Oh, dear. A fitness supplement brand in the UK has taken it upon itself to become the patron saint of body shaming.
The Drum reports that, faced with online criticism over its "are you beach body ready?" ad campaign, Protein World decided not only to be unapologetic, but downright nasty:
That particular exchange was started by blogger Laurence Hebbard, who wrote about their confrontational social media engagement on Social Media London. Here are some of the curated exchanges:
As of this writing, the protein shake maker is completely unapologetic. They seem quite happy to bask in the negative publicity (as well as the many Tweets of support from fans).
Is this an example of the tired cliché "there's no such thing as bad publicity"? That remains to be seen. While this kind of obnoxious brand behaviour is bound to ingratiate it to a certain segment of the fitness market, they're also trying to sell weight loss products. Is it really such a great idea to shame people who might actually be interested in such things?
Adopting "being an asshole" as a brand strategy is a risky move, but not an unprecedented one. Now it's just a matter of seeing how many assholes are willing to self-identify by buying the stuff.
Responding to the outcry on social media, the restaurant has posted a blog apologising for mocking vegetarianism, stating that they are “currently liaising with media owners to update the billboard”. However, there is no apology for mocking mental illness or domestic abuse charities.
According to Mind, one in four people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year. The most common form of mental illness is mixed anxiety and depression, which affects about one in ten. Refuge, a charity that deals with domestic abuse, says that two women each week are killed from domestic violence.
But these facts probably never occurred to Red’s True BBQ.
Probably not. Brands as big as McDonald's have made similar mistakes, assuming that it was OK to lampoon mental health PSA clichés to sell stuff.
Making fun of people's life choices seems like fair game to me. It should be noted that Red's BBQ has offered the standard non-apology — but only to "offended" vegetarians.
Making fun of people's life choices seems like fair game to me. Mocking who they are, however, in my opinion is not.
The image above turned up today on Ads Of The World. Created by agency Phibious, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, it's a sexed-up — but mostly harmless — transformation of the brand into bikinis.
Within an hour of posting, AOTW's Ivan Raszl pointed out that there was already a parody version going around:
Posted on Facebook by Carlos Ríos, the caption reads "a real Coca-Cola's summer model, shall be like."
This is a common reaction to "junk food" advertising, familiar to readers of Adbusters:
Do you see the problem? Yes, soft drinks and fast food are fattening. But do we need to make fun of people's bodies to make this point?
It's another example how conflicting priorities and sensitivities make social media complicated. People who are against the corporate food industry want to make a statement about promoting unhealthy consumption, but in doing so they cross a line into "body shaming" that's hurtful to people other than their intended targets of derision.
Adfreak just shared this hilarious takedown of weasel words in food advertising:
The irony here is that, worldwide, "Organic" is a certification that is not as absolute as you might think. And the health benefits of organic foods are always in question. (In our household, we're more concerned about farmers' exposure to toxins.) But it's still a fun bit of advocacy.
"Don't Be That Guy", a male-focussed anti-rape campaign by Sexual Assault Voices Edmonton, gained international attention and started a lot of discussions about rape culture. So of course it offended some guys who feel that they are under constant danger of having drunk women throw themselves at them just for the fun of accusing them of rape:
According to The National Post, these parody posters started showing up on an Edmonton university campus this week.
Kristopher Wells, from the University of Alberta’s Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services, nailed it when he said “That poster just shows why there’s a need for the (Don’t Be That Guy) campaign and the education work that still needs to happen if people still think that’s a joke or a funny parody.”
Parody, even when unfunny, is proof of the real campaign's success in changing the conversation from "don't get raped" to "don't rape". But there's obviously a long way still to go.
On their Facebook page, Sexual Assault Voices of Edmonton commented, "Let's hope this is a teachable moment that takes the conversation even further and helps folks understand that people don't lie about sexual assault."
Remember, a couple of weeks ago, when that adorable Cheerios ad made some racist trolls upset because it showed a "mixed race" family?
Well, somebody named Kenji has produced a spoof ad in response to the haters:
Sure, it's awkward and low-budget. But I love the twist at the end!
According to Huffington Post the video was co-written by Mark Normand and Eddie Lombardi, stars comedians Hollis Witherspoon and Joyelle Nicole Johnson, and features Adriana Barnett as the little girl.
Scottish soft drink brand Irn-Bru is known for its cheeky ads. So when a UK competitor launched a drink called "Pussy," I imagine they took it as a challenge.
With "Fanny" cans, Irn-Bru is also taking a shot at a European Coca-Cola campaign that puts popular first names on cans. (For those unaware, "Fanny" is UK slang for female genitals.)
Meet Jess, AKA "The Militant Baker". In response to Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries's 2006 comments (gone recently viral) that his brand was only for "cool" people and those who are below a certain size.
Mr. Jeffries has since sort-of apologized. But it hasn't stopped the shitstorm of internet activism against the brand.
One of the better-known memes has been filmmaker Greg Karber's #FitchTheHomeless campaign, in which he tried to denigrate the brand by donating A&F clothes to LA's street people. But as I wrote in Osocio, that is a problematic scheme as it also denigrates the homeless.
Jess, on the other hand, uses the A&F brand to express her own self-confidence. As she wrote in her open letter to Mike Jeffries:
I was inspired by the opportunity to show that I am secure in my skin and to flaunt this by using the controversial platform that you created. I challenge the separation of attractive and fat, and I assert that they are compatible regardless of what you believe. Not only do I know that I'm sexy, but I also have the confidence to pose nude in ways you don’t dare. You are more than welcome to prove me wrong by posing shirtless with a hot fat chick; it would thrill me to see such a shoot.
More and more brands are realizing that the best way to reach women is to make fun of the way everyone else tries to reach women.
The menstruation products industry has been doing this for years. Fashion, too. So low-cal foods might as well get into the action. And who knows cheese better than a cheese manufacturer?
...the truly subversive content is in the jingle which asks, "How many clichés are we gonna stand?" There is more than a passing jibe toward Special K, whose red and white color pallet and blue-jean obsession is mocked. And the spot ends with a furious montage of women measuring and weighing themselves as the jingle sings, "They know they bring us down, but it's for our own good, cause we gotta keep you girls all feeling bad about food."
You can follow the campaign on Facebook, where you can make your own "bad ad".
I really don't know what else to say. Mooncup is one of the brands that started the whole "Vagina! Vagina! Vagina!" trend of making women's sexual organs part of everyday conversation. Which isn't a bad thing. It's not so much the subject matter here that strikes me as awkward. It's the tired Limey rap parody. (Plus, Fiat did it way better.)
Anyway...
Tip via A Girl's Guide to Taking Over the World
It's been a weird year for me, but I keep coming back to this blog as a way to think out loud about my complicated relationship with the advertising industry (on which I depend to pay my half of the mortgage). Luckily for me, quite a few people have decided that these thoughts are worth reading. Thank you for that. Here were your five favourites.
This was a silly self-parody of FHM's "100 Sexiest Women in the World" list, but open to user nominations and votes featuring imaginary women of fiction, legend, pop culture and advertising. The contest site is no longer live, so I have no idea who won.
This was a joke ad, by someone named Alexander Bozhko for "Altai Fake Festival" — something akin to the Chip Shop Awards. But that didn't stop it from being taken as real, once it showed up on Ads of The World.
Thanks to my Ukrainian friend Eugene Smirnov helped me get to the bottom (heh heh) of this one. Also to Mark Duffy ("Copyranter") who posted my debunking on Buzzfeed, leading to big analytics.
This was a look at how Italian social issues artist Anna Utopia Giordano put classic Venus nudes under the harsh knife of photoshop to make a point about changing beauty standards in media. The post got a lot of viral lift after being linked on Sociological Images.
What can I say? Certain keywords always lead to high readership.
In this case, the post was a teaser for a campaign by Britain’s CoppaFeel! and Male Cancer Awareness Campaign (MCAC) about male breast cancer. I followed it up on Osocio.
My most-clicked post of 2012 was a bit of a surprise to me, as it had no naked ladies in it whatsoever. It's about how a public transit etiquette campaign by Queensland Rail became a popular parody meme. I guess I need more like that.
Well, that's all for me in 2012. This year, I have give this blog a little more focus on the issues that are of most professional interest to me, particularly ethics. (Which is why the name is changing.)
But what would you like to see more of? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below.
Don't worry. It's not the latest random sex in unrelated advertising.
It is, as David St. Hubbins would say, "making fun of that sort of thing."
The work is by British artist Katerina Jebb, for an exhibition titled" Simulacrum & Hyperbole "
This film of Australian singer/actress Kylie Minogue (whose videos tend to be highly sexualized) was created for an imaginary TV channel called Lucid TV Paris.
Here's an explanation from the official release (which won't let me embed, which is why I used that crude rip above):
In this work ,Jebb sees the boundaries between actuality and satire confused and disrupted.
In creating an imaginary TV channel, the viewer is offered parody endorsements such as Life Eraser , a new life enhancing beauty cream with the face of Tilda Swinton .
Beautiful and disturbing , the ad infinitum series will launch officially on the Lucid TV Paris Channel in 2013
The old "loud homophobes are obviously just closeted" trope would feel like homophobia itself, if it weren't the actual gay community who keep bringing it up. And if it didn't end up proving itself so damn often.
I've done my fair share of Ariel abuse online. But this one seems like a rather nasty bit of fat bashing.
Next up: Look for "Ariel Italic" with a plate of pasta and Sophia Loren boobs. A waifishly thin "Ariel Narrow". And I don't even want to know how the pasty young imagination of the viral internet will render "Ariel Black" — although I am not optimistic.
Last week, Eric shared an image that was my first exposure to the Queensland Rail Meme:
Here's the backstory: Australia's Queensland Rail, a regional interurban rail network, launched a train etiquette campaign way back in 2011. It used the style of children's first readers to show how elementary basic courtesy really is.
You get the idea. Everyone does. Which makes the campaign ripe for parody.
Buzzfeed has collected some of the "best" of the fake posters:
Despite the silliness, this is actually good news for the client. Their brand is out there, and the courtesy conversation is viral. Good on you, Queensland Rail.
Ever notice that high fashion models in magazine editorials look like they're in excruciating pain? Between the contorted poses that exude glamour and thinness, to the absent expressions on their faces, they just don't appear to be having any fun.
"backaches"
This campaign for Sweden's NK Pharmacy uses this insight brilliantly, diagnosing the models with common ailments and offering product solutions from their store. I have nothing else to add. It's a prefect print campaign by Garbergs of Stockholm.
