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
