Marketing with violence
The anger of five Sydney art students mounted as they passed a billboard on their way to college each day. The five metre high ad featured a young woman in knickers and bra who seemed thrilled that she'd just been cut in half by a saw-
wielding magician.
The prominent billboard was no worse, or sillier, than most undies ads which, by sheer force of numbers, can make the staunchest feminist anxious about the dimples on her bottom and fluffballs on her cottontails. But this one was run in October, the same month a series of violent rapes and a woman's murder were heavily publicised in Sydney. The women, drawing on their art skills, decided to act. On October 30, bemused motorists were confronted by a modified ad which read: "Even if you're mutilated you'll always feel good in Berlei".
The graffitists, who were nabbed by police while making their getaway, ended up in the Balmain local court facing charges of malicious damage. But they found an unexpected ally in Magistrate Pat O'Shane, who dismissed the charges, telling the court the real crime had been committed by the advertisers.
Although the charges were proved, O'Shane used her discretionary powers under the First Offenders Act to record no conviction against the women. O'Shane said she was disgusted the legal system could be used to protect the property of advertising companies which used images that incited violence against women to sell their products.
O'Shane's decision has been supported by angry women who jammed radio talkback shows and sent a deluge of letters to newspapers in protest against sexist advertising.
The Berlei case comes hard on the heels of the infamous Toohey's beer commercial, which featured a group of Toohey's swilling mates getting their jollies watching a young woman have her shorts ripped off by a dog. It caused a national furore when it went to air late last year, to the extent that female politicians petitioned Prime Minister Keating to have it banned.
There's no doubt women hate these ads, but the advertising companies couldn't care less. Well-known philistine and yob John Singleton defended his Toohey's campaign, claiming a shock reaction is good for business: a strong response, even a negative one, he said, means the product name is reaching its market.
Singleton's cynical comments reflect the current schlock-horror marketing trend where the ad seems to have nothing to do with the product. Whether the tactic really sells products or is just a desperate bid for product differentiation in a poorer market remains to be seen — Hahn beer went broke when the public stopped buying in protest against a racist ad.
While women want a decent society where they can live without fear of violence, advertisers just want to make money. And unlike women, advertisers have unlimited freedom of speech — they have the resources and the power to continuously bludgeon us with cultural brainwash. They are determined we will swallow the advertising lie which promises us a better, brighter world if we just keep buying. But despite the ad-men's billion dollar efforts, it seems women aren't all that keen to buy.
By Angela Matheson