advertising

Here's your weekly does of bad-vertising: Libra, a company who markets feminine hygiene products in Australia and New Zealand, recently released an ad that trades in transphobia and sexism:

H&M is taking fashion douchebaggery to the next level this week by using computer-generated models in its holiday lingerie campaign. As if the photo shopping, airbrushing, pushing up, and sucking in that goes on in a typical yuletide bra commercial wasn't enough to make the average shopper want to throw on a snuggie and call it a day, now the models selling us our delicates are actually virtual.


Ahahaha! We're just hanging out, having the exact same body! What, you don't look like this?

Not only does the ad offensively use women's bodies to sell a product it, also needlessly sexualizes a non-sexual product. It's ChapStick for god's sake! And now I have to think of this lady's ass every time I rub it on my lips? What? I didn't want that!

Earlier this year, personal care product brand Nivea pulled a men’s skincare ad and issued a public apology for its blatantly racist undertones. As reported on over at GOOD magazine, the ad in question "features a preppy, groomed black man holding the head of his former self, who's sporting a beard, an afro, and a pissed-off expression." The tag line? "Re-civilize yourself." As in, "Hey, black men, get with white mainstream culture and get rid of that 'uncivilized' African hair!"

Advertising is as much a part of pop culture as deliberately created works of art. Here in the United States, one of the most lasting contributions to perceptions of mental illness in society has come courtesy of the pharmaceutical industry, which spends an estimated $2.5 billion annually on reaching the public through advertising. Most people who have televisions or magazine subscriptions in the US have encountered pharmaceutical advertising, sometimes for products so vaguely described and marketed that viewers aren't actually sure what they are for.

If we already know advertisements are digitally altered, why do we have to get rid of them? Simple answer: Because humans are beautiful and it's time they know so.

Yesterday, the California Milk Processor Board launched a new pro-dairy campaign based on the old premise that PMS turns women into insufferable turds. The message, directed at men, is that milk can ease a woman's PMS symptoms and is therefore good for her poor, put-upon (male) partner. Finally! An ad campaign that stereotypes women AND promises to make straight men's lives easier!

Time for a link exchange! Here's a glimpse into what we've been reading:

• Hopping mad about the misleadingly-named Independent Women's Forum's misinformation about the pay gap? Feministing tells it like it is.
• Also at Feministing, check out this report from the 2011 Civil Liberties and Public Policy Conference with video and quotes from the Transfeminisms panel.
• Bitch contributor Chally Kacelnik finishes her series in response to the question "Where are you from?" on Feministe.
• Shark-Fu at AngryBlackBitch powerfully responds to the streak of racist billboards attacking black women. (via Bitch Flicks)
• AfterEllen's Dorothy Snarker cheers on Sundance's acquisition of feminist favorite My So-Called Life!
• Bitch contributor Emily Manuel opines on what the term "pro-life" should actually mean at Tiger Beatdown.
• Speaking of Tiger Beatdown, their founder Sady Doyle (who is also a Bitch contributor) writes about convicted assaultant Jeffrey Gray, who was elected to office despite his crimes against women. (Trigger warning for domestic abuse and rape.)
• The Huffington Post reports on the discovery that middle and high schools in New Jersey were filtering QUILTBAG-related content from school computers. The filter is being removed thanks to the ACLU.
• Amanda Marcotte has a new recording up at RH Reality Check about the Slutwalk, the claim that "uterus" is a dirty word and more!
• Jill does a hilarious takedown of Dove soap's advertising on I Blame the Patriarchy.
• Ms.' blog interviews the women behind the feminist play The Panza [Spanish for "belly"] Monologues!
• In the WTF category, Queerty shares the U.K.'s new, but still bizarre and revealing, rules about gay men giving blood.
• ColorLines addresses the Grammy Awards' recent decision to cut some of their awards categories and how this may affect artists of color.
• The annual Austin queer music day party GayBiGayGay is releasing a book! That comes with a free CD of bands that play! Check it out or pre-order your copy today!
• Also check out the environmental documentary Vanishing of the Bees, likely headed to a theatre or classroom near you!

Duke University's AdViews Project has digitized thousands of 16mm television ads from the 1950s through the 1980s. And now you can watch them online for free! (As far as I can tell, you do need iTunes in order to watch them).

As bizarre as these ads seem (business men arguing over socks, women walking provocatively through huge flames to sell lipstick) it does make you wonder how far we've come in advertising. You can browse by brand (Watch out for Nucoa, pictured on the right. Their jingle is strangely hypnotic...), but I think the highlights are a good place to start. But be warned, the mix of subtle sexual undertones, kitschy copy-writing, and cheesy animation makes for a deadly (but delightful) time-sucking combination! 

I like the conversations American Apparel inevitably starts whenever it comes out with a new advertising campaign. I'm not being snarky—some of the most radical (meaning at the root of) discussions about feminism I enter into start because American Apparel can't seem to stop. Well (and here comes the snark), guess what? AA still can't let go of its naked-ladies-trying-to-sell-me-the-clothes-they-used-to-be-wearing style, and new campaigns (banned in the US so far) are adding pubic hair to the already fraught mix of issues involved in these ads. So let's get to talkin'. (Assume that pictures and some links in this post, including those after the jump, will be NSFW.)