Alright, so my post today is mainly a result of disbelief as
I was watching the TV on Sunday morning.
I saw an advertisement so blunt, sexual, and honestly just bad, that I couldn’t
believe what I was actually watching.
Let me back up some and explain some.
The
commercial is for a new type of speaker called the Beats Pill, a device that
looks basically like a giant pill capsule (among other things). The product isn’t the issue here though; the
problem is the commercial that RadioShack and Beats put out for it. I was astonished while watching a show at 9am
(on a Sunday morning of all mornings) to see an ad come across the screen with
women wearing plastic clothing with most of their bodies exposed. Next I see the hashtag, #UWANTIT, come across
the screen and I honestly had no clue what it was referring to…Let’s just say
the product wasn’t really the first thing that came to mind. It doesn’t get better though, next it just
shows 20 seconds of models playing with a device that looks quite suggestive in
poses that are just meant to be provocative.
Not a single attempt was made to
show a connection to the product, instead it was all about just getting attention
from the audience. Only in the last 2
seconds of the ad was I able to see the speakers on a close up of the product
and realize that it was something designed for playing music.
What I really I can’t believe here is
that this commercial managed to get past every single channel and decision
maker without being nixed. There is no
big idea behind this campaign. There is
no creative consumer insight. There is
only the same old approach hoping that sex sells, regardless of the
product. Look sex does sell, but only
for the right thing. Let Victoria’s
Secret use sex to sell an item. After
all, their products are closing linked to sex and the connection is an obvious
one. Lingerie and sex share a
connection, a strong link that serves to actually reinstate the idea of their
commercial…wearing this will make you feel and look sexier. But this commercial is all about a
speaker. Half naked models have nothing
to do with the speaker or the two companies.
I didn’t even know what the product was most the time (and my guesses
where not quite so close with this one either…). The music in the background the whole time
just reemphasized the models sexuality, not the quality of the sound from the
speakers.
A lack of thought or effort proves
my main problem with this advertisement.
Yes it is sexist, but what gets me so annoyed is that the sexism serves
no real purpose either. It’s banal,
simple, and completely over does everything.
The combination of the hashtags, the song lyrics, and the visual cues
make the whole thing hilariously stupid.
If I were to show an example in class of an advertisement to avoid…this
will always win.
