Don’t Use Sexy to Sell Me a Pair of
Shoes
The actor swirls around in a
clingy dress wearing stilettos. Viewers even see her naked calves hanging over
the side of a white bathtub, her feet wrapped in stylish heels. In another scene
with no seeming inhibitions, the actor dances with allurement. Oh yes, and
there’s a man in the commercial. He has a glint in his eye or is that a leer.
See,
there’s the problem. The utmost thing this commercial said was that shoes
attract a man. Do they keep your feet dry? Are they supportive? Do they hold up
fallen arches? I don’t know because all I really saw was the flashy image of an
alluring female and skyscraper shoes. I’m
skeptical. The ad implies that shoes draw a man’s interest. I want proof. I
want to see a thick curtain and behind it women’s clad feet shown from the
ankle down. I want to see men picking a woman by just seeing her feet. Would any
man really point to a set of feet, “Yeah Baby! I choose her.”I’m confused. In the current ad on TV, are they selling shoes or sexy?
I suppose some truth lies in the commercial. Fellows do like high heels. At least mine does. I like to wear them for him since there’s a foot difference in our heights. It’s nice to be nearer to his face for a little impromptu kissing should the urge hit. But then we’re not prone to overt public displays of affection, and, no, I don’t wear heels to bake potatoes at home.
In
the above paragraph, I meant to put “truth” and “lies” right next to each other
in the first sentence because that’s what so many television ads do. They serve
up a product or brand logo with illusions: Sunglasses at night will cut headlight glare;
cat litter makes your house smell tidy not feline; fake butter tastes like real
butter; burn belly fat while eating ice cream.
Some
advertisers do practice some truth in advertising, and look how their taglines
have caught on: “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” And, plenty of Americans know
that “the best part of wakin’ up” is coffee in the cup, whether it’s Folgers or
not. Astute advertisers know their audiences. On the old reruns of family safe
TV shows and movies, a staggering array of ads geared toward senior citizens
fill in the gaps between show scenes: cereals with fiber, burial insurance, and
a medicine cabinet full of cures, plus those for motorized scooters and reverse
mortgages touted by Fonzie of “Happy Days.”
Whoa.
I’d better stop. You don’t want to hear about the “happy days” of reversing a
reverse mortgage. All I can say is when our family paid off a parents’ reverse mortgage
the interest rates and fees were stiletto. And it took half of their investments
to buy back their home worth five times what the mortgage company had loaned. You
get the picture. Don’t believe everything you hear hawked by the makers of a
product.
Now,
back to feet and shoes. I long for truth in advertising. I’d rather see a foot
with a bunion and then the happy face of a senior woman when she finally gets a
comfortable pair of shoes fitted to her feet—granny shoes are good ‘cause at
some time most women will have granny feet. I long to see beach shoes covering
the soles of young feet keeping them from the burning sand, or even snazzy
shoes on teens going to a high school football game. Just give me a real
scenario without the sexual innuendoes.
I’m
not naïve, I know that advertisers think if sexy is present at least the males
pay attention to the ad. And the feminist notice and other women who are offended
by ads using the female body to sell products. But PR firms have also thrown in their share of hunks to lure women: from yogurt
to pizza to floor cleaners, they give us glimpses of brawny men along with mops
and buckets.
One
of the newer Skittles candy commercials showed a girl kissing a boy who smiled
and had Skittles in place of his teeth. Some of the Skittles were missing after
the kiss—the tagline “French the rainbow. Taste the Rainbow.” After complaints Wrigley,
makers of Skittles, changed the line to “Kiss the rainbow. Taste the rainbow.” Their
change is somewhat admirable (after a parent alarm went off), but their original
appeal to sixth grade boys has costs them some longtime purchasers, who say
they’ll never buy Skittles again.
Back
to shoes and all other ads, please, tell us about the product. Use humor, jingles,
facts, characters, or metaphor but please know we’re not fools who will swallow
anything you set before us.
From
Buzzle.com “David Ogilvy wrote in
his book, Confessions of an Advertising
Man, ‘The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife.’ Whenever you take a
look at different advertising techniques and those examples that you would like
to use in order to design your own advertising strategies, keep in mind this
little tip from Mr. Ogilvy. After all he is not called the father of modern
advertising for no reason.”
So really, you want me to buy a pair of women’s shoes because you showed me stilettos and naked calves draped over the side of a bathtub. Do I look like a moron? All I’m asking is for truth in advertising and don’t use sexy to sell me a pair of shoes.
