You Be the Judge–NOW Claims This Ad Is ‘Offensive to Women’–Is It? (Part VIII/Conclusion)
Background: TV often portrays men and fathers as idiots–to learn more and see video clips, click here. Brandweek Magazine editor Todd Wasserman discussed the problem of ‘Dad as Idiot’ advertising in his recent column The Surviving Dads Of Ads.
The National Organization for Women/NOW Foundation has launched a new campaign around ads which they label “Offensive to Women.” The campaign involved Love Your Body Day 2007, which was October 18. In this eight-part series, I’ve reprinted some of the ads which NOW tells us are “Offensive to Women,” giving my own humble opinion on the matter and soliciting yours.
In You Be the Judge (Part I), I agreed with NOW. In Part II, I agreed with them on one out of two. In Part III, I thought they were wrong on both. In Part IV and also Part V, I agreed with NOW. In Part VI and Part VII, I disagreed with NOW.
NOW protests this Cesare Paciotti ad. They write:
“Another fashion victim–literally, it appears. Designers sure do love to show off their clothes on fallen women.”
The woman looks like she’s just been shot–all that’s missing is the red blood stain, and I wonder if that’s why we have red in the shoes. Looks creepy to me.
I’ll go with NOW on this one, so that brings NOW’s final score, in my book, to 5 out of 10 correct.
Conclusion? NOW’s complaints that advertising is unfair to women have a measure of legitimacy, but not much. Women are portrayed vastly more favorably in advertising than men are. While NOW is correct about the occasional ad that is offensive to women, it’s small in scale compared to the modern “men as idiot” advertising norm.Â
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It looks to me more like she’s drunk off her tush than anything else … better than being dead, but not really appropriate either.
November 19th, 2007