Is this "the least effective sexism awareness ad ever"?

Reading Copyranter today, I saw a Reddit post of the poster above, spotted in the wild. Copyranter called it (maybe) "the least effective sexism awareness ad ever". 

Curious about the campaign, I stumbled upon the entire 2012 campaign from the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MeCasa).

Here are the rest of them:

The first thing that jumped to mind was that this didn't seem like an American campaign. Using "fag" for a cigarette butt and "queens" for gay men is not really Uncle Sam's English.

The other weird thing is that the slanders against women ("bitch" and "ho") are common ways to bring all women down — straight and gay — while the men's slanders are all homophobic.

It turns out that MeCasa has a partner in this campaign, Boys to Men, who states that, "Traditional media and cultural representations of masculinity and femininity are too narrowly defined and contribute to destructive and damaging behavior towards individuals of all genders and ages."

I get that what the campaign is trying to do is helpful. It's just trying way too hard. By placing common words of verbal violence on equal footing with more obscure ones, just in the name of creating more executions, weakens the effect. And the "hoe" execution in particular sends a really awkward mixed message.

Is "Peel the Top Off a Hottie" degrading to women?

Yes.

YES!



YES!!!

Actually, it's degrading to men too. And soup. And public transit.

This could be the worst mainstream campaign I've seen all summer. And it's from Mother London.

Tip, images and video via Copyranter.

What's the most offensive thing about this Cougar Life billboard?

Via Copyranter

Is it the sexualization of breastfeeding? The sleazification of motherhood?

Me, I'm offended most by the censorship. It's part of a much bigger problem.

Update: The billboard is being taken down, and for all the wrong reasons.

Sexual disgust as a marketing strategy

I saw two ads this week that managed to turn the whole "sex in advertising" thing completely around, with an attempt to elicit not arousal but rather disgust.

The first, via Adrants, is an online ad for singles phone line QuestChat:

Coincidentally, it was just announced that an app has been developed to help legendarily homogeneous Icelanders not hook up with not-so-distant relatives. So the timing was perfect to play on the cultural taboo of cousin incest.

(I don't want to get all Shelbyvillian about it, but I knew a guy whose parents were first cousins. The whole family were actually quite brilliant.)

The second ad, via Copyranter, is more than a little more disturbing:

No, I wasn't disturbed by the idea of an elderly person having sex (although that was certainly the intent). I'm more bothered by the cheap shot at seniors taken by this ad. It doesn't even communicate a true product benefit, as not even the most modest claims of cosmetics are necessarily honest. Bah!

Turkey has some of the most offensive diamond ads out there

Copyranter featured this nasty bit of advertising last week. He acknowledges that it seems to vulgar to be "real" (client-approved, paid for and published) but that the Turkish agency Batarya has a long history with T-Diamond.

If you visit Batarya's Facebook page, there's another campaign that shows what they think their male audience thinks of women:

That's Turkish for "Before" and "After"

Yeah, it's just a joke. But it's a joke about treating your wife or girlfriend like a prostitute who only puts out for shiny things. Good luck with that.

An islamophobic parody of an anti-islamophobia campaign?

In the United States, hate has gone meta.

Back in January, I wrote on Osocio about a campaign by American muslims to promote friendship through a better understanding of what "jihad" really means. A little lightweight, but part of a necessary discussion about the prejudice against Islam that has beed particularly nasty since September 11, 2001.

Part of the impetus for the #myjihad campaign was a reaction against anti-Islam ads run by Pamela Geller's American Freedom Defense Initiative in major American cities. The ads survived a freedom of speech claim, despite advertising space owners not wanting to run them.

Now, the AFDI has used its freedom to get even more nasty.

Via Buzzfeed

Nidal Malik Hasan is a 39-year-old U.S. Army major serving as a psychiatrist. He is charged with  killing 13 people and wounding 29 others at Fort Hood in 2009. Hasan had been in contact with Yemen-based cleric Anwar al-Awlaki prior to the shooting, and witnesses claim his attack was accompanied by shouted religious slogans.

A reasonable person might assume that Hasan was suffering a severe mental illness. It's what we usually assume when an individual suddenly turns on familiar people as a raving mass murderer. But the AFDI would like the people of Washington DC to believe that Islam caused the murder. Worse, by association it implies that the nice people in the #myjihad campaign are just like him.

Who are the evil ones here, again?

Tip via Copyranter

Branding women's thighs for fun and profit

I first heard of this trend when Copyranter posted about it yesterday.

Absolute Territory PR is a Japanese company that is renting and selling ad space on young women's thighs.

You heard that right. According to Oddity Central, more than 1,300 women (all over 18) have applied for the agency’s service.

Clients include a number of Japanese domestic brands, but what got the West's attention was their promotion for Green Day's latest album release.

Why the thigh? A 2009 survey of Japanese men on their favourite fetishes ranked "Skin between knee socks and skirt" as the most attractive part of women's bodies. This stretch of upper thigh is known as "absolute territory" — explaining the name of the media buyer.

The idea is that creepy older men are transfixed by these women's thighs anyway, so you might as well put an ad there. As you can see by the screencap above, some of the ads have really small copy, which would require really close inspection. 

If anyone who speaks Japanese cares to wade through the Absolute Territory PR site to see if there are any details on the ad placement contract, please let me know. I wonder if this company is asking women to sign away their rights to not getting eye-groped everywhere they go.

Bad Valentine's Marketing #3: trashy

This one's from Copyranter. Photoshopping a tiny, glowing, waste bin into an engagement shot is actually kind of awesome.

Victim-blaming on Thai public transit

Via Buzzfeed

The conversation about "victim blaming" in the way North American society treats sexual assault has been heating up the past couple of years. This has resulted in a more critical look at the way sexual assault prevention campaigns are done. 

Some cause marketers, like Sexual Assault Voices of Edmonton, have taken this to heart by creating campaigns that put the blame for sexual assault squarely on the perpetrators. Others (in this case through an anti-binge-drinking campaign) still blame victims.

This Thai bus poster, shared by Copyranter, is definitely the latter type of ad. As many others have pointed out, this approach is offensive to both men and women. To men, it communicates the idea that we are all potential rapists constantly tempted by women's bodies. To women who have been victims, it says you could have prevented it.

There are certainly ways to educate women about personal safety without implying that sexual assault is something they are somehow responsible for preventing.

Weight Watchers' weird oral fixation

Copyranter reports that these fetishistic ads by Fred & Farid, Paris, recently won gold at the Epica awards. 

Another beautiful shoot by Rankin, the result is more art than ad:

They seem to be about sensuality, which I guess is a selling point of Weight Watchers' "eat what you want but count calories" system. However, the weird lips and the way the food is consumed in unnatural ways make the ads of questionable marketing value.

The TV, however, manages to do a better job by giving context and message to all this oral fixation:



"Stop les régimes - Réapprenez à manger" loosely translates as "stop dieting and learn to eat again".

Playboy is just putting labia on the cover now

Copyranter just posted this cover from Playboy South Africa that turns a woman's lips sideways to mimic the "other" labia.

I was sure I had seen this visual trick before. Here's one from Y&R Mexico, via Advertolog, from 2004:

Not that it's any more imaginative, mind you. (It's also been done with a heavily-lidded eye.)

Cheap shock, and it's been done before. Yawn.

If you find any other examples of this concept, link them in the comments.

Update: Here's a poster for the Vagina Monologues, done by Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand in 2002 (via Coloribus):

Update 2: Just found three more (spec?) from DGLY Shanghai, China, for Dior Addict High Shine Lipstick in 2009 (Via Ads of The World Forum):

It's green! With teeth!

How many times can you do the same freaking "vulva face" ad?

Larry Flynt offers Richard Mourdock $1 Mil to pose... as a Christian

Via Copyranter

Larry Flynt, longtime porn entrepreneur, is also known for his hatred of conservative politics. Back in 1983, he was sued by televangelist Jerry Falwell for a parody ad that implied the preacher had lost his virginity with his own mother. This September, he offered to pay $1 Million to anyone who could produce Mitt Romney's tax records.

Now, he's offering $1 Million to US Senate Candidate Richard Mourdock to prove his claim that women should not be allowed to get abortions in cases of rape because the pregnancy was something "God intended to happen." The ad ran as a full-page in the Indianapolis Star, reaching the candidate's own voters.

Back in the '70s, Larry Flynt used his million-dollar offers as publicity stunts for his magazine, Hustler, pitching the amount to famous women if they would do a hardcore spread in his mag. The list included Barbara Walters, Cher, Gloria Steinem, Mary Tyler Moore and Patty Hearst, among others. (He recently cut the offer to $500 K for accused child murderer Casey Anthony.)

This stunt is obviously intended to keep the smut baron on the media radar. But at least he's using his outrageous stunt for the good of women this time.

Chick-fil-A's "fruitcake" gaffe may not be what it seems

This Chick-fil-A flier, which made the viral rounds last week as further proof of the brand's anti-gay stance, may not be what it seems.

Oh, it's real. But there's context:

"This is an advertisement that a locally owned and operated restaurant has been using for the past five years to promote Chick-fil-A's catering options during the holidays," Steve Robinson, the company's executive vice president and chief marketing officer, said in a statement to The Advocate Tuesday afternoon. "It was simply a play on words referring to the traditional holiday food, and the restaurant had no intention of offending anyone whatsoever. We regret the flier may have been taken out of context."

The problem is that slang terms change over time. Wikipedia gives an origin for the term "nutty as a fruitcake" dating to 1910, and meaning simply "crazy," but notes that "fruit" and "fruitcake" were used as slanders against gay men by the 1930s. Since homosexuality was seen as a mental illness at the time, the shift isn't that surprising.

While I have heard both "fruitcake" and "fruit" used to mean gay men in my own lifetime, I have probably heard "fruitcake" used more often as a synonym for "crazy." Perhaps it depends where you live.

As much as I despise Chick-fil-A's CEO's anti-gay statements, I don't see this as evidence of the brand's association with homophobia.

It's just insulting to mentally ill people.

Famous photos defeminized for IKEA's Saudi market

Thanks to an overly culturally "sensitive" editor who photoshopped all adult women out of the Saudi version of their catalogue, the IKEA brand has taken quite a hit this week.

And the hits keep coming. The latest salvo is a Tumblr in which users share pictures in which iconinc women have been replaced by IKEA products:

Another example of how brands are in the hands of the masses these day. IKEA will no doubt recover, but their willingness to throw toss aside the brand's human rights "values," just to expand the business into an area that does not share them, is an albatross they will have to bear until they truly redeem themselves.

UPDATE: People have been asking me how IKEA could have handled this differently, without offending Saudi sensitivities about female modesty.

Are you listening, IKEA? This is a freebee:

For countries in which the portrayal of casually-dressed westerners is not the cultural norm, shoot your catalogues as furniture-only. This will incur a slightly higher photo shoot cost, but might have some significant savings in talent fees.

Add a disclaimer to the catalogue:

IKEA respects sensitivities towards modesty and western modes of dress in some cultures. However, we are a company that believes absolutely in sexual equality. For that reason, we have produced a catalogue for some regions that shows only product. Because we cannot, as an equal opportunity company, treat men and women differently.

Tip via Copyranter

Amnesty ad compares arms trade to tsunami disasters

(Cross-posted at Osocio)


Oh, dear. Remember this fiasco?

Created by DDB Brazil for WWF Brazil, it ignited a firestorm of protest, which WWF's international office first disavowed, then admitted may have been the approved regionally. On this year's September 11th anniversary, Buzzfeed's Copyranter named it #1 in his list of "The Five Worst 9/11 Exploitation Ads".

You could say that it simply tells an inconvenient truth about inconsistent cultural attitudes towards tragedy and death. But that point would be made at the expense of causing further hurt to the families of the World Trade Centre attack, as well as to those deeply affected by it.

Now, strangely, the 2005 tsunami tragedy that is being exploited to make a point about war and the arms trade:

The ad is by TBWA, Paris, for Amnesty International.


This brings the saga of over-produced, tragedy-exploiting ads full circle: "an epic and tragic natural disaster killed more people than an infamous terrorist act, but the arms trade is even worse."

(Admittedly, it could also be a reference to the more recent Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.)

Once again, creatives go for maximum impact to make one message of human loss at the cost of trivializing another. This kind of trade-off is a devil's bargain, in my opinion. It's all bad. You don't need to get into a comparison of which is worse. From my perspective this looks like lazy strategy and the elaborate (yet derivative) execution is blatant award-bait.

And I say this as a member of Amnesty. You can do better than this. You often do.


Tip via Ads of the World

Bic learns the difference between comedy and advertising

Obviously inspired by the culturally-charged humour of Sacha Baron Cohen, some creatives at CP+B developed this funny little skit for Bic Canada.



You can see the gag coming, but in ad terms it helps to underscore the product benefit of Bic pens' presumed reliability (versus the crap he uses). It's a solid piece of work.

The problem is, branded advertising is not comedy. When Baron Cohen parodies Kazakhs, Austrians, homosexuals, North Africans or the British underclass for purposes of lampooning prejudice, it is art. Silly, dick joke, art at times. But the only brand he represents is his own.

This is where advertisers need to tread carefully. A "banned" ad has great potential for viral takeoff. But as more and more people see the agency's skit (which is mostly good for their brand)  the more people are exposed to the client's brand in a negative context.

Here in Canada, that context is "racism":

Bic Canada began hearing from consumers who were offended by the ad almost immediately, and by Tuesday afternoon, the day after its launch, had decided to pull it off the air. As of Thursday afternoon, it had received 48 e-mails complaining about the commercial. 

Most of those messages mentioned the fact that the viewers were offended by the racial tone of the ads. Complaints included descriptions of the ad as being “racist,” “insensitive” and “tasteless.” 

A fine-print disclaimer at the beginning of the ad specifies that the setting is a “fictitious country,” but this did not mollify viewers. 

“People just found it offensive,” said company spokesperson Linda Kwong. “...We’re trying to do the right thing.” 

Bic Canada announced the retraction on Thursday, once it was sure the commercial had been pulled from all of its TV channels.

Here's the problem: we live in a multicultural society. Other cultures are no longer impersonal caricatures for our arrogant amusement. They are our friends, neighbours, coworkers — and customers.

Parodying Asian dictatorship (obviously a shot at North Korea) with a fictitious language was bound to offend people. As a bonus, they make light of the human rights abuses that organizations like Amnesty International fight so hard to get people mobilized to stop.

Just dumb, guys. Do your sketch comedy on your own time and dime, where you can answer for your own choices. Bic has pens to sell, and PR fires to put out.

Via Copyranter and The Globe and Mail

Organic market billboard offers sexual Rorschach test

Via Copyranter

"Vat do you zee here? Now tell me about your muzzah..."

In India, "empowerment" comes in a vaginal cream

With time women have excelled phenomenally in every sphere of life and are over-active and conscious about the choices they make. 18 Again is a step towards strengthening women empowerment. 

Somebody actually typed those words on the 18 Again YouTube channel with a straight face.

Watch this goofy musical ad, and just feel the empowerment:



Here's what 18 Again is, according to their site:

18 Again is very effective for tightening of the Vagina. Along with tightening, it provides vaginal rejuvenation, improves strength and grip of vagina, helps prevent infections, encourages natural lubrication, masks foul odour, reduces involuntary urine escape, improves blood circulation, enhances delays effects of ageing and keeps the vagina healthy.

Yeah, they have a bit of a virginity issue in India.

According to Dr Mahindra Vatsa, gynaecologist and sex counsellor, this kind of mentality is largely because our traditional values are still strongly embedded in us. "One of the most common questions I get, till date, is 'How do I know that my bride or girlfriend is a virgin?' The only answer that I have to such questions is that there is no way to know," says Dr Watsa. 

Oh, but 18 Again has the answer: you just need to be tight like a virgin, not like sleeve of wizard:

Check by placing a finger in your vagina and squeezing inner muscles around it. If you do not feel enough tightening pressure or very less pressure around your finger, you have loose vagina.

...and in that case, you are worthless to men.

So hey! Buy an, irritating, astringent cream that will do nothing but increase your anxiety and self-loathing for acting like a modern woman in a society with a cruel double standard about sexuality.

Not that the west is doing much better...

Tip via Copyranter

Lingerie models look just like Barbie

And not in a good way.

via Listia

Copyranter featured this campaign for Spain's Jane Pain (ay that three times fast) with the headline, "What you can´t see is all you want to see." 

I assume that these are two-page magazine spreads, with the genital folds hidden in the magazine fold.

Clever idea. Freaky execution.

Mary had a little lamb, fries, and a Coke

This was posted on Copyranter today. It's part of a big product launch in Australia and New Zealand. (You can see the whole campaign at The Inspiration Room.)

Made me laugh, anyway.

This type of carnivorous humour is nothing new, of course. And The Saskatoon Restaurant did it best.