| A powerful report on how marketers are selling
a grown-up, sexy image to pre-teen girls. Then we check in with boys to find out what they think about girls dressing sexy. |
|
CBC MARKETPLACE: YOUR FINANCES
» MARKETING TO KIDS
When you were nine, what did you want? A Barbie doll? A train set? These days, young boys and girls are hungry for something else: padded bras and flirting tips, video games with bikini-clad babes and music videos that feature plenty of sexual innuendo. Sex has always sold, but now it’s children that are buying. Tweens, kids aged eight to 14, are a hot target for companies. And now more than ever, sex is being used to get their dollars. Tweens are being bombarded with sexy images by the makers of clothes, toys, video games, music videos -- all aimed at getting this freshly- coveted demographic to buy, buy and buy some more. To get a sense of their world, we spend a day with 12-year-old Amanda.
“Tweens, we don’t want to be kids anymore,” she says. “But I guess we also don’t want to have all this responsibility, we just want to have fun.” We decide to tally up how many sexed-up images Amanda sees in an average day. We wake her up at her mom’s house at 7:00 to start our count. Her bedroom is bright pink, from the walls to the bedspread. Plastic stars dangle from the ceiling. “I think that whole glittery thing is still a little bit of the child in her,” says Amanda’s mom, Alma. “She’s still got a bit of that, but now … it’s more of a sexy look. "I think it’s just the influence of pop stars. I don’t think it’s that she wants to look sexy. Not for boys. I don't think she's even noticed boys yet.”
Early in the day, from tween magazines, the internet and television, our count of sexy images is already at 126. Then Amanda heads out shopping with two friends, Natasha and Alexia. At the mall, there are entire chains devoted to tween shoppers: stores full of racy clothing, make-up and even lingerie for girls who may not have hit puberty. “When you're that young, you don't really need a bra,” says Amanda. “I guess it just makes them feel more mature.” Alexia picks up a tiny pink bra. She holds it up to her chest to show how small it is. Amanda jokes that the La Senza bra wouldn’t fit her three-year-old cousin.
After the shopping trip we ask the girls why they like to buy sexy clothes. “You get more attention,” says Amanda. “And strange guys come up to you and try and get you to go to nightclubs.” “A lot of guys stare,” adds Natasha. Alexia brings up another tween fad: "sex bracelets." They’re cheap, colourful jelly bracelets that Alexia says carry sexual connotations: “Pink means ‘kiss,’ blue means ‘blow job’ and white means 'lap dance' ... If a guy pulls it off you, it means you have to do it. But most girls don’t do the stuff. They just wear them for fun. I think they look cool and they’re like fun to play with.”
Wearing so-called “sex bracelets” doesn’t mean kids are having sex. In fact, the "secret meanings" allegedly embedded in the bracelets seem to be believed more by adults than by the kids themselves. That said, the bracelet phenomenon is another example of how kids’ sexual awareness is high. “I feel there’s pressure because everyone else wears [sexy clothes]," says Amanda. "You don’t want to be left out,” says Alexia. “Yeah, yeah. And you don't want to be a loner,” adds Amanda. “Some parents don’t want their children dressing that way,” says Alexia. “But then I find that just makes kids want to do it more,” quips Amanda. “If you chain your children too much they’ll just do it anyway ‘cause they’re trying to get you angry,” adds Alexia. “People change in the washrooms at school when they get there,” says Amanda. “That’s what I used to do,” says Alexia.
By the end of the day, including
our visit to the mall, Amanda has seen about 280 sexy images.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sex
sells: Marketing and 'age compression'
Broadcast: January 9, 2005
Eight to 14 year-olds have money. They spend $1.7 billion of their own cash, and marketers know it. The industry even has a name for its strategy of getting tweens to buy sexy stuff. It’s called “age compression,” pushing adult products and teen attitude on younger and younger kids. The kids may not get the innuendo; but what they know is that sexy is “cool.” At Amanda’s school, we meet Shari Graydon. She just wrote a book for kids about beauty stereotypes and advertising. But even Graydon was shocked by what we picked up for children at the mall: a padded push-up bra from Miss Teen, a chain that sells to tweens. We found another at La Senza Girl, size “30 AA.” (The national average bra size is “36 C.”) La Senza says their bra is made for tween girls of various ages and sizes. They add it’s the moms who do the shopping and decide if it’s appropriate.
“I suspect that the advertisers would tell you ‘we’re doing this because there’s a demand for it,’” says Graydon. “They sort of escape –or avoid– acknowledging that they have created the demand… It really disturbs me.”
Where do little girls learn about sexy fashions? In case you haven’t heard, Barbie is for babies. These days, “Bratz” dolls are the thing. They’re marketed to girls as young as four – complete with skimpy clothes and heavy make-up, they're billed as boy crazy fashion fiends. And as soon as they can read, girls can buy the Bratz “Superstyling Funktivity Book,” which reads like a Cosmo magazine – only it’s geared towards six year olds.
The Bratz book covers such topics as “luscious lip tips,” “design your own sexy skirt,” “is your crush real?,” “tips on being an irresistible flirt,” and “are your friends jealous of the amount of attention you get from boys?” “To think that we’re now encouraging kids this young to be that self-conscious about appearance issues is really devastating,” comments Graydon. “They are everything that Barbie is not,” says Dave Malacrida, chief publicist for Bratz. “Not blond, not a dentist, not an airline stewardess. I don’t know if they have aspirations of being doctors or those professions. [But they’re] really four strong characters. [Bratz is] all about girl power, all about starting trends, making fashion statements.” But Graydon argues that Bratz have nothing to do with girl power. “This is all about making money for the manufacturers. That’s really what it’s all about.”
“It’s a toy,” responds Malacrida. “It’s flat out a really cool piece of plastic, in this case it’s a fashion doll. You want to do something that’s eye opening to get attention and that’s what we do in the PR world too.” But for Graydon, the issues go far beyond the world of marketing and attention-grabbing toys. “I think most child psychologists would look at this stuff and say 'yes, this is not age appropriate.' And I think that as consumers, we have allowed this to happen.” How has this happened? There are so many possible factors. Parents are busier than ever, and kids have more money and more access to more media. Some even have their own websites. Alexia, 11, calls her site “Sexi-Lexi,” after her own nickname. It’s a scrapbook of Alexia’s favourite images, ads and music videos.
It seems marketing to tweens is just as sexy and sophisticated as it is to adults. Often, marketers hire a celebrity who speaks to that age group -- like a recent ad campaign for Candies shoes that featured the latest tween pop star, Ashlee Simpson. The singer is considered a “good girl” with a wholesome image. The ad shows a scantily clad Simpson in a sexy pose. There's a teddy bear in the corner, and Simpson's wearing a pair of Candies high heels. “She’s a little promiscuous, but everything’s covered, and she just looks fun. She looks a little bit sexy,” says Candies’ CEO, Neil Cole. Cole says the ad shows “a young girl who’s growing up. And it’s a combination, I think in a lot of young girl’s rooms you see teddy bears, and they probably have high heels.”
It may seem to be a mixed message for adults – but the ad certainly hits its target. We show it to Amanda and her friends Alexia and Natasha: “I like her shoes, her shoes are awesome…” “I like her bra…” “I find teddy bears are in…” “Yeah, I love teddy bears…” “Every girl’s still a little girl.” Mariah, 11, likes the Candies logo, and that there’s a lot of pink in the ad. Her mother, Toni, says Mariah would probably love to wear something like Ashlee Simpson’s outfit, “because she doesn’t know the problems that she could get into.” According to Candies, those “problems” can be tackled with a t-shirt and a one-line motto. The shoe company manufactures a shirt that reads: “Be sexy: It doesn’t mean you have to have sex.” It’s a motto Ashlee Simpson repeats in other appearances for the company. Through its Candies Foundation, the shoe company uses a variety of celebrities to educate kids about teen pregnancy.
“Although some people could say it’s hypocritical, we think it makes a lot of sense,” says Candies’ CEO, Neil Cole. “Just because a girl wants to dress up and look good and maybe look sexy doesn’t mean that she should have a baby or doesn’t mean she wants to have sex.”
Sex isn't being pushed just through shoes, clothes, toys and magazines. Tweens are big consumers of music videos. Mariah, Alexia and Amanda all say they were nine or 10 when they started watching Much Music. "At nine or 10 years old, I think you're mature enough to watch the sexy music videos," says Alexia. Much Music says it’s careful to air sexually explicit adult material only after 9:00 p.m. We put that claim to a test. We watched and recorded Much Music from 4:00 to 8:30 on weekdays after school. We found a number of questionable videos, including one that features strippers at a stag party. It aired at 6:30 p.m. “That’s the time of day that kids are watching television and Much Music would know that,” says Graydon. “Media producers and companies who are targeting teens and tweens are completely abdicating any sense of responsibility. “Parents do have a responsibility, no question about it. But kids spend more time with media than they do with their parents.” Much Music refused our invitation for an on-camera interview. Over the phone they told us that tweens are not their target audience, and that Much is primarily for 18-24 year olds. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The
parent trap: Divide and conquer
Amanda’s parents are separated. Her dad, Nick, is uncomfortable with the sexy styles she wants to wear. “Amanda spends most of her time with her mother,” says Nick. “She seems to have more influence in terms of what’s current and what's acceptable. “As her father, I see her as a sweet innocent kid and it’s a bit weird to see her wearing sexy clothes sometimes.” “I would probably prefer if she wore a baggy t-shirt and baggy jeans,” says Amanda’s mother, Alma. “But she would not like it though. She wouldn’t be herself.”
“Being sexy is, like, I guess you have to follow trends,” says Amanda. “You’re more popular if you're sexy. Do you know what I mean? Because nobody wants to be, like, a loner.” Alexia is a friend of Amanda’s. She’s 11. Her parents, Nick and Nina, are also split over what’s acceptable. “I grew up in a very strict Italian Catholic home,” says Nina. “I wasn’t allowed to go out, no make up, no nothing. So I promised myself that if I ever had a daughter, I wouldn’t let her suffer because I really resent them for it. I think if Alexia didn’t fit in, I’d be extremely crushed, devastated.
“I don’t say no to her, because she sees myself, she sees her mom wearing these clothes and high heel shoes.” As for Nick, he worries that some of Alexia’s clothes look “trashy.” He goes so far to say her shoes make her “look like a stripper.” “You’re an 11-year-old schoolgirl,” he tells Alexia, “and I want you to look like an 11-year-old schoolgirl.” “Okay,” Alexia huffs, “but you just called me a stripper.” “I said ‘the look of a stripper,’” says Nick. “That’s just the look. You don’t look like a girl who’s in grade seven.”
“I feel powerless,” says Nick. “Because my daughter sees it. She sees it on mannequins, she sees it in the videos, she sees it on people on the buses, on the street, and she says ‘Daddy I want a skirt like that, I want shoes like that, I want a top like that.’ All I can say is ‘Okay sweetie, we’ll go buy it.’” “I whine and I complain,” says Alexia. “I tell them I’m never going to talk to them again if they don’t buy me it.” But whining doesn’t work in every family. We meet ten-year-old Mariah and her mom, Toni, as Mariah's getting dressed for school. “I love this short, nice top,” says Mariah. “I like it’s how it’s tight, and I like how it shows my belly button. It makes me look cooler. Much cooler, really.”
But Toni doesn’t like the look. She tells Mariah to change. Despite some loud protests, Mariah finds something else to wear. But she still loves her “sexy” clothes: “They’re clothes that could be really tight that show off your body, you’re sort of half naked in it. You feel, I guess, sexy a bit.” Kids are surrounded by so much sex. With advertising, music videos, toys, the internet, video games – it’s almost impossible to avoid. And many parents are avoiding “the sex talk.” “Oh God, no,” says Alma, Amanda’s mom. “She’s far too young and she gets it at school, thank God. So I don’t have to.” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talking
dirty: Tips for talking about sex with your pre-teen It’s important to recognize that your pre-teen probably knows
– or at least thinks she knows – a lot more about sex
than you might expect. She’s learned about sex from the world.
While your child’s school probably has some sex education in
the curriculum, it’s also your responsibility to be involved in
educating your pre-teen about issues of physical health and about
the moral aspects of sexual behaviour.
Your child needs your input and guidance to make
healthy and appropriate decisions regarding her sexual behaviour.
Whether she admits it or not, she’s likely confused by what
she’s seen and heard – what information she does know may be
wildly inaccurate. The good news is that by talking about sex you can
have a positive influence in the life of your pre-teen.
FURTHER READING:
Talking
to your kids about sex
- advice from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry
Talking
about sex to pre-teens - tips from About.com
Straight
talk: Giving your child the facts about sex - from
iparenting.com
Talking
with your kids about sex - from pre-schoolers to teens Some tips: Shari Graydon is a media expert, author
and former president of Media Watch. Her latest book, In Your
Face: The Culture of Beauty and You, is published by Annick
Press. The following is an edited excerpt from her interview with Marketplace's
Wendy Mesley. Wendy Mesley: Why are [retailers] selling bras
for little girls?
Shari Graydon: Well, I suspect
that the advertisers would tell you ‘we’re doing this because
there’s a demand for it.’ And they sort of escape --or avoid--
acknowledging that they have created the demand... But you know, just because kids want to smoke
cigarettes, it doesn’t mean that we market cigarettes to them…
We do in fact market cigarettes to kids, but it’s against the
law. And you know, you could argue that this should be against the
law too. Mesley: Why? Graydon: What we’re doing is
we’re encouraging kids to think of themselves as, and dress in a
way that is sexually provocative... And it doesn’t make sense
that parents would buy this stuff for their kids … This kind of
stuff normalizes the sexualization of children and allows people
who are already disturbed and inclined to view kids as sexual
playthings and sexual objects – this kind of stuff reinforces
their rationalization that it’s okay, that it’s normal. Mesley: But beyond pedophiles –
I guess this would probably create a reaction among teenage boys
too. Graydon: Yes, it would… What it
does is, is it says the juxtaposition of this kind of clothing and
children who are demonstrably not of an age where they are capable
of managing sexual attention, it puts the two together in a way
that makes the kids vulnerable to attention that’s not
appropriate. Mesley: Does that upset you? Graydon: Yeah, it does. It really
disturbs me. And I don’t understand why companies, the
executives of whom have children, produce the stuff and why
parents don’t appreciate that this is clearly not in the best
interests of their children. Mesley: We talked to the
parents… and the moms are saying, ‘Well, I never really fit
in. I want my daughter to be cool.’ And the dads are saying
‘It upsets me, but it’s too hard to fight.’ Graydon: I don’t even know how
to respond to that. Does wearing a bra as an 11-year-old or a
10-year-old or an eight-year-old allow you to fit in? Does that
mean that everybody’s doing it? That all kids are wearing this
stuff? I think parents need to get some backbone and to be able to
say 'just because everybody’s doing it doesn’t mean we do it.' Mesley: There seem to be a bunch
of [retail] chains that sell to tweens. Graydon: Yes, there are.
They’re a huge market. There’s an appreciation increasingly
that teens and tweens, virtually all of their money is disposable
because they don’t have to pay rent, they don’t have to buy
gas for the car. So all of the money that they have at their
disposal is money that they can spend on what they want, as
opposed to what they need. And so they’re a huge market.
They’re perceived as having and in fact do have enormous
consumer clout. Mesley: Is that new? Graydon: I think it is new. A
generation or two ago, kids didn’t tend to have jobs… If they
got allowance, they often had to earn it. Parents who grew up
during the Second World War and who experienced shortages were not
so flush with cash, and not so generous with cash, in the way that
today’s parents are. And I think there's the guilt factor that comes
from divorced parents who feel like ‘I’m not living with their
mother, therefore I need to provide additional income, and
whatever I can buy for my kid that my kid wants, I’m going to do
that.’ A lot of the complaints today you hear from
parents are about how the media is encouraging their kids to grow
up really fast, that they’re exposed to sexually explicit
television shows, that sitcoms like Friends have all
sorts of sexual innuendo. Yet these clothing products, and the
fact that parents are buying these products, suggests that it’s
not really all about the media. There is a certain complicity from
parents as well. Mesley: Why are so many companies
making such sexualized clothing for little girls? Graydon: Because there’s a
market. That’s what they would say… We know that kids of any
age tend to aspire to be older. They want to be seen as more
mature, more sophisticated. And so when pop stars are dressing in
a certain way, the audience for those pop stars will aspire to
dress like them as well. Mesley: Do you think that the
little girls who wear these outfits, do you think they are aware
that they’re dressing sexually? Graydon: I guess that depends in
part on the parents and how parents interact with them and how
other people react to them. It also depends on the role modeling
in any given family. If a girl’s mother dresses very
provocatively and defines herself in a very sexual way and sees
that as being fundamental to who she is, then that role modeling
is almost more important than what’s happening in the media. Mesley: How much money do tweens
have – or influence? Graydon: They have more and more
influence. In addition to having their own allowance or money that
they have themselves, teens and tweens have an inordinate degree
of influence over what their parents buy. And we know that today,
more than ever before, kids are able to say to their parents ‘I
want that.’ And parents are more inclined to give their kids
money or buy them specifically the brands and the clothes and even
the electronics and the movies and the fast food that they want. I think it is really difficult to be a parent
today. I think it’s way more difficult to withstand the
onslaught of the culture around us than it was a generation or two
ago. There’s a much greater volume of messages being targeted.
Ten or 15 years ago, there were Levi stores. There were stores
like the Gap that were targeting kids, but they weren’t stores
that were featuring these kind of very sexualized clothing. So
that’s been a sea change over the last five years. I would say
there’s been a big shift and focus on the sexualization of
clothes and makeup for children. And it is very difficult, I think, as a parent, as
an adult, to be alone in your stance against that. So if, if
you’re getting pressure from your kid, who feels pressured by
his or her peers, who feel themselves driven by media ideals –
there’s a whole system behind it. Mesley: Which came first: kids
growing up faster or images that made them grow up faster? Graydon: I would fault the media
and I would say that popular culture and the images that are so
prevalent are responsible. You could point to Madonna as being the
sort of leading edge envelope pusher 15 years ago, when she first
did her video, "Like a Virgin," and where she used to
wear corsets or bra tops as exterior clothing, as opposed to
underneath things. It doesn’t seem so shocking now. And you know,
when she did those things though, it was shocking and she really
was pushing the envelope. Just as advertisers will frequently use
near-naked people in order to attract attention --because
fundamentally the first thing they need to do is attract
attention-- I think pop stars in their music videos, in their
stage personas, have become more and more sexualized in order to
market themselves and stand out in a cluttered media environment. Mesley: Are you familiar with the
Bratz? [Mesley shows her a Bratz doll] This is for a six
year old… What do you think of that? Graydon: Well, you know, I played
with Barbies and I used to have Ken and Barbie get together. But
it was very domestic, I have to say. And I think at the age of
six, developmentally you don’t have the capacity to really
comprehend the nuances of flirtation and sexual interaction in the
way that a teenager or an adult would. So the emphasis and focus
of these toys does seem much more adult than is age appropriate. Mesley: The makers of these dolls
say that they’re the anti-Barbie because they’re cool and
they’re fashionable and they’re not an airline stewardess –
they’re cool. Graydon: I’m sure that’s
true. What they’re essentially doing is taking their cues from
music videos and pop culture, which is obviously very engaging to
kids. Six year olds tend to aspire to be doing what 12 and 14 year
olds are doing. So it’s not surprising that it would be popular. Mesley: This idea … they call
it 'age compression' – what used to be acceptable for a ten year
old is now acceptable for a six year old, and what used to be
acceptable for a 14 year old is now acceptable for a 10 year old.
What’s going on? Graydon: I think the pressure of
culture is really encouraging kids to grow up faster, to think
about things that wouldn’t normally occur to them naturally …
at a very early age. And anytime you say to a kid, ‘this is too old
for you’ or ‘this is taboo,’ immediately that heightens the
appeal. I think there was a day when toy manufacturers did in fact
take a sense of responsibility seriously, where they saw their job
as producing toys that were educational -- or, if not educational,
at least age appropriate. And that notion really seems to have
been abandoned in the drive to increase shareholder value or to
sell more product… I think most child psychologists would look at
this stuff and say ‘yes, this is not age appropriate.’ And I
think that as consumers, we have allowed this to happen. So one of
my messages to parents, would be: if you are concerned about the
direction that we’re going that is reflected in these products,
we need to collectively speak up and remind producers and
advertisers and companies that children and childhood is a very
particular time … What I find so depressing about this is that adult
women are concerned and preoccupied enough with the pressure to
live up to unattainable physical ideals. And to think that we’re
now encouraging kids this young to be that self-conscious about
appearance issues is really devastating… What it does is take
away emphasis that would otherwise be on learning, curiosity,
mastering a sport, playing an instrument, defining yourself in
term of the friends that you make and the things that you do and
the things that you think – as opposed to how you appear to
other people. Mesley: The maker of Bratz, when
I raised some of these issues with him, he said ‘it’s just a
toy.’ Graydon: Toys are significant
items in kids’ lives. The relationship that a child establishes
with a toy is something where they endow the toy with dreams and
hopes and aspirations. They interact with the toy. Girls in
particular, we know do a lot of role-playing with dolls. So encouraging them to be role-playing around
adult preoccupations, sex, relationships, is really encouraging
them not to be a child anymore, is robbing them in a sense of
their opportunity to simply explore and engage in a child’s
world. I think it’s naïve for a toy maker to say, ‘well
they’re just toys.’ The fact is, they would know from the research
that they invariably do, the impact that toys have on children and
I think that there’s a huge abdication of responsibility in
taking that attitude. It’s like cigarette manufacturers saying
well, you know, it’s just a – it’s just a habit. And maybe
that’s an exaggeration; because these dolls are not capable of
killing little girls, but they are certainly encouraging kids to
grow up much faster than, than hormones and physical biology would
otherwise have kids grow up. Mesley: The makers of Bratz say
that this is, this is all about girl power. This is empowering. Graydon: This is not all about
girl power. This is all about making money for the manufacturers.
That’s really what it’s all about. Mesley: But the makers of the
clothing might say it’s empowering for young girls to be able to
dress up like that. Graydon: No, for young girls to
slavishly follow a fashion that has been mass produced by a
company like this is not expressing their individuality … Girls
who emulate Madonna or Britney Spears and dress in a sexual way
are in fact leaving themselves open to a power dynamic between men
and women that they don’t understand, that they’re not
equipped to deal with. And so far from being empowering, I would say in
fact this undermines potentially girls’ sense of themselves and
their ability to exert power, not just through how they look. Mesley: Some of the girls that we
talked to … they kind of like the attention. They know that guys
are whistling when they go down the street. Graydon: But it’s such a
limited form of power ... Women have been fighting for equality
for centuries and we’ve achieved great strides, but we haven’t
achieved the strides that we have in terms of being taken
seriously in the workplace, in terms of achieving equity
politically, by focusing on our sexuality... It is sexual power, but it’s very limited and
… in the hands of a six or a ten year old, I don’t think you
can call that empowerment because what is a six or a ten year old
going to do with that sexual empowerment? Where, what is it going
to get her that she needs or wants? Mesley: Ultimately, I guess it is
the parents’ responsibility-- Graydon: Parents do have a
responsibility, no question about it. But kids spend more time
with media than they do with their parents. We know that. That’s
a reality of life today … They should be exerting more parental
control. And you know, all of those in an ideal world may be true,
but the fact is that we don’t live in an ideal world and we know
that contemporary media, commercial media exert an enormous
influence on kids. That’s a reality. And it’s not fair to expect parents who have
maybe breakfast and dinner and a few hours at the end of their day
with their kids to – how can they possibly compete with Much
Music and with Teen People magazine and with the onslaught of
media images that kids are exposed to? I think a parent’s job, when it comes to media,
to say ‘yes, they may behave like that in a music video, but
that’s not real life. That’s not how we behave. That’s not
how we dress and these are the reasons why.’ And to give kids
whatever context is going to be accessible to them, given their
age level and, and their ability to understand. A parent’s job is to pass on his or her own
values, and if the media are reflecting values that are
fundamentally at odds with what parents think is appropriate,
it’s a parent’s job to say that. And that’s what media
literacy is about, to give kids an alternative to the reality
that’s being shown on, on television or in music videos... Parents, if they are going to allow their kids to
purchase these products, need to find a way to give a child enough
context so they understand. You know, my suspicion is parents
don’t have that ‘sex talk’ because they know the kids are
too young. But if you can’t have the conversation, you
shouldn’t be giving kids the products that package them in a
sexual way. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When will marketing executives learn that sex
doesn’t always sell? Ads
A recent billboard campaign by boot company
Terra Footwear featured models wearing sexy lingerie holding
construction tools in suggestive poses.
The company withdrew the ads when consumers
across the country took issue with the campaign.
I bet women working in male-dominated industries
weren’t amused by the ads and the incitement to sexual
harassment they seemed to represent.
We’ve fought for years to be treated fairly in
the workplace. When women wear work boots it’s because we’re
working.
What were they thinking? Researchers say even if
people like the sexy image they often don’t register — let
alone remember — the product or brand name.
The good news is that it took a few days of
public pressure for Terra Footwear to pull the ads.
It seems that e-mail is the consumer
activist’s best friend. With a click of the mouse, you can
register your outrage almost instantly. And, it might even
result in better ads.
|
An
advertisement for a pre-teen girls clothing company.
Amanda,
12, says 'You get more attention' when you wear sexy clothes.
This
padded bra from La Senza Girl is size “30 AA.” (The
national average bra size is “36 C.”) Amanda jokes that it
wouldn't fit her three-year-old cousin.
Amanda,
Natasha and Alexia
'Age
compression' is a marketing strategy in which adult
products and attitude are pushed on younger kids.
Wendy
Mesley (left) shows Shari Graydon the La Senza Girl bra.
Alexia's
website is a scrapbook of her favourite images, ads and
music videos.
Ashlee
Simpson is the latest tween pop star.
Ashlee
Simpson's Candies ad.
Neil
Cole
We
put Much Music's claims to the test - we watched and
recorded videos that aired between 4:00 and 8:30 p.m. and
found a number of examples of adult material.
Amanda's
dad, Nick, says he's not comfortable with the sexy clothes
his daughter wants to wear.
Amanda
and her mom, Alma.
Alexia
and her mom, Nina.
'I
feel powerless,' says Alexia's dad, Nick.
