Women Against the Media's Portrayal of Women
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This page highlights some of WAMPOW's choices for companies whose advertising is offensive to women. Sample ads are shown below. We suggest both letter writing and product boycotts. BARBIE/MATTEL: If Barbie were a "real" woman, her measurements have been reported to be either 36-18-33, 39-23-33, 39-22-35, or 38-18-34 depending upon who you ask and where you look*. None of those measurements are terribly realistic and all promote an unhealthy ideal for girls to try to attain (or become frustrated, upset, depressed, anxious or eating disordered when unable to attain). Approximately 90% of girls have Barbie dolls- an unhealthy early role model. Although Barbie's recent ad campaign features tough girls looking as if they are engaged in sports, Barbie herself still looks as if she could barely stand up. Mattel insists that Barbie has always been an icon of womanhood, mirroring woman as they venture into new careers. However, Barbie merely changes clothes with all those clothes perched atop a ridiculous figure. * Measurements were gathered from Associated press, Carrie Volpone of Mattel (1997), K. Brownell (1995) and a variety of websites about women's issues.
"For more than five decades, Barbie® has inspired girls to dream, discover and explore a world without limits. Celebrating her 125th career this year, Barbie® kicks-off a global campaign to further inspire girls by partnering with The White House Project and Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Foundation, as well as announcing today Barbie’s® “10 Women to Watch in 2010” list. Additionally, for the first time, consumers can help select Barbie® doll’s 125th career by voting on www.Barbie.com/Vote and choosing from among Architect, Computer Engineer, Environmentalist, News Anchor or Surgeon. " No matter the uniform on the barbie and no matter the career she supposedly has- as long as she remains looking the way she does, she is an unhealthy role model for girls. And by the way, if you view the new Barbie outfits that dress these new career women you will see that the dental professional and the vet are both wearing a mini skirt and the doctor is wearing capris and high heels. All working female doctors strut around in heels. Check it out at http://icanbe.barbie.com/ Tell Mattel that you will no longer purchase any Barbie products until she becomes a more realistic size and their efforst at inspiring girls are focused less on appearances and more on abilities. Contact them at 333 Continental Blvd. El Segundo, CA 90245 or http://www.barbie.com/, or http://www.mattel.com/ We may also want to contact the white house project- Remind them that inspiring girls to be competent is what is important- not what they look like. The partnership between the white house project and Barbie should be reconsidered. COORS: Coors has created a line of commercials loved by many men, that showcase football- and scantily clad women (dancing, cheering and playing in the snow). Beer and football need not have anything to do with skinny women with large breasts dancing around with little clothing in the cold. Tell Coors to try again...Contact them at: Coors Brewing Company, PO Box 4030, Golden, CO 80401-0030, http://www.coors.com/ and 1-800-642-6116 . DISNEY: While few could argue that Disney has a wonderful line of products for children and has done so much for children throughout our country...they also have promoted an unrealistic image of the female figure in their movies. These movies are watched by young girls, who may dream of being the female characters (Ariel, Cindarella, Esmerelda, Pocahontas). These recent female characters are drawn to be excessively large breasted and with very small waists. Contact Disney and tell them to clean up their act Walt Disney Company, 500 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, CA 91501, Phone: 818/560-1000 CALVIN KLEIN: Calvin Klein has had a multitude of highly sexual advertisements that flaunt female (and male) nudity. See an entire archive of Calvin Klein ads at http://pobox.upenn.edu/~davidtoc/calvin.html . Tell Calvin Klein to advertise the clothes- not sex Calvin Klein, 205 W. 39th Street, 4th floor, New York, NY 10018, Phone: 212/719-2600 , Fax: 212/221-4541 (Advertising Dept.) or http://www.calvinklein.com/
BEYONCE HEAT: You can see the image on google if you havent seen it in magazines, Beyonce is selling perfume with her cleavage. Contact the company at http://www.econsumeraffairs.com/coty/contactus.htm DIOR: Dior's perfume called Addict is also running with an offensive line of advertising, which is highly sexualized and unnecessary. The ads show what else- half naked women, and the web site has women's silhouettes dancing seductively while banners are scrolling behind them, that say 'energy' and 'pleasure' etc. You can see the ads at http://www.dior.com/ and go to fragrance section for addict. In another, a pink Dior purse sits on the legs of a mostly nude model who is kneeling with legs spread on a bed of pillows, purses, pink teddy bears and flowers petals. She wears a pink thong and has pink sunglasses folded over the strings of the thong, drawing attention to her bottom. Tell Dior that your purse models don't need to be almost nude. While your at it, tell them their perfume ads for addict just stink and that 1) an addict is not something to strive to be and 2) women would prefer people not be addicted to our bodies and 3) we would prefer our young women to not be continually bombarded with sex and extremely skinny women with large breasts!!! Contact them at http://www.dior.com/. Tell them that you will not buy Dior until they change the way they advertise their products!!! EARL JEAN: A recent ad for Earl jean shows a woman in a cowboy hat and jeans, and nothing else but a belt. Her arms cover portions of her breasts but it is clear she is wearing nothing on top and her cleavage is an eye catcher. Tell Earl Jean to spend more time focusing your eyes on their product- not their model's breasts. Tell them what you think at http://www.earljean.com/ BEBE: Bebe has had multiple suggestive ads portraying women halfway dressed who look like they are about to have sex any minute and are just waiting for someone to rip off the rest of their clothing. Tell bebe that their 'come hither' advertising is unnecessary and will NOT sell clothing to you. Contact them at 1-888-4bebe.53 or http://www.bebe.com/ FRANCESCO BIASIA: Once again Biasi is using nude women to sell handbags and purses. Let them know that their advertising campaign is offensive and is not working for you. Contact them at http://www.biasi.com/ PEPE JEANS: Pepe jeans had an ad a few months ago that showcased a young woman in their jeans and a jean jacket, with the jacket open and half off, and no top on underneath. In the corner was another small picture of the same woman with a man who had one hand on her belly and another almost under her breast. Both had a 'seductive' look on their face. What's the message??? Wear our jeans and you'll get lucky too???? Tell them you dont buy it, and you wont buy them. Contact them at http://www.pepejeans.com/. GUESS: Guess ads often push the envelope. A recent one showed four women at the hairdresser and one was wearing underwear and high heels. The other three were also in skimpy clothing and one had her shirt unbuttoned to the bottom of her breasts. The girl in her underwear had her legs spread slightly so the camera angle was perfect for the crotch of her panties. She looked straight at the camera seductively, while she ate a popsicle. Another showed a woman in a pink short outfit unzipped almost to her navel. She has her hand on her shirt, pulling it away to expose part of her breast while a shirtless man behind her looks down in anticipation. Her eyes are closed, her lips are parted....wow I sure wish I had one of those pink outfits- does the guy come with it??? It is unclear what the ads are actually advertising other than sex. At the bottom of the page of the one ad the large letters proclaim GUESS. I guess you are supposed to Guess what they are selling in this ad. Contact Guess and tell them to stop their guessing game and sell their clothing without selling sex. You can reach them at http://www.guess.com/. They even have a portion of their site dedicated to their advertising campaigns so you can see some of them for yourself. DOONEY & BOURKE: Dooney & Bourke are a new addition to the WAMPOW ad family. A recent ad of a big haired woman showcased their pink purse held in front of the woman's supposedly nude body. While she actually appeared to be wearing a nude colored body suit, at first glance she appears to have her breasts covered only by her hair. Why? Contact them at http://www.dooney.com/. GODADDY: See http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/superbowl06/timeline.asp and comment to them about what you think of their ads. SCHICK Quattro Trim Shaver: WAMPOW recently received a letter from a concerned woman who wanted to highlight this product. The ads for the shaver state that "It's the must-have accessory a girl needs to stay perfectly groomed" suggesting that women need to be perfectly groomed (in order to be attractive for a man???) and natural is a problem. They also suggest women should shave designs into their pubic hair. If you want to see the ridiculous commercial ....you can view one on you tube or on the Schick site. Contact them at Schick Consumer Affairs, PO Box 537, Neenah, WI 54957 DO BOYCOTTS WORK? DOES WRITING AND CALLING WORK? YOU BET IT DOES....
SAMPLE OFFENDERS
last updated 2010-06-02 14:50:17
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