Pumping the public ... the Wonderbra ad in question.
Posted on 04/14/2002 12:21:11 AM PDT by Sir Gawain
By Valerie Lawson
April 13 2002
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Pumping the public ... the Wonderbra ad in question. |
These breasts are impossible to ignore. Bursting out of their scanty covering, pressed inwards and pushed upwards, they represent a frontal assault on Sydney.
Just in case you miss the boobs, the billboards they adorn scream headlines such as "my mother always said I was a handful" and "get lost boys".
The first outbreak took place during the Mardi Gras parade last month when a billboard at Taylor Square asked passers-by "so you thought you were gay?"
Spotted on Parramatta Road last week were more buoyant breasts with the statement "yes, they are real".
The campaign, running nationally, is relaunching Wonderbra, marketed by Pacific Brand's Berlei Group. The plunge 'n' push bra brand had been absent from the Australian market for two years after a failed attempt to take it into the discount retail market in stores such as Big W and Kmart.
The campaign is one of a few new outdoor ads using sexual imagery that the marketers defend on the grounds they are "tongue in cheek", "ironic" or "camp".
Anyone who complains is labelled prudish, without a sense of humour, living in the past and definitely not in tune with today's "go, girl" girl-power culture.
The spokeswoman for the Women's Electoral Lobby, Sarah Maddison, believes "we are now seeing a resurgence in stereotypical images of women in advertising".
One suggestive ad campaign will be discussed by the Advertising Standards Bureau on Monday. It has called a special meeting to consider more than 12 written complaints and many phone complaints about Voodoo hosiery billboards showing a mini-skirted woman holding a dog leash attached to two naked men.
"It's sexy and eye-catching", says Janet Hogan, 42, co-creative director of the advertising agency Streamline, who created the campaign for her client Kolotex. "Women love the ballsiness of it."
In another new outdoor ad campaign, a bottle of Beck's beer is held by a woman depicted only in outline, with no face. With one hand, she is lifting her skirt to show her briefs. One strap of her slip dress has fallen from her shoulder. The headline is "No overt sexual imagery, just Beck's real beer."
Those who complain to the bureau about such ads usually suggest they are demeaning to women and present them as objects. The bureau discussed one such complaint by an Adelaide woman. It was dismissed.
Marketers for Voodoo and Wonderbra say their new campaigns have increased sales. Wonderbra's brand manager, Miranda Spencer, said one of the 11 product lines in the range, the Baby Doll slip, has sold out, selling at the rate of 1000 units a week.
She calls the bra slogans "girlosophies" aimed at 20- to 30-year-olds who watch Sex and the City.
As for those who do not go along with the new girlosophy, Meredith Burgmann, president of the NSW upper house and organiser of the annual awards for male chauvinists, the Ernies, says women must go on complaining if they feel demeaned.
"My theory is, if you stop whinging, you're stuffed," Dr Burgmann said. "Women haven't whinged about advertising for a while, so they're bringing it all back."
Nope, the picture is genuine (the breasts sure aren't). That's a picture of the recently-deceased French porn star Lolo Ferrari.
Thanks for thinking of me; I'm exhausted from working outdoors all day.
Not that I'm "whinging", or anything!
(.)(.)
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