While reading the New York Times this morning, I stopped when I noticed an ad at the bottom of the page. The ad that caught my eye features a woman wearing only a sweater. It isn’t clear if she has anything on underneath. Even my 12 year old son would think, “Why doesn’t she have any pants on or a skirt – something?“ Apparently if you’re successful and wealthy and buying clothes at Net-A-Porter.com, you don’t need pants.
The headline is “Fashion that DELIVERS”. Who is it targeted to? It couldn’t be the successful, smart, well-educated women with above average incomes that read the New York Times. Unless of course Net-A-Porter thinks that successful, smart women with above average incomes spend a lot of time sitting around without pants on waiting for their needs to be satisfied.
Diving in deeper, this ad shows just how far we are from being anywhere. The woman’s eyes look vacant. She is merely the object of someone else’s desire. The room she sits in is baron – empty – no books – no flowers – just a rustic fireplace to the left, a side table in the back and the woman on the couch – alone and waiting. She is not wearing shoes. She has three unopened boxes on the floor by her feet. It’s clear that she shops and has sex. She has no soul. She is a thing to be used for something indeed.
I know women who work double shifts as nurses and in manufacturing. I know women who have pursued academic careers. I know a woman who is running for Governor and I know a lot of women who run businesses. I know women who raise families. But I don’t know any woman who sits around half naked on a couch with a vacant look in her eyes waiting for “Fashion that DELIVERS”.
Six years ago, I made the decision to focus more on telling stories worth telling – on trying to change the conversation from selfishness to selflessness. As a Mom, I wanted my daughter and her friends and my son and his to grow up in a world where people were valued for who they are not just for what they can do for you.
For advertisers, I’d like to point out that you do know how to make us feel insecure. Most women think they are not sexy enough and if, quite candidly, you can get generations of women to focus on themselves purely as sexual objects instead of educating themselves or changing the world or loving another or making a difference, then you’ve done much more than just sell a sweater.
In my opinion though, if you want this woman’s business, you really should show me someone who is top of their game in your ads. Show me someone who is leading something, who is using her gifts, talent and brains to make the world a better place. Show me the researcher who is curing cancer or the business woman who is leading well. Show me someone with their pants on reading a book. Show me what it takes to be successful. But don’t ever show me someone half naked again with a vacant look in her eyes and expect me to buy for you or root for you or wish you and your dot com well. Your ad and your depiction of women is deplorable and I’ll get mine from Talbots, thank you very much.
– Laura Gallagher, President of The Creative Company, Inc.
