Comments on: Passive And On Her Back: Advertising A Headset

By: Candice

Candice — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:24:37 +0000

“This guy treats objects like women..man..” – The Dude

By: Putting a Moratorium on Dead Girls in Ads « The Lackadaisical Blog

Putting a Moratorium on Dead Girls in Ads « The Lackadaisical Blog — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:58:11 +0000

[…] not the first to notice this disturbing trend. The site Sociological Images explores a variety of ads and the meanings […]

By: karinova

karinova — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 02:17:04 +0000

1) “If you look closely,” you can see what the woman in the last ad is lying on. She’s horizontal. Also, if you go to the effort of tilting your head, two of the other three are clearly intended to look like they’re on their backs. Not that lights can’t be moved, but “look at where the shadows fall.”

2) They’re pretty clearly women. Humans. Not mannequins. You should brush up on the difference, maybe? (And maybe this advertising company should too?)

By: Uamao

Uamao — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:24:45 +0000

Are you all crazy? What is wrong with you? Do you need to see sexism everywhere? When you rave about the sexism in advertisements like this all you’re doing is taking attention away from real sexism, and linking feminism to hypersensitive gibberish. When you look at these images not everyone, probably very few, think that they seem like ‘dead women’. The women’s sexuality isn’t even particularly emphasized. This ad says that this product is cutting edge, fashionable and futuristic (the appearance of the women is more sci-fi than anything). If anything it de-masculinizes the technology. The women’s horizontal bodies simply make it work well on billboards, more attention is drawn to the earpiece, being vertical. Some of you are unbelievable, pull your heads together.

By: h-jg

h-jg — Sat, 16 May 2009 08:35:45 +0000

“And yes, I do not think there is a problem with portraying human beings as sexual objects.”
Perhaps it’s better if you just don’t comment at all :)

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:36:15 +0000

Hi Ellen, You caught me on the misuse of attain, thanks.

And yes, I do not think there is a problem with portraying human beings as sexual objects. Sometimes we are just the animals we are, and should not demand that social context be spelled out in every representation of us.

By: Ellen

Ellen — Sun, 10 May 2009 18:22:41 +0000

Evan, that depends on what you are trying to “attain.” If you are trying to attain the object in the ad, and the object is objectified, fine. If the ad is selling a lifestyle, in which women are objectified, not so fine. And just the fact that you used the word attain instead of obtain, tells me you think the latter is fine.

By: h-jg

h-jg — Sat, 09 May 2009 10:02:29 +0000

“I am more disturbed by the general trend of being surrounded by silent crowds all in their own, private sound bubbles texting to people miles away and ignoring the people around them.”

Yeah, no, you’re right. The sexism in the ad is really just a side issue that is secondary to the issue of the death of face-to-face communication. I completely agree.
Sarcasm aside, kudos to what al oof, Bageslan, wiggles etc. have said

By: al oof

al oof — Fri, 08 May 2009 03:15:39 +0000

this reminds me that when i was in a strip club recently, one of the performers was wearing a bluetooth earpiece. i thought it was strange, but maybe she was just plugging into the same fetish these ads are plugging into!

i can’t believe there are people who read a blog about sociology who think that deconstructing an ad campaign where all the women look dead is over the top.

By: Evan

Evan — Fri, 08 May 2009 00:50:37 +0000

“Everything that looks like a penis is bad”

That line from the Simpsons reminds me of the deconstruction of these ads.

Everything in an ad is an object – so what? They are selling an idea and a product… both of which are supposed to seem “attainable”. To attain something it needs to be objectified.

They are selling the idea of this fashionable hyperworld. How is that a problem?

By: Bagelsan

Bagelsan — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:47:32 +0000

If you look closely you can see the heatsets match what the women/mannequins are wearing. ...Is a mannequin an object? Are mannequins human? Mannequins are objects. Women are humans. The fact that you can't distinguish between the two easily is telling.

By: wiggles

wiggles — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:39:16 +0000

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that posts here which point out sexism receive more adamant defense, denial, and rationalization in comments than any of the other posts?

this makes the models look very much like every other runway/fashion mag model.

Except for the part where they’re lying down with cold, vacant stares on their faces.

By: theunbeatablekid

theunbeatablekid — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:10:56 +0000

i never meant to imply that it wasn’t a problem and i’m sorry if i wasn’t clear about that. i was more interested in the source of this kind of imagery – in this case high fashion – and the idea of the gendering of technologies.

i believe that these images are not so much constructing a femininity as they are drawing from an already established idea of femininity to make their product more “female friendly.” of course, reproducing an idea is a form of construction.

for an old ad that gets at this same concept but this time with male gendered cigarettes, check this out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hab3045/3089694067

By: Ellen

Ellen — Wed, 06 May 2009 08:18:13 +0000

theunbeatablekid, that is exactly the problem. What is femininity – Vacancy, being eye candy, passiveness? Or just matching your ear piece with your make-up and clothes?

By: theunbeatablekid

theunbeatablekid — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:13:03 +0000

to me, the goal of this series of advertisement is to make a common electronics device transform into a fashion accessory. high tech meets high art. as TM notices, the earpieces match the models’ makeup and clothing as if they were earrings. this makes the models look very much like every other runway/fashion mag model.

i would think that this ad is targeting women and not men by attempting to establish a female gender for the technology. in other words, this earpiece will enhance your femininity, not detract from it.