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New Wrangler ads celebrate our worst animal instinctsAdvertising has one, stunningly simple goal: to make you buy stuff. So then it's always shocking to me to see an ad campaign that has the polar opposite effect; an ad campaign that is so patently offensive it makes me never, ever, not even if they paid me want to buy their product; an ad campaign like the new French “WE ARE ANIMALS” spots for Wrangler.
So, OK, you're thinking, "I'm not entirely sure what's going on here. Why is there a person lying wet, muddy and bedraggled at water's edge. Are dirty, torn-up, leaf-strewn jeans the next acid wash? Wait, is that a corpse?" Alas, to help clear things up in the worst possible way you see the next ad in the campaign.
“WE ARE ANIMALS” apparently means we are animals who are into dead, probably murdered, possibly sexually assaulted women. Wear these jeans, they're killer! Even from the most basic “buy this” standpoint these ads make no sense. Why would I want to wear a dead girl's jeans? Wrangler has traditionally been known as a Western wear company. For years the brand has been synonymous with cowboy boots, 10-gallon hats and dusty rodeos. But as noted on Shakesville earlier this week, the company has been trying to change its riding-and-roping image to appeal to a younger, edgier demographic. In doing so, they've fallen off the edge entirely.
From the press release about the campaign: In today’s society, our animal instincts are smothered by daily modern life, city-living and constant technological developments. Man is an animal, but he no longer knows it. Wrangler’s new strategic and creative platform seeks to re-awaken our bottled-up instincts and to encourage who and what we fundamentally are, by putting all that is pure, natural and instinctive back into Man. Our pure, natural instinct to kill? While not all the ads in the campaign celebrate necrophilia chic, they're all fairly gross. I mean, what about this shot would make you want to buy jeans? Shampoo — maybe; jeans — not even a little.
Then there is the TV spot for the campaign which looks like a camping trip gone horribly, horribly awry. The disturbing campaign is another example of the routine pictorial disembodiment that happens to women in the media. The same principle at work in the sexist shots of beach volleyball players' bums is also at work in the gross image of what appear to be woman's waterlogged corpse. We are cropped to be just parts. No pesky heads, just bodies. And dead bodies at that. Gosh, who else feels like going shopping? Submitted by on August 15, 2008 - 1:00pm. |
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News, Reviews & Commentary on Lesbian and Bisexual women in Entertainment and the Media
Not the best choice...
Oh, God, EWWW. -- No
Oh, God, EWWW.
--
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always boom tomorrow.
--Susan Ivanova tells it like it is
Totally agree
Where did they find this idea? It's bullshit. Wtf were they thinking about?
http://girlshavefun2.blogspot.com/
Cripes!
Maddening/Hateful
I can't say anything in
I can't say anything in defense of the print ads, but the television ad seems to depict the women as animals who are stalking their prey. They are NOT dead by any means, as they are moving, with heads above the water, crouching, ready to pounce. Thus, the "We are animals" slogan. Can't say that I "get it", or that it makes me want to buy their jeans, but it certainly isn't about dead women.
Lisa
Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security -- B. FranklinI'm not quite sure-
- why you think the women in the images are supposed to be dead. Dirty, certainly. And not very effective as advertising; we all know how uncomfortable wet denim is. But dead?
Am I missing something?
If we're animals...
Why are we being encouraged to buy jeans?
When was the last time you saw a bear or a mountain lion sporting denim pants?
If I'm going to dress like an animal, I'll grow fur and join a nudist colony.
hello mountain
hello mountain lion...
Sarah and Lori's vid cracked mw up but i also found it kinda scary.. :S
I hope their sexist campaign
What kind of person would go
What kind of person would go out and buy a jeans after watching that ad? It's boring, it's dark, you can barely see the product. Where's the point? And yes, what kind of animal wears jeans anyway???
And why are there only female "animals"?
I'm lost for words ...
Hm.
well...
Yikes.
I thought you were going to say "edgier than dead, and trust me I live on a college campus and people are dying is all the rage."
But tell me about it. I've just moved into a house with some (very tidy, or at least very obedient and scared of me) friends. Feels great to be out of the mess and smell. Reminds me of that scene from Mean Girls, "At the water-hole."
Do you rule the house with an iron hand?
Or a whip, I hope it's a whip, or a dashing cane to go with the hat! :O Oh my I'm all giddy...
*Pictures Ed Would in Dominatrix Gear* ....yesssssss
Now to actually join in this public discourse about women being scene as parts....
I for one see this as a trend. As media influences our wants a dreams, we want to take things apart and try to make it our own. The Frankenstien of consumerism to make a perfect "you". We buy parts of one thing and combine them with others; convinced that with technology, man is whole.
I find this marketing ad very interesting instead of disturbing; I guess it's my insterest in the macabre and grotesque. I see a woman's back, a fresh kill? Mimicry of death to hunt prey? There is something carnal about it
[but then again it could be my kinky taste...eeeyahhh!]but I wonder if a man was shown in this manner, I think it be seen as edgy, sexy, masculine, "boys will be boys". It's nothing new that women are taken apart so that we the consumer, would place and put these parts into something we find perfect. I'm only judging what I see or what I like to see in these ads, it's nothing benign, but something I'll remember...For some reason I get a really bad "Lord of the Flies-for vapid sexy people" vibe, but I have been up on red bull, skittles and non-stop studying >_<
I agree, I think the video
I agree, I think the video ad is kind of interesting - it brings to mind actual animals that are in the woods during the night. So I think they conveyed very well this idea of "we are animals". The photos are a different story. The first two look like crime scene photos and the last looks like a poster for a horror movie. Does not convey the message at all.
And then - how is this message supposed to make us want to buy jeans? Like someone said, I've never seen a bear or deer wearing pants. Maybe I haven't been looking hard enough. While the idea is interesting as an artistic thought, it has no place in advertising unless they want people to be very turned off by their product.
¬.¬
My Iron
LungFist! I haven't broken out the cane yet; I usually just threaten to cook. We'll see how it goes, though. Never say never.So it's Lord of the Flies for people who couldn't pronounce "William Golding", or who actually prefer the 1990 film to the '63? I see where you're coming from with liking it for the imagery. It is interesting. It is also, however, trite, and trying too hard to be cool, dark and brooding. I think that's what puts me off. It is the doom metal of fashion, for me.
To clarify; that's pretty darn bad. ;)
Yeah, they don't look dead to me...
I'm getting the "women are animals" vibe. Not that that's much better than the dead deal.
whoever pitched this idea should be fired; along with the people who agreed to use the ad.
The only thing that would redeem this, is if it is a part of a series. I'd just assume that advertisers don't suck that hardcore
ok...someone was high while makin this...
and yes...i dont get the point of this ad. they did get the attention, but im not sure if its the kind on attention they wanted.
and the ad doesnt reall represent dead women as much as its representing them as animals lurking around, i couldnt see the damn product too.
Either way you read it...
Wrangler was hornswoggled
Haha, this is the goofiest ad. I don't really get all the dead imagery, but I also don't get the ad campaign at all. The press release sounds like it was generated by a computer.
I can't see this appealing to Middle America one whit. It's going to fail, and whoever green lit this campaign should be sacked.
Ah...celebrating human
Ah...celebrating human nature at its finest.
If they really wanted to be edgy, they should've pitched in a wild boar's head on a stake in a Golding-esque fashion.
Come by and see me I'm a love letter away
I'm so sick of stupid people having control of the media.
I think they got what they wanted
Any attention ,whether good or bad ,is what the people who decided that this ad was the best direction to go. We are giving this ad attention now even if it's negative attention it has got people talking. I don't wear wranglers but this ad won't affect my decision to buy or not buy wranglers. I don't think the woman in the water for the tv spot is dead because it's obvious in the clip that her head is above water and she's breathing. I'm not sure about the other pictures.
AGREED...
I remember when Calvin Kline ran a series of ads with drug addicts. They were strung out in bathrooms & back stage hallways with track marks oozing blood while they were bearfoot & half naked with a pair of Calvin's on. Of course, the more attention they got the more people got to see them. In short, the media went wide.
I have often heard that many actors (...etc) believe publicity is publicity; good or bad. The ultimate point is to get your name out there & keep it out there.
In my line of work, we're told that each person will tell one person when you do your work well. However, when you mess up, each person will tell 8 to 10 people about a bad or horrible experience.
Point.
Um
Umm...
Well, like others I don't think they're supposed to be dead. I think they're supposed to be like wild animals or something...
It looks like they're supposed to be drinking the water and not decomposing in it.
Does anyone know what this has to do with jeans? I mean, I guess I can sort of see where they're coming from with the animal thing, but it makes no sense at all in explaining why we should buy their jeans.
If we were all animals wouldn't we be naked anyway?
Ok that maybe just because
Ok that maybe just because I watch too many horror movies but on the print ads I really see dead body (body covered by dead leaves). But maybe that just my creepy mind.
Btw love the reaction about animals living naked I totally agree on that point. Why will we bought expensive jeans if we are animals...
http://girlshavefun2.blogspot.com/
sorry double post
sorry for the double post
http://girlshavefun2.blogspot.com/
Yeah I sort of thought that
Yeah I sort of thought that from the stills as well.
Perhaps I've seen one too many Law and Order SVUs...who am I kidding, there's never enough SVU!
Though looking at the pictures I half expect to hear the "dum dum"s and see Olivia Benson come in with a flashlight and some rubber gloves.
gross. so much
gross.
so much shouting,
so much laughter
"New Wrangler ads celebrate our worst animal instincts"
Actually, this is incorrect. They don't celebrate our worst anything. Read the press release:
"Man is an animal, but he no longer knows it. Wrangler’s new strategic and creative platform seeks to re-awaken our bottled-up instincts and to encourage who and what we fundamentally are, by putting all that is pure, natural and instinctive back into Man." (my bold)
They're quite specific, referring only to the animal nature of Man. Women are entirely exempt from this campaign! I am concerned however, that They, the Men of Wrangler, are sending mixed messages: if Man is Nature, then Woman is by default Culture. Why, then, are they utilising creativity, which must surely fall on the female side of the binary?
Now, I'm just off to pull on my pair of Lady Lee's -- vintage women's Lee Riders that do so much more for my arse than chunky cut Wranglers ever could -- and read some Irigaray...
[MEMBER EDIT: As an online lesbian, rotezora likes romance, buttons and bows, and hamfists]
Or...
... you could not conform to the idea of a gender binary and abstract oppositions? Ho ho...
Consider, perhaps, that when 'man' and 'he' is used in such a context, it is as a default of 'huMAN' (displayed through the capitalisation of the 'M') and not necessarily a sign of the big bad males being out to getcha. Let's not get into what is, in my opinion, a ridiculous etymological argument about the supposed patriarchy of the word 'human', hm?
Sure, there are better, ambiguous ways of phrasing it, but who said that advertisers are good at their job? Supposed to be =/= are, clearly.
[Of course, I could be entirely wrong and this is a case of the big bad men-folk (little 'm') being big and bad with their fashion advertising. However, I'm pretty sure that you're maybe reading too much into things (not without cause, and not meant to offend, etcetera etcetera 'til I'm blue in my ever-apologetic face.]
Nor...
Let's not get into what is, in my opinion, a ridiculous etymological argument about the supposed patriarchy of the word 'human', hm?
OK.
[MEMBER EDIT: As an online lesbian, rotezora likes romance, buttons and bows, and hamfists]