Tags: fighting back, premature sexualization
Posted June 28th, 2011, in Creepy Marketing, Why I Wrote CAMD | 10 Comments
KIA apparently didn’t know about the reprehensible, pedophiliac ad for its cars that won the Cannes Silver Lion Press Award, but what about those judges? They’re all big guns in the advertising field –perhaps THEY need to be called out? The president of the jury was Tony Granger, Global Chief Creative Officer, Young & Rubicam USA. Y&R’s client roster includes numerous children’s brands such as several Mattel products (“Just Like You” American Girl dolls, Polly Pocket, Disney Princess, High School Musical, Beauty Cuties, Radica computer games, Holly Hobby) and Toys’R’Us. They also represent “family friendly” companies like Colgate-Palmolive. The American Girl account alone is worth $15 million. In a June 6 interview about his Cannes experience and “what he looks for in great advertising” Granger said: “I love ideas that feel effortless – that reveal a truth and connect with you.” And what is the “truth” he connects with in the [...]
Tags: premature sexualization
Posted June 27th, 2011, in Creepy Marketing | 25 Comments
So now KIA is saying they knew nothing about their despicable kiddie-porn ad that won the Cannes Silver Lion Award. But check it out. The company is being VERY CAREFUL about the wording in their statements. According to this news report, the company says: “We can guarantee this advertisement has never and will never be used in any form in the United States.” Notice that they don’t say anything about the rest of the world. It’s not clear whether whether Kia’s headquarters in Seoul contracts with Moma [the advertising firm that created the ads] and/or approved this ad. So perhaps it’s true that KIA America wasn’t involved. Perhaps. But that doesn’t make it okay, does it? Given the global crisis in child prostitution and trafficking, it’s actually more offensive that KIA believes that selling cars via child pornography is no problem as long as they don’t do it in the U.S. [...]
Tags: Disney, Pixar, premature sexualization, princess culture
Posted June 26th, 2011, in Creepy Marketing, Princesses, Why I Wrote CAMD | 82 Comments
Have you seen the new Kia Motors ad that promotes not only their cars’ dual climate control but, whaddaya know, also promotes pedophilia and sexualization of girls? It won a prestigious Silver Press Lion award in Cannes. According to the Huffington Post: The ad features a teacher lusting after his elementary school-aged student. On one side of the page, she appears as a young girl. On the other side, though, she becomes a scantily clad, buxom teen, seemingly as a product of the teacher’s imagination. It’s clearly designed to shock, and is succeeding. The advertising blog Copyranter called it “one of the sleaziest car ads ever,” and noted that it doesn’t even visualize the benefits of dual climate control very well. I say, arretez-vous, Kia in any language! Here’s the ad Here’s where you can tell Kia what you think–a petition by the wonder women and girls at SPARK, They’re trying [...]
Tags: pink, pink ribbon sexualization, pink-washing
Posted June 22nd, 2011, in Breast Cancer | 5 Comments
I’ve been critical of the Keep-a-Breast Foundation’s “I Heart Boobies” bracelets campaign. But I also am a person who gives credit where it’s due, and I very much like the early style, tone and message of their non-toxic revolution campaign. I especially hope they focus on educating girls about potential carcinogens in cosmetics–during and just after puberty they are especially vulnerable. And short of questioning the beauty industry in general, I at least hope KABF can make clean makeup the cool choice. And I’m not talking Cover Girl Clean (for you who grew up in the 1970s). So we’ll see. I’m rooting for them on this one. Though it does seem ironic that all those bracelets will end up as….land fill.
Tags: Disney, girlie girl culture, pink princess culture camd
Posted June 18th, 2011, in Boys and Girls, Princesses, Why I Wrote CAMD | 10 Comments
Blogger Lainey Feingold pointed out a little tidbit on the front page article in the New York Times in an article titled, “Stores Emphasize Mannequins with Personalities?” The piece is about how retailers are using unique mannequins in unusual poses or bodies to entice customers to part with money in hard times. Nike has made its mannequins taller, and added about 35 athletic poses. Armani Exchange has ordered models that will lie down to help shoppers imagine wearing lingerie. A new accessories-only store by Guess features glossy black mannequins in model-like poses on an actual runway, while Ralph Lauren’s new women’s store in Manhattan commissioned mannequins with the face of the model Yasmin Le Bon. Whatever. But get this one: The Disney Stores chain has added little-boy figurines that fly from the ceiling and little-girl ones that curtsey. Seriously? Little boys that soar and little girls that CURTSEY? Is that one going [...]
Posted June 16th, 2011, in Uncategorized | No Comments
You know, when I first wrote the article, “What’s Wrong With Cinderella?” in the NY Times Magazine, I doubt anyone would have asked that question, let alone a male reviewer at the Times itself. But the sexualization/diva-fication/commodification of princess culture has subsequently become so extreme that now a lead sentence like that, which appeared in today’s NY Times, seems merely an in-the-know joke. It was proferred as part of a glowing account of a show by cabaret singer Lea Salonga at the Cafe Carlyle: What’s the difference between a Disney princess and a prostitute? Not much if you are Lea Salonga, the Filipino diva who joked last week about having played both types, as she opened her new cabaret show, “New York in June,” at the Cafe Carlyle. Ms. Salonga seemed fully aware that psychologically the line between one and the other isn’t all that clear anymore; nowadays little girls [...]
Tags: fighting back, girlie girl culture, homophobia, premature sexualization, princess culture, sanity in education
Posted June 14th, 2011, in Boys and Girls, Princesses, Why I Wrote CAMD | 20 Comments
Love this post by Emily Rosenbaum about how “School Spirit Week” is celebrated in her children’s elementary school. Each day has a theme including (wait for it)….Princess Day on which girls are supposed to dress in glitter and tiaras. As are the boys, if they want to, are too–but not because it’s okay for a boy to dress like a princess, exactly the opposite: it’s clear the boys are supposed to be doing it as a goof, with a wink and a homophobic nudge. “It’s making the point (rather strongly) that there are things for girls and things for boys and the only times we break through those barriers is to laugh about it. In other words, rather than making a safe space in which the boys can express themselves, it’s laying down the gender norms even more clearly. Sure, kid, dress as a princess; it’ll be a hoot. It’s [...]
Tags: fighting back, homophobia, pink princess culture camd, sanity in education
Posted June 13th, 2011, in Boys and Girls, Equal Parenting | 13 Comments
Great piece in Friday’s NY Times on elementary school kids who want to wear clothing considered to be for the other sex and how parents handle it. As it happened, the Spanish Dance performance for the 2nd & 3rd years at Daisy’s school was that morning. Here are the costumes the kids wore: Seems pretty obvious that the one on the left is the boys’ while the one on the right is the girls’. But it wasn’t presented that way. The kids were told there were two costume choices and they could wear whichever they liked. A few of the girls picked the khakis. One of the boys chose the skirt and top. Of course, no one said much about the girls choosing khakis. But here is what the one of the teachers wrote me about a boy choosing to wear “girls” clothing: We work hard to bust up stereotypes [...]
Tags: Disney, homophobia, pink princess culture camd, Pixar
Posted June 9th, 2011, in Boys and Girls, Princesses, Why I Wrote CAMD | 26 Comments
Getting over-excited about all the fab comments on my last post re: why bringing up Jessie in Toy Story is not an adequate comeback for “why hasn’t Pixar made any movies about women?” Thank you guys for such a wonderful conversation. One commenter (in fact the one who inspired the post–so double thank you!) asked about the idea that boys won’t watch movies about girls. And added it’s not like 5 year old boys are taking themselves to the movies (though they do have OPINIONS, believe me). But yes, conventional Hollywood wisdom is that boys won’t watch girl protagonists. And every time a movie about a woman or girl fails or under-performs at the box office that is reinforcement. While if a movie about a woman succeeds it tends to be regarded as a fluke. Going to movies with female leads becomes a sort of political statement–hence the hubbub around [...]
Facebook
Twitter
Email Sign-Up
RSS Feed
