What's allowable in Advertising? (and related issues)

[Alatar]

This story has been getting a lot of attention over here.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 21337.html

Basically it's an ad for Crisps (or what Americans call Chips) using scantily clad women playing rugby. Granted, it has absolutely nothing to do with crisps, but the ad campaign has been very successful in getting a lot of publicity, whether positive or negative. I find the ads amusing, and not a little sexy, and really find the whole thing a little laughable. I suppose my question is, why is this any more sexist than the "Diet Coke Break" ads, where office working women gathered to watch a well built construction worker take his shirt off?

[yovargas]

Really? Those aren't even particularly sexual. Pretty tame.

I get why people are bugged by using sex to sell products but I do hope we as a society can get to a point where we can say a sexy person is sexy without being "sexist".

[nerdanel]

I am reminded of my childhood. My sister would repeatedly do annoying/immature/childish things to me, and I to her -- and when the "victim" ran screaming to our mother about the "offender," my mother would always reply, "You're just giving her the reaction she wants. Ignore her, and she'll quickly find something else to do/some other way to express herself."

Y'all's chipmaker seems to be channeling y'all's low-cost airline admirably well, as the article points out, and the women who are publicly! outraged! about this are giving the chip people exactly what they want (and guaranteeing we'll see more outrageous!!!1 ads like this, just like we will inevitably hear more yawnworthy proposals from Ryanair about how they are paying engineers to design an airline system that will allow them to charge extra for access to oxygen on planes.)

The chips don't look that appetizing to me, and similarly, those women ain't my type. I find the ads more juvenile than amusing, but I'd be surprised if they rank among the top ten issues women/feminists should be focused on in Ireland. If that had aired in the US, I'd prefer that women's rights advocates continue to focus on issues like access to reproductive choice, women in sports, women's advancement in math and sciences, etc. Maybe we can make additional progress in these issues while the men are off "staring at [those women's] crisps."

[Lalaith]

I don't think it's necessarily more sexist. It's just that mostly naked women are much more common than bare-chested men.

I guess part of me thinks there are bigger things (no pun intended) to worry about, but then another part of me is annoyed that sex has to be used to sell things, even something ridiculous like potato chips. It seems like the cheapest, crudest way to make a sale. (And I suppose, from a marketing standpoint, why wouldn't you go that route? Cheap and easy.)

One ad getting some attention over here is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMxyZQfMmM4

Evidently, ABC and FOX had issues with it.

http://insidecurve.lanebryant.com/buzz/ ... t-want-it/

[Frelga]

I suppose my question is, why is this any more sexist than the "Diet Coke Break" ads, where office working women gathered to watch a well built construction worker take his shirt off?

Because we don't have a long history of men's sexuality being considered as women's property.

[Primula Baggins]

And women's sexuality as an issue, object of interest, object of control, whatever, has been used in the past (and is now used, in many parts of the world) as a way to keep women down.

I do not say that this ad does that or was intended to do that. But women can and do react to such ads in that context, and certainly have the right to do so if they wish.

[Alatar]

I suppose my question is, why is this any more sexist than the "Diet Coke Break" ads, where office working women gathered to watch a well built construction worker take his shirt off?

Because we don't have a long history of men's sexuality being considered as women's property.

See that sounds to me like a double standard. "Bad things were done in the past. So you can't ever have equality. So there."

[Primula Baggins]

So men can't ever have equality with women. . . .

Neither form of sexism is an ideal way for people to view each other. We should all respect each other as human beings, after all.

But one has a long history as a tool of, literally, oppression, and one is such a novelty that many people think it's amusing. In the context, the latter is more likely to get a pass. Certainly this kind of joke is unlikely to deprive men of the chance to be taken seriously in their careers or their ambitions. When that starts to happen, I will take the complaints more seriously.

[yovargas]

You have to wait a lot longer then a few decades for this sort of thing to pass.

[Maria]

I don't care what advertisers use- as long as it doesn't involve subliminal flickers or other as yet undiscovered types of mind control.

[Lidless]

I have to laugh when I see sexy images - particularly re food or drink - used to sell a product.

If only the world were as sophisticated as you or I. Snobbish? Not really - the sales figures speak louder than this post.

[Alatar]

The of course there's the Alpen Ad, which manages to do both...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kyIRIDQbug

[Maria]

Those poor emaciated people! Obviously the food they are eating has very little nutritional value.

[axordil]

I always ask myself: is it more exploitative than the Swedish Bikini Team?

I then ask myself why it's exploitative and not just exploitive.

I then get a drink...but not an Old Milwaukee.

[yovargas]

The of course there's the Alpen Ad, which manages to do both...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kyIRIDQbug

Notice how the girls are in it for 300% more time than the guys?
Sexist.

[WampusCat]

And then there's my favorite ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZOm2YhOI4c

[Primula Baggins]

I totally love that ad. "Two tickets to that thing you love!"

It is a superficial relationship, yet deep in its own way.

[yovargas]

He's on a horse.

[Cerin]

I find the crisps ad offensive because (I'm speculating due to the large breasts) it didn't use actual female athletes, but rather, heavily made-up sex object women posing as athletes. It's just all around stupid. What's the point? Are they implying the chips are healthy and what athletes eat? If so, why not use real athletes? If not, why dress the sex object women as athletes in the first place? In other words, I don't care about the rather ridiculous use of sex to sell food. What I mind is the vague insult to women athletes that I see, which could be eliminated by using a different theme for the ads.

Naturally, I withdraw all my objections if those women pictured actually are soccer players.

[yovargas]

What's the point?

Grab attention.