There may be little honour and no scruples in advertising but it would appear that on occasion the industry is sadly lacking in common sense as well. Visiting the ladies' loo at the NEC - it's the coffee on every stand that gets you - I was intrigued, then dismayed and finally spitting mad to find a Mercedes advert on the back of the door with a picture of a gorgeous woman, bearing the legend: "Beautiful, intelligent and comes with a three-year guarantee." Any man out there who is smiling, stop it this instant.
Oh, where to start listing the inquities of this cheap little rag of an advert? First we have the message: your woman and your vehicle are both possessions. Your vehicle is better - she doesn't come with a warranty. The woman is high maintenance; the van mercifully low. One of our younger, sweeter reporters who has not yet learned when to shut up suggested that it wasn't sexist because the woman was being likened to a really good van, and she was pretty.. and clever... Sadly his defence said it all.
Then there was the inspired decision to put it on the door of the ladies where the beautiful intelligent women reading it could be reminded that, while they may not be second to every van in the world, they should reappraise their self image in the light of this Mercedes-Benz lovely.
Mercedes is a sophisticated company with great products to shout about. They know the issues - internally they run a "gratuitous bird shot" competition to catch just this sort of nonsense in the industry.
I don't care if the men in the industry need this to buy, or the guys in the industry need it to sell - grow up.
Comments (1)
Hi Louise,
I know how you feel - as a postmodern man (I've gone through the metrosexual stage and am now at the point where I'm so intouch with my feminanine side that I've given up on relationships and prefer the company of my cat) I find the general gender imbalance of the show a bit distasteful - where are the men in hot pants delivering copies of Commercial Motor? Surely we're all liberal enough to have the chip n dales on BMC's stand rather than the lovely Lorna (okay, so I'm first name terms with some of the models) and her friends.
To highlight the issue, I've blogged the level of sexism on our myspace page - please feel free to have a look and leave a comment.
Enjoy the show and t-shirt...let me know if your team needs more.
Posted by Gareth Jenkins | April 25, 2007 3:11 PM
Posted on April 25, 2007 15:11