The original advertisement posted was run by a gym affiliated with Reebok in Germany. This advertisement was posted in March of 2012.
Upon viewing this advertisement, I asked my self “Who approved this, and how did it even get put up?!”. Fortunately, I was not alone in this question as this ad was pulled due to its extremely offensive nature across several fronts. First and foremost, this advertisement objectifies women, as if they are a possession held by men who can “cheat” on them, or be unfaithful if they so desire. In creating such an advertisement Reebok is trying to establish themselves as a dominant athletic wear company by trying to endorse a falsified “dominant” gender- and doing so quite primitively at that.
Aside from trying to assert and falsify gender roles, this advertisement promotes a dishonest and insolent attitude towards women- quite directly. This advertisement contains little to no ambiguity around its message, and straightforwardly advises the viewer to be deceitful in their relationships with their girlfriend. Again, Reebok is seen promoting their brand at the expense of women.
Furthermore, this advertisement- seemingly geared towards straight males- fails to account for the LGBT community. As a result, Reebok is further polarizing gender orientations by tailoring a distasteful and offensive ad directed to particular sexual and gender demographics.
At it’s roots, this advertisement is negligent to almost everything we have read and learned in this course; by creating this advertisement Reebok fails to acknowledge the intersectional cohesiveness of contemporary society and does not progress social justice.
To combat the negligence and arrogance by Reebok’s original advertisement I have created the advertisement above.
In creating this advertisement I tried to make it clean, and minimalistic to not distract the viewer by flashy visuals. By drawing the reader away from visuals, the text and subsequent message become more significant.
To combat the offensive and objectifying nature of Reebok’s original text I tried to flip the message in on itself- essentially I tried to create a polar opposite advertisement. By not directing the message to a specific gender or sexual orientation no such gender can be objectified. I tried to take this idea a step further by having a welcoming and inclusive connotation to the message. Referring to the couple in this photo as “partners” furthers the inclusivity of this advertisement by not specifying gender roles in a relationship- in essence I was trying to avoid conventional definitions of societal roles.
From a marketing perspective, I tried to make this advertise centred around the inclusivity and sense of community that can be fostered in fitness centres. Thus, the target demographic of this advertisement is not limited; working out is not exclusive to men, but rather it can be done by anyone.
More directly, I tried to promote honesty with this advertisement. If one can apply commitment and honesty to a relationship with their partner, they should be able to apply those same virtues to their physical health with consistent physical exercise.
In creating my “Culture Mashed” advertisement I tried to implement the ideals of feminism namely, inclusivit and equality to send a positive message of social progressivism to consumers.