Lavazza's contribution to the "women as food" cliché

It's from Italy, so of course the food, the women, and the design look great. The image above, in which the chef looks like he's about to prepare Little Mermaid alla vicentina, is part of a promotional calendar for one of Italy's biggest coffee companies.

The calendar features famous chefs from around Italy — all men — occasionally decorated with beautiful women posed as props representing their key ingredients:

Risotto, get it?

Not the most scandalous calendar to come out of a country renowned for scandalous calendars. But that mermaid shot still creeps me out.

Tip via AOTW Blog.

"Sexy" Ryanair calendar ads banned in Spain

Via The Telegraph

European discount airline Ryanair is not known for treating its cabin crews with respect. They have a bad habit of sexualizing female flight attendants, despite the fact that their jobs put them in constant danger of unwanted sexual attention and even assault.

One of Ryanair's biggest promotions is an annual charity calendar that features flight attendants in bikinis, some of them topless. As if sexual objectification of employees for a cause makes it all OK.

Spain, at least, has had enough. According to The Telegraph, a Spanish judge banned last year's ads for the calendar from running in that country because they "treated the women as objects and were discriminatory".

As they face a new calendar season, Ryanair says they will appeal the decision. They defend themselves saying that the charity calendar raised over 100,000 euros "to help sick children in Poland." (The 2014 one benefits Teenage Cancer Trust.)

Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's CEO, recently stepped aside as the face of the business, after attracting a PR shitstorm for publicly sexually harassing a woman on Twitter.

F'd Ad Fridays: Now even treehugger cars are being sold as sex

This has to be a joke. According to Green Car Reports, a group calling itself Pump Rebels have decided that it's time to sex-up fuel efficiency.

According to their site,

"Sports cars aren't the only sheet metal who deserve sexy calendars. Horsepower is old news. Big MPGs are what it's all about. Despite the cliché images of daisies, leaves, and fluffy clouds—fuel efficiency is badass, and long overdue for an attitude update. 

$1 from every calendar sold will go to the Blue Green Alliance. BGA is a non-profit dedicated to expanding the green economy, jobs, alternative energy, and mass transit."

Women as cars. Cars as women. Objects of desire. I've ranted about this once already today, so I'll let it go at that.

The calendar is available online for $17.99.

Campari's 2012 calendar leaves a bitter taste in my mouth

Ads of The World shared this photoshoot from Campari's 2012 "end of the world" calendar on Facebook. It shows Milla Jovovich in "12 surreal dresses representing some of the possible disasters that will end the world".

Oh, a tsunami dress! How tasteful. I'm sure Japan particularly likes this one.

And floods! Floods are always funny. Especially in Thailand.

This one will go over well in New Orleans.

And a volcano? Superstitious Italians really shouldn't go there.

Yeah, it's all a joke. (They have a 6-armed alien Jovovich in there, for god's sake.) But it seems in poor taste, considering how many of these armageddon situations have come true for so many people. Plus, the copy and shots are kind of tacky.

The weird world of Italian promotional calendars

Weirdness, pretentiousness, awesomeness and lots and lots of nudity — for the 20th anniversary of this particular outreach, the Lavazza coffee company serves up everything you would expect of an Italian calendar.

According to PopSop, Lavazza asked 12 photographers who had shot its previous editions to take self-portraits.

Here they are (via IBiA)

January: Erwin Olaf – Inspiration

February: Thierry Le Gouès – Substance

March: Miles Aldridge – Reflection

April: Marino Parisotto – Seduction

May: Eugenio Recuenco – Culture

June: Elliott Erwitt – Humour

July: Finlay Mackay – Excitement

August: Mark Seliger – Deep

September: Annie Leibovitz – Escape

October: Albert Watson – Intimacy

November: David Lachapelle – Energy

December: Ellen Von Unwerth – Euphoria

Sex sells... a career in farming?

All over the first world, the family farm is in decline. My own efforts to give life support to this traditional economy include eating local and buying direct. But apparently the German-speaking world sees the need for a much cheesier approach. (And we're not talking Cambozola).

Following the lead of a sister organization in Austria, the Association of Young Bavarian Farmers has produced an "erotic farm girls calendar" to "present young farmers as modern and open-minded entrepreneurs and do away with the antiquated image and do away with preconceptions".

The Association's mission (pdf) states "We are cutting-edge entrepreneurs who do our utmost for a socially-responsible and modern agriculture". The calendar features 12 scantily-clad (and apparently socially responsible) frauleins posing against a variety of rural backdrops. Very few are doing anything relating to farming, but at least they tried to pay homage to the traditional farm wife with this one:



Now, I don't know about you, but if we're talking about getting rid of the "antiquated image" of farm life, a pin-up girl barefoot and making bread in the kitchen is hardly a good start...

Although I suppose a sexy farm calendar could have ended up much worse.