I built this website. From scratch. Including the servers.
The asshole dollar, HUUUGE market. (Paraphrasing, of course)
Sorry, I'll elaborate: While it's not par for the course to troll on twitter to extend a rather mediocre poster with the same headline we see on countless magazine covers every April, I think Protein World may have accidentally struck gold here. It may not have been their original plan at all, but they caught a whiff of a current trend, a mood among the consumers, and rode it, they refused to apologize (and instead antagonized) for their billboards, which frankly (as proven by David above) aren't all that different from other billboards currently running in the London underground. With the CEO and another higher up taking over the twitter account to shoot out smartarse replies, they bought themselves much earned media, which will continue long after this campaign has stopped.
Thanks, Endo, also thanks for the Leser/Leserin Kund/Kundinnen bonus grammar class (In Swedish one can also say "läsarinnan" but will defaunt to "läsaren" when the readers gender is unknown. In Dutch a kund is a klant or klanten and default to klant when gender is unknown.) While a lot of languages still have gendered words, it often doesn't feel all that gendered when we default to the male in most, as Hollywood actresses are now called "actors" even in English.
Was I too discreet when I spelled that out in this article? "I have news for you Awl, it's not just the TV execs, it's the client and the ad agency too."
Jesus David, you couldn't have found a smaller image?
As I've stated many times before, sexist ads are bad for everyone and there's a difference sexist and gender normative... Two wrongs do not make a right (but two Wrights can make an airplane). You're comparing an underwear ad - where the actual product is shown on a model - to a nutritional supplement ad, where the models body is (presumably) the result of the product. Lets compare apples to apples instead, last month in the UK Bulk Powders ran a campaign with a completely naked man wearing only strategically placed pixels (image attached). I do not recall any uproar or outrage against this ad (there, now I made your point but with an identical product example).
In both the Bulk Powder campaign and the Protein World campaign, the physique of the models are (presumably) the result of the product being sold. So basically, they're testimonial bodies, if you will. Showing the bodies is thus actually called for. I would say the same if the product advertised was say, a core training class, gym weights or related products.
This is not like the "Studly Steve" eye-candy cariacature, where Zesty guy might be the best example, and some women actually found offensive (ew! Man-cooties in my salad, gross). The "Sexy Steve" trope got so old at one point that I even told Adweek that Studly Steve is as bad as Doofus Dad. Point being, these half-naked models draped across the hood of a car or cooking in your kitchen wearing only an apron are objectified eye-candy only, and actually distracting from the product being sold. IE; bad advertising. I hate bad advertising. It doesn't matter to me if it's a man or a woman in the objectified position.
Also, that non hairy man you're showing is not what I consider drool-worthy. But the man in my bed is.
Thanks. Some of the other tweets you've embedded into your post about this are pretty interesting as well.
I must admit, I am a sucker for ads that speak to other ads, even if it's navelgazing. In this case, Dove's brand tone is so established everyone knows it, and the social media team who yellowed up a response have great timing. Suits their brand perfectly.
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