These three ads for yogurt ran in Brazil. They are supposed to inspire revulsion. Their tagline is:
“Forget about it. Men’s preference will never change. Fit Light Yogurt.”
Many have commented that these women look hot, not repulsive. So the images might be useful for inspiring a discussion about polysemy and the fact that advertisers can't control how their images are perceived.
Alternatively, they might work differently in Brazil than the U.S. Any thoughts?
4 comments:
March 31, 2008 at 9:14 AM
It is odd that the icons they choose to portray (Sharon Stone, Marilyn, and Mena Suvari) are decidedly not Brazilian. Yet you say that is their target market, it begs for a discussion of the USA's image/portrayal in the world.
March 31, 2008 at 1:35 PM
also, though the first two are perhaps a bit too rubeseque for most tastes, the last one if freakin HAWT.
March 31, 2008 at 8:51 PM
it's interesting that they used marilyn monroe, who was kind of a curvy girl herself by today's standards.......
and i hope commenting on aesthetics isn't confused for objectifying the model, but the third is hotter than the original, and would be even more so if it weren't for the model's stiff pose.
April 2, 2008 at 10:27 AM
"They are supposed to inspire revulsion"
-Yes...in women...their target. Who cares what men think as they aren't women.
"Many have commented..."
-Male or female? That is the question.
Perhaps its the confident postures of the women along with their celebrity residue that has a part in men thinking these photos are attractive. I find these photos and women of similar physique to be attractive and, as in any relationship, it is enhanced by their disposition(an it-ness that partially defines them, comprised of various "confident postures") and character(that which builds "celebrity residue" through continual experience).
The ads fail on some accounts:
1. The women each have a look categorized by a shade of 'satisfaction' without the least bit of shame or guilt. The humor angle, over which the ad agency might be hoping consumers trip over into the puddle of disgust, doesn't really work well either as the altered photos show the same attractive personality beaming out of each woman which makes these possibly stand as images to combat the "thin is in" mentality with a more mentally healthy "comfort in confidence, not dress size" perspective.
2. The picture is framed with the yogurt within it's boundaries. This implies a complicity or "part and parcel" (yogurt + satisfied woman = ???). I suppose the old and obvious concept we assume they're trying to represent might not be; they might be pushing the boundary away from "only for those trying to lose weight or stay thin", to "for everyone's enjoyment" which would envelope a market bracket I assume they consider aren't great consumers of a product hammered out for decades as a Tiegs-level diet food(I can only assume being an American).
3. It may well be that these images were meant to conflate "fatness" and "American". In Brazil it could make the statement that "these famous images would have never happened in the 'land of prosperity 'had they been fat". [Anyone from Brazil is free to back me up on that "land of prosperity" projection.] Or it could imply a sense of cultural decay in that it would be absurd to get "American sized" so "we'll just stick with the good old pre-Bush2 American values of sex appeal that Hollywood has helped inject into our culture". Ahh, that one seems to resonate for me...the decay of influence by American culture..."don't let it happen to us".
Post a Comment