Can you still find a curvy, busty yet slim young sexy woman dressed in red as the main content of a piece of advertising today? Yes, you can and you don’t need to be looking at an engine oil poster in your petrol station: it’s Special K cereals putting forward that image as an object of desire; in particular, women’s desire to become such an object of desire: the desire to be desired.
Ultimately, whether there is nothing or a lot wrong with it, most of us have been taught to seek and to enjoy being desired: it could be, among many instances, for our curvy, busty and yet slim figure; for our clever and sharp commentaries; for our buying power; for our authority and ability to dominate others; even, in a twisted way, for our absence of worldly desires and thus our moral superiority over the rest of mundane poor souls.
In this case, Kellogg’s (note the subtle absence of Special K's parent brand from the ad) has gone for quite a simple, classic denomination of desire; enough for them, they hope, to increase the sales of their cereal flakes.
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MySpecialK.co.uk: Flaunt those jeans
High Road, N22
Wood Green, London
That's it.. I'm going back on the Shredded Wheat..!
ReplyDelete:-((
Companies just can NOT win when it comes to advertising. It is wrong when a girl is too thin and doubly wrong when a girl appears curvy in the right places. Heaven forbid Kellogs sexes up its image to make Special K appeal to the younger market!!!!!!! Lets book frumpy girls and put them all in shrouds for dresses!!! :S That should keep all feminist types quiet! This model is clearly of healthy proportions and a size 10 is not unreachable. If only all advertising companies used models with ''girl next door'' figures!!
ReplyDeleteIt’s true. Companies have it quite hard to win when it comes to advertising.
ReplyDeleteAnd I’d also say that the commenter above has a point: the model in the ad is clearly of healthy proportions.
But my emphasis is rather on the topic of desire, in particular on the learned desire to be desired and, incidentally, on the fundamental role it plays in advertising.