Quick. What comes to mind when you see a close up of a flaxen-haired young lass with pouty lips and bedroom eyes that includes this caption, "You know you're not the first?" A slightly used BMW, no doubt!
The luxury car brand just made a big mistake by introducing an ad campaign for their used models and leaning oh-so-heavily on sexual innuendo (bet you hadn't caught that...). All of this to garner attention from those buyers who might otherwise appreciate the status and smooth ride (yikes, everything I write can now be considered innuendo) or simply want a vehicle with a great reputation. How does a sleazy ad campaign help here? Hmmm.
Two things (among many) to consider from the marketing angle:
1) Certainly, cars -- especially luxury brands -- tend to still be pitched to men. Tradition is hard to fight. But, need that pitch be so extremely "male" that it takes the shine off a brand that is otherwise held in high regard by affluent men and women? And, are the men for whom this approach might seriously appeal truly the target market for cars that are priced beyond most people's budgets?
2) Marketing to men can be as challenging as marketing to women. In both cases, and for brands that actually serve both genders (when you think about it, those are the majority), the idea is to use the humor, inside joke, copy tone, or graphic style that might appeal mainly to the core market, yet not horrify and inflame anyone else who may be just outside that core. Do you see where I'm going?
This ad is practically soft-core porn, which is anyone's private-time prerogative, but in an era of very sophisticated consumers with high expectations of brands and advertising, it is...unwise.
The one additional influence that so comes into play in this place and time is: the wrath of bloggers who learn of it, particularly those who are female. No surprise there, and BMW should have known better than to tempt fate this way.
Even if this particular ad campaign is only running in very few publications and/or in perhaps solely a few European countries, word has gotten around. I learned of it via the Muse Communication blog, which had seen it first on Copyranter (Look for the title: "My car is a woman. My right foot is a penis."). To say that the online discussions I've seen in the past 24 hours are vehement would be to put it mildly.
Be careful what you wish for, BMW, and try to calm your engines.
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And if someone ever thought that a BMW is first and foremost anything else than a (wo)manhood enhancer, they have never taken a good look at the men and women who like to drive BMWs.
If the Greek people understand this to be their culture, then BMW is only using that to sell cars...nothing else. They don't care how high a self-esteem Amercian women have of themselves, or whether they've offended anyone that doesn't think young women should be seen as sex objects, as long as it draws eyes and attention. The sad truth is, in many cultures (even ours) young women are seen as sex objects - whether anyone is willing to admit it or not. I'm only defending the choice to release this as a realization that everything we wish to be is not necessarily true. Congradulations people, you've done what BMW could not have done by itself, increased the reach and frequency of smut.
I won't defend BMW's campaign--real or imagined--but cars have always been female just as ships have, and the sexual connotation is an old one. The internet, and especially Huffpo as a progressive (I was going to say 'hardcore') political site, are a new phenomenon or a new age. If you and the women posting here want to do something positive about gratuitous sexualization, you could start here and be forerunners in protecting new tech from going the way of old advertising.
Thanks for joining the conversation on this. To the idea that this ad is a hoax...if so, where is BMW's assertion? Several women have written to corporate headquarters asking for an accounting, but BMW is silent. Silence is not golden, here. And, it speaks volumes.
I suppose we little ladies who blog are of no consequence to BMW. All million and more of us... I suppose (as some folks have asserted, even female folks) that the ad is a Greek ad, meant for Greeks, not Americans, and they do things differently there, so we should just sit back and accept the promotion of child-porn for the sake of the dirty old men in Greece.
In reality, I think the ad is outrageous. I still believe BMW is responsible - IF it's not their ad, then take it down and denounce it. IF it is... accept that this was a big mistake and apologize.
Child-porn, soft-core porn showing children, is UNACCEPTABLE anywhere, anytime. (do not try to appease us by saying the model was over 18 - THAT is not what the ad was about; it was about attracting men to fantisize about sex with this young girl...and on the way, selling used cars). If you don't think that's true, go to the ad, and read the comment section.
IF they are interested in the women's market, in our collective voices, perhaps someone from BMW can step up. A comment here, or on Muse's blog or on my blog, would go far to repairing the damage. Perhaps they don't get it - that with every negative comment and blog post about them, the word gets out to hundreds of thousands...maybe millions. Many of those readers are women...who now will never even consider a BMW.
I am one of them. BMW has been crossed off of my list of dream cars. Until I hear from corporate that the ad was a hoax...because, in the end, promoting soft-core porn to sell cars ANYWHERE (especially when you then put the ad on the WEB), is unacceptable. Period.
Uhhh different people have different standards I guess....