if it's not bad enough all the sexism in ads aimed at men, we certainly don't need to add to the objectification of women in ads actually aimed at women. If I were a woman I'd be totally offended (I'm a man and I'm offended), but than again, unlike most, I'm actually an admitted feminist.
Y'all (and I know you are reading this) don't comment enough– I'm really curious about your thoughts on these ads.
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