EDIT: It has come to my attention that the ad (and its sister ad) is (are) not real. However, a similar strategy was used by BMW in 2008 and this kind of advertising is not unusual for various products so I'm letting my rant stand. (http://www.aston-martin.com/2013/02/24/ad-for-used-aston-martins-fake-or-real/)
Today I had the pleasure of enticing several students at my university to participate in the Who Needs Feminism? movement. Unfortunately, I had to cut the event short because I had to attend a meeting, but people were interested enough that they asked me to hold the event again tomorrow, so I agreed that I would be table sitting during brunch. Today also happened to be the day the Board of Trustees met, which includes the president of the university. When she walked by my table, she thanked me for putting on the event. Score!
So that was all really exciting and I was glad to have thirty-five people agree to participate today. But just a few minutes ago I was surfing Facebook and came across this advertisement for used cars.
Well, it both angered and inspired me. Inspired me to keep pushing this movement, that is. For those of you who may not see anything wrong with this advertisement, let me count the ways, as Elizabeth Barrett Browning said.
1. The company is using sex to sell their product.
Now, this doesn't even make any sense. The company, if you can't see the ad well enough, seems to be advertising for used vehicles. If the company were selling condoms or sex toys, maybe I can see them justifying the use of this image. But they're not. They're selling a car. Which has nothing to do with sex. Nothing.
2. The company is objectifying a woman to sell their product.
We cannot see the woman's face in this ad. Which, even if we could, it would not be a whole lot better, but it would be a small improvement. She is not wearing pants (maybe not even underwear -- it's not clear) and is clearly just a sex object even without the text.
It's the text that really makes it clear, however. "You know you're not the first," it says, "but do you really care?"
Excuse me?
EXCUSE ME?
This woman, or more specifically, this body, in the image is only a body with which to have sex in this image.
3. The text is somewhat slut shaming.
"You know you're not the first, but do you really care?" So this woman has had at least one sexual partner prior to this "encounter." The sentence implies that the person they are addressing might care if she had previous sexual encounters. What if she did? Does that make her any less valuable? The text implies this, though subtly, just by including "but" in the sentence. And, of course, by using the sentence at all.
4. The color scheme.
Before you get all up in arms, let me finish. The woman is wearing white. Her back is to a white area. She is facing a black or darker area. Now, is "black magic" a good thing or bad thing? Are more people afraid of the dark or the light? Is Darth Vader part of the dark side or the light side? Darkness is associated with negative feelings (this can be a racial issue, as well, though I'm not convinced that the origin of terms like "black magic" have anything to do with skin color -- that's for another day). We know that once the woman and (presumably) the man being addressed by the text are having fun sexy times, she will no longer be wearing the white.
So what does this mean? It means that if this woman has sex, she is going to the dark side. At least in the eyes of the advertisement.
I'm sure there are even more subtle reasons why this ad is anti-feminist and sexist. I might add that the body is female and not male. I would be slightly less upset if this advertisement had a heterosexual female-targeted equivalent. I'm not going to look for it because I know it's not there. It never is.
But it's stuff like this that really makes me believe that my program today was important.
Yeah, the woman chose to be photographed like this. But she probably had no control over the content of the advertisement and she's doing a job like everyone else. Please let me be clear that I am not condemning the woman in this ad at all, but the company and the marketing strategy.
These ads are all over the place and you don't have to look hard to find them. You see them in the mall, on television, in newspapers, and anywhere else you can imagine. What ads have you seen that make you angry? What are you going to do about it?
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