Saturday, July 14, 2012

Would the TIme Magazine cover be a problem here?

Everyone knows about the Time Magazine controversy that happened recently in the US - a mother was shown breastfeeding her very grown son, exposing some nudity and raising some questions about how much is exposure is too much exposure. A similar situation happened in Korea, where a magazine ad for cookies showed a breastfeeding baby, again showing a little too much.

As Cody and I got on the Tube one day in London, he happened to pick up a baby magazine left in a seat. It was a child raising magazine meant for a demographic with a much "richer" taste - these were the people who had the money to have some serious baby swag. As we looked through it and laughed at all the ridiculous stuff, we came upon an ad for breast-feeding which exploded our laugh meter - it was a lady dressed up in Audrey Hepburn's "Breakfast at Tiffany's" infamous outfit, yet where the breasts were, there were holes and a breastfeeding device attached. It was almost a little too much. But it also raises the question - how acceptable is nudity here in the UK? Where does the line get drawn? In light of all the grotesque ads that they use towards texting and driving, and smoking, it seems like the sort of "pushing the limit" advertising seems to grab audience attention. These sort of tactics may make a difference, but I feel this marketing approach - showing women that breast pumps are glamourous - doesn't make a difference. And I certainly wouldn't spend thousands of dollars for a breast pump.


2 comments:

  1. This reminds me a lot of the texting while driving commercial the U.K. had a few years ago. They really do push the envelop as far as advertising is concerned. I think the boldness of the advertisements really do leave a whoa factor and a lasting effect even if it doesn't make you necessarily go buy the product. Many of their advertisements definitely get you thinking.

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  2. I agree, Teresa, I don't think this marketing approach, especially for a breast pump, is a good one. It may work for things like the cigarette ads, but there is nothing glamorous about a breast pump. I feel the best thing would have been just to show the product alone with a description of it, because someone who wants or needs this product would purchase it even if it were not portrayed as glamorous. I think this ad is going a little to far, and to be honest, I think an ad like that would make me less prone to purchase the product.

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