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This reminds of the KFC Cricket Survival Guide ad which was pulled in Australia after complaints from a vocal majority in The United states for being racist. Same with when the United Kingdom for for Snickers and the United Kingdom ad for Heinz were both banned for "homophobia" after complaints from the United states.
At some point brands need to ask themselves : is this the target market complaining? They should also seriously reconsider posting anything on Twitter.
I'll also point out, in case I hadn't made it obvious already, that the pushback on Brooke and this ad comes from women. Unsurprising to me, but some may not have noticed this pattern before.
The fact that Brooke is getting this kind of crap is annoying me tremendously. How frustrating it must be for a mom to go from beaming pride for her kids (as I'm sure she had when this campaign was executed and realised) to having to defend that siblings cling to each other in a photograph to strangers on Twitter. And then getting these responses:
Is it easier for you to tweet context to all offended by the optics here, @Iam_BrookeSmith,or for @GapKids to exercise cultural sensitivity?
— stacia l. brown (@slb79) April 3, 2016
@rebel19 @GapKids I know my daughter is black. Why should she have to represent anyone other than herself?
— Brooke Smith (@Iam_BrookeSmith) April 7, 2016
Oh, and lets not forget the second guessing, about everything.....
@adland Bigger ?: Y did @GapKids Marketing add Lucy, this sib, to the ad when she wasn't a performing member of circus like other girls?
— Latino Ad Inclusion (@IncludeLatinos) April 7, 2016
I won't be responding to any of this on Twitter.
I'll just leave this here, the woman who seems to be the one that initially brought this up with Gap on twitter, also said this to Ms Brooke Smith
@Iam_BrookeSmith as the mother of a child of color, surely you are aware of the historical context most will view this through. Not good.
— Fatima La'Juan Muse (@TheTherapyDiva) April 4, 2016
“PayPal does business in 25 countries where homosexual behavior is illegal… yet they object to the North Carolina legislature overturning a misguided ordinance about letting men in to the women’s bathroom? Perhaps PayPal would like to try and clarify this seemingly very hypocritical position.”
said Congressman Robert Pittenger for the 9th Congressional District.
I guess I'm not the only one who noticed. BRB going to Ladbrokes, betting on Paypal opening that 400 man office outside of the USA
It's meant to be a parody, and it works pretty well at the start, but then it skids off course - because there are people who seriously believe that shit about feeling confident, oblivious to the fact that the best confidence comes from having a strong core from working out proper, like you say. Like Kidsleepy points out it can't take body positivity seriously and mock it too. That reminds me of when a student entered the Future Lions with a pisstake on cynical advertising, there's a disconnect.
One of the quotes in that Campaign article stood out to me:
That Napier has two young daughters working junior positions at ad agencies in Manhattan makes this issue particularly sensitive for her. "I speak out of two sides of my mouth on this," she said, shrugging. "I’m a mom of two young kids in the industry, and the CEO of an agency." As CEO, she says she simply cannot afford to bring everyone into compliance. Yet as a mom, "I want my kids to stay in this industry, but I would like to not have to pay for their rent."
First off, they can live at home since Mom lives in the same city. Not all of us grew up where the ad agencies are. When I was starting out in Manhattan, the best agencies offered me unpaid placements, or college credit sort of deals. That has to be gone. I took my first 'real' ad job at an agency that paid a salary. A tiny one, but it was pay. Pay that barely stretched past the rent, but rent was paid. Like you point out, 50 grand a year is not half-bad in other cities, but ad agencies tend to collect where housing costs a small fortune. You can only share with neurotic roommates for so long before you get fed up with that. The housing prices crisis isn't just affecting people in advertising, it affects everyone who have lower salaries, and especially those who actually keep a community going: teachers, firemen, policemen, nurses.
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