More adventures in Lady Advertising. The Mars company has developed a their first new chocolate bar in 20 years, it's called "Fling" and it comes in a pink, sparkely wrapper. The entire advertising campaign is not only super "girly," it's plenty skeevy:
Wrapped in a shiny pink and sliver package, this delicate "chocolate finger" is intended for women. The word "finger" is an industry term for a long, slim confection, Mars spokesman Ryan Bowling says, but with ads that invite you to "Pleasure yourself" in pink lettering, consumers might come to other conclusions.
The tag line on the package is "Naughty, but not that naughty." A TV spot starts with what looks like strangers having sex in a store dressing room.
NPR deconstructs the marketing for this new candy with Lisa Johnson. Currently the candy bar is only available in California, but you can find the (SUPER tasteful) commercial on YouTube. Cannot WAIT to see what Haskins does with this.
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In Australia we've had a chocolate bar called fling for quite a while, and it sounds very similar. Our marketing campaign was awesome for it though - they were cartoons rewriting fairytales where the princess would ditch the prince because she only wanted a fling.
And here's the link for the Aussie one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ6wv5mPNu8
The "masturbate with a chocolate bar" subtext just makes me think "impending yeast infection". Is that supposed to make me hungry?
The guy in the other booth is pathetic. What, he can't (un)dress himself? And I don't know how they do things in California, but where I live women's and men's dressing rooms aren't right next to each other.
In California most stores either specialise only in womens or mens clothing, or they're big enough (department stores) to have separate departments and separate dressing rooms. But there are some smaller stores that carry both mens and womens clothing, and so they have unisex dressing rooms next to each other. Pac Sun comes to mind, they're usually set up that way. I'd be surprised if that is special to California-- I think its just a practical decision based on how big the store is.
There's some sort of disconnect with advertising going on that's very strange to watch. I know others have harped on it before, but it's getting to this almost surreal point. Here's some birds. A baby is crying. Your life will be engulfed in darkess. Buy a PS3. Dammit, Mars! Chocolate is Chocolate! Snickers is not a "rechargable energy bar" that you eat during soccer matches. Twix is not for couples. And you probably should not masturbate with a candy confectionary!
Probably. I'm not a doctor.
There is a huge connection between women, food, and sexual desire in advertising. Like, because women OBVIOUSLY don't have a sex drive, we get OUR pleasure from chocolate and often other foods. The whole "temptation" idea, or "sinful delight," "sooo good," etc. etc. It bothers me. A lot.