5. Unreal Beauty (June 28)
I never really set out to write a feminist blog, but every time I cover women's issues in advertising I get lots of hits.
This one was about Dove's campaign for real beauty as a celebrated PR move, contrasted with a leaked casting note that specified: "MUST HAVE FLAWLESS SKIN, NO TATTOOS OR SCARS! Well groomed and clean...Nice Bodies..NATURALLY, FIT Not too Curvy Not too Athletic."
I thought it was a brand fail. Others disagreed. Lots of people read it.
4. A Case of Blondes (May 19)
This post was my reaction to an outdoor ad I saw on Bank St. just before the May 24 weekend. While not particularly remarkable on its own, it got be ruminating about the "blonde" sexy/ist cliché in beer branding and advertising and looking for other examples.
I guess it was some good collecting, because it got picked up by my favourite social science blog, Sociological Images — which brought my blog (then still called "Change Marketing") to a whole new audience.
3. Copywronging (Feb 9)
I kind of felt bad when I wrote this post. The cause is a good one, and I'm sure that the campaign was heartfelt. But this was one of the most unintentionally awful copwriting fails I have seen in ages.
You need a fairly sick (or cynical) mind to see it, so it's only natural that this post was picked up by Copyranter — giving this post a big boost in traffic.
If cybertip.ca ever saw my post, I hope it helped them improve their campaign.
2. Should fashion models come with warning labels? (Feb 26)
Another "women's issues" post, this one is about attempts to regulate the portrayal of women's bodies in the media — both by banning "too skinny" models, and by putting warning labels on images that have been heavily Photoshopped.
I was actually fairly circumspect about the issue, but any discussion of sexism in advertising seems to generate lots of interest and debate.
1. The Facebook Double (D) Standard on Obscenity (November 18)
My most popular post of the year by a margin of about 2,000 unique visits, this one came out of nowhere. It was one of many anti-Facebook rants — published on Facebook, of course — calling them on their apparent war on breastfeeding pictures in profiles.
Basically, the author compared several semi-pornographic cleavage pics, found on a simple Facebook search, to several innocent breastfeeding portraits (like the one above) that had been quickly removed as "obscene".
There is a very large lactivist community in social media, and when I managed to screen cap this note before it was deleted — and put it on a third-party medium — it got picked up by many of the communities who had experienced similar selective censorship.
Some were surprised to see a man taking up this cause. Those who read regularly know it is one of my most heartfelt pet issues.
So, what can I learn from my blog's most popular posts? Maybe I should offer Jezebel or Feministing my services as token male correspondent ;)
Merry and safe Christmas, everyone. I'm on vacation until the New Year, but may post sporadically if I miss you all too much.
Cheers,
- Tom
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