Everybody on the women's blogging network is talking about the BMW ad pictured at the left. And all of them are offended by it.
Our friend Yvonne DeVita at Lipsticking.com is fuming,
saying "This ad isn't just visually disturbing. The text is also poorly
thought-out. It's for USED cars...and it says, "You know you're not the
first." Clearly a sexual connotation meant to depict the young girl
as...already having had sex, at least once. This, of course, makes her
a sex object, for...the men looking at the ad? It's surely not for
women."
LearnedonWomen.com
says the "sleazy sexual innuendo is marketing to men at its most lazy -
not only alienating women who may have been potential BMW buyers, but
riling so many women bloggers in the marketing field, and beyond, that
it will surely become a negative blogging influence case study."
So
I ask AskPatty readers the same question I ask myself and my children
every time I see a new ad for the first time, before the object for
sale is immediately obvious "What ARE they trying to sell here?"
The
women bloggers have lots of conjecture about the message. Lots of angry
words about the combination of sexual innuendo and automotive
advertising. Lots more angry words about the inappropriate message
implied in the tagline printed in rather small white type across the
shoulder of a possibly inappropriately young girl. Lots of assumptions
about what it is supposed to mean. Lots of condemnation of BMW for
using such a message to sell its premier used cars. Words that include
sexual abuse, pedophilia, and sexual predators.
So what is the message?
"You know you're not the first." Most simply described "BMW premium
used cars are so beautiful, it won't matter if you're not the first
driver."
Is it effective? Well, as everybody in
advertising knows, advertising is effective if it gets people talking
about the product. Are we talking about the product? Hell yes, it's effective! Good or bad, this message is flying all over the blogosphere at broadband speeds while men and women look and comment. As copyranter says "Sex and car advertising have of course been diddling each other for decades." And Tracy Clark-Flory at salon.com asks whether "Used women are like used cars?"
Is it appropriate?
Unfortunately, perceiving this lovely young woman (or any woman, for
that matter) as "used," is a very bad and offensive image in the United
States. However, there has been no discussion of the fact that this is
a GREEK ad, meant to sell premium used BMW cars to MEN in GREECE, where
the age of sexual consent is 15 years old. Yeah, I checked it.
According to Interpol: "Age of consent for sexual activity: The legal age of consent for sexual activity is fifteen (15) years." Whispering: Did you know they allow nude sunbathing on the public beaches there? Some might also consider that offensive. I would simply like to remind "Different strokes for different folks."
My
son is 15 years old, so I asked him to give me his assessment of the
ad. First, he placed the girl's age between 16 and 20 years old -- and
he sure should recognize the girl's age since he's closest to her
demographic. (I don't want to think too much about it, but I'm pretty
certain he's evaluated his fair share of girls between the age of 14
and 20.) Second, he said it was stupid. Clearly he's not the intended
audience because he can't afford the car and he doesn't live in Greece.
But it's also important to note that all these offended American women
bloggers are also not the intended audience, since they are not Greek
men either.
BMW has another advertisement starring a beautiful little girl here at YouTube:
Same
theme, different presentation: "BMW's premium used cars are so
beautiful, it won't matter if you're not the first driver." THIS is the
ad Americans were intended to see, and is much more appropriate to its
audience. It's also much more female friendly. We endorse this one.
By Brandy Schaffels
AskPatty.com Editor
bmw ad
