I read a blog post by my fellow team member, Nancy Huang, about the use of sex appeal in marketing. This topic reminded me of an article that I recently read, which talks about the growing trend in Japan of companies rent advertisement space on young Japanese women legs.

The article mentions that this marketing idea was based on the notion that “a good advertisement should be put where everyone’s eyes are drawn”. Basically, these women will wear short skirt or shorts and get their legs stamped with an advertisement. They must keep it on for at least 8 hours per day and post a picture of themselves with the ad on their leg to their social network account (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc). However, it  also mentions that only women above the age of 18 can participate.

In her post, Nancy explains that such promotional tactic becomes unethical when it shows too much objectification. The advertisement has crossed the line when it treats a certain gender as an object only to sexually attract its target market. Not only would this seem rude to some norm and culture, but it also has been increasingly attributed towards lowering self-esteem and increase body-image issues especially to the vulnerable teens and children demographic. I personally believe that the negative impact of unethical sexual marketing can also damage the company’s reputation. The association of a company’s brand or product to poor sexual advertisement can lead the company towards a deteriorating reputation as it is deemed unprofessional, which then leads to a loss in the public’s trust and a potential PR crisis.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2281826/Enterprising-firms-rent-ad-space-young-Japanese-womens-bare-legs.html

Marketing for a non-government organization can present a unique challenge in itself. With our ever increasingly busy lifestyle, it’s always hard to grab our attention. This becomes increasingly harder when we want to get someone to not just make a purchase, but a lifetime commitment to support a movement. In this advertisement, the Rainforest Alliance really understand their target market’s hectic lifestyle and used this knowledge to their advantage by suggesting them an impactful action that can still suit their routine.

In this video, a typical young father’s routine life has made him a ‘good’ person. Then, his life is suddenly shaken as he found out how desperate the deforestation of rainforests is. Yet, ironically enough, we are then shown what he would NOT do. He left his ‘old’ life and embarked on a journey to save the rainforest. He moved to a Nicaraguan rainforest and tried to start a movement with the native tribe. But he actually failed tragically in his attempt to change this situation single-handedly. So instead, the organization provided a more realistic solution by suggesting the watcher to JUST buy products that have the Rainforest Alliance certification on it.

I think the Rainforest Alliance has done a great job at researching their target market & incorporating their lifestyle into their marketing strategy. They were also able to reach a specific demographic by portraying a typical person from this target segment. Because of these factors, they were able to be relatable to the adult male demographic who would still like to ‘make a change’ but can’t afford to change their life drastically. This ultimately led to their successful promotion of the campaign.