“Sex sells” is a phrase we’ve all heard before—and we’ve seen it play out in the media and the advertising space. From American Apparel using near-naked models to sell their clothing (as if that makes sense at all) to food companies thinking it’s necessary to use sexual innuendos to make their burgers appetizing, they’re all around us. Despite there being a multitude of studies that conclude that sex doesn’t actually help sell products, companies surely haven’t caught on and continue to objectify women left and right.
New York City advertising firm Badger & Winters takes a stab at this unfair portrayal of women in their new video, “We Are #WomenNotObjects.” The video takes sexist ads and accompanies them with outrageous statements like, “I love giving blow jobs to sandwiches,” and “I love sacrificing my dignity for a drink,” that call attention to how ridiculous the ads themselves are. While it’s important to note that Badger & Winters is a company that wants your business, it does seem that they want to attract business for the right reasons. In the past even they’ve been guilty of creating sexist and objectifying ads for Calvin Klein, but hopefully this video is now their way of saying “enough is enough” and making a promise to not do so again while urging other companies to follow suit.
The video ends with statements such as “I am your mother, daughter, sister, co-worker, manager, CEO” and finishes with the powerful statement “don’t talk to me that way.” The sentiment of the “I am” statements is to make the consumer of these products realize that the women within these advertisements are not just models, but people who are real people. And while that seems obvious, the way they are posed can sometimes make it easy to forget—and that’s the intention. These women—and the women who view these ads—are being told that they exist only to be sexual and pretty and that’s something we wholeheartedly don’t agree with.
What do you think of the #WomenNotObjects campaign? Tell us in the comments!