Bondage and Lexus
Watch this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FpyGwP3yzE
I came across this ad while viewing the "Killing Us Softly" website where Jean Kilbourne surveys the advertising world to critically examine how, why and to what effect corporations and their advertisers use images of girls and women to sell their products. The caption on the ad reads, "Are we the cutting-edge of avant-garde? . . . Well, no. . . . It's sufficiently radical." Now, after looking up the term avant-garde, I was able to explain to myself a little easier what a naked woman wrapped up and a car have to do with each other. I took it as Lexus' new line of cars as being shocking, but not quite as shocking as showing a picture representing bondage in a magazine. I believe this ad targets upper class white women because the car itself is very extravagant and the submissive woman next to it is white. If a guy were tied up, instead of a woman, I think the image would still be very strong mainly because bondage is something that the public views as shocking and it does not matter what the gender is. However, when you think of bondage, it's probably seen just as it is represented in the magazine. I think ads of the past would definitely have a different way of selling a high class car such as this. The issue of using fetishes for selling products is a long way from using famous sports stars or actors as ads have in the past. I think the concept that beauty, or should I say sex, to sell products has not changed, but companies need to out advertise one another to get that little bit of edge on the competition. The 'bit of edge" that I am referring to is the shocking image of bondage in this particular ad. The representation of women as being submissive adds fuel to the fire to the issues surrounding sexual victimization and the treatment of women as objects to be lusted over. Any critical author of today’s ads would be able to compare this with a car ad of the 1970’s and clearly show how much advertisements have changed.