Brand or product communication is more and more visual. The power of images has outclassed the power of words. The witty slogans by the master Emanuele Pirella, passed away in 2010 (“o così o pomì – like this or like pomì”, “chi mi ama mi segua – those who love me will follow me”, “chiquita la banana 10 e lode”) are distant memories for the lovers of words. People, consumers, companies that believe that words play a role also in the opinion-making process about consumer goods.
Nowadays advertising uses very few words, and when it does, pairing words to images, it often says trivialities. Some ads are totally misleading. The lingerie brand Intimissimi used the picture of a beautiful woman wearing male underwear, and next to it the slogan “man”. So, either the underwear belonged to the boyfriend, or the boyfriend didn’t show up and it’s worth for her wearing it herself.
TV and the Web (and with this term I put all together, social media, websites, blogs, …) are visual and up-to-date media. These are the most frequently visited channels by people today, and thus are utilized by businesses as platforms to communicate with the mass audiences. TV is changing and becoming more and more specialised, the Web is also changing, focusing on few strong platforms.
Let’s not speak about the tools here. Let’s speak about contents and precisely about those contents we do not look for: advertising.
As we don’t look for it, advertising looks for us. The decoding of the message is simple, immediate and very accessible. Straight and direct, with no quibbling. As the character of the legendary TV commercial of Nestea in 2008 (Antò, fa caldo – Antò, it’s hot) we don’t get excited anymore trying to build up background stories behind the words and of advertising. Even the love story (invented by ad users and then endorsed by the company) between the careful Ambrogio and the countess of Ferrero Rocher ended. It had been going on since the 80s.
Advertising needs an excellent product to “work”. It needs consistency. Trust me, there’s nothing worse than planning a message with no handholds. When the product is no different from its competitors, when it’s bland and weak, publicists are in panic. In such cases, a pair of boobs has the same effect as Fluimucil for flu: immediate relief in a few minutes. A naked or leer and seductive model is the safety anchor for the publicist in distress.
Of course, there are some exceptions. Presenting a face cream without a beautiful face is hard. So it is with a bra without a body.
There are certain limitations. For instance, the title of this article is allusive, teasing, wrong (I do apologise with the readers and the Director of this newspaper, but without it I couldn’t have written my criticize on the subject). In the title, I have used a food name and you have immediately understood my trivial metaphor (translator’s note: “gnocca” is the feminine of gnocco, dumpling, which has also the meaning of hot chick referred to a woman). But how are sexist advertisements conceived? Think about the guy who is the inventor of the advertising “la patatina che tira” (translator’s note: patatina means both chip and pussy in Italian), with the porn actor Rocco Siffredi as main character. It is vulgar, but it works. The ad is well conceived and has been a huge success.
Social networks often reward really stupid things, as it often happens that trivial but teasing campaigns are shared a number of times and become a success, the slogan “la patatina tira”, such an idiot message, was a hit.
It often happens that with small businesses that do themselves or are helped by some local professionals, a savvy attitude drives the choices. Finding an attractive neighbour and portraying her half naked on a pile of tiles or on some ski lift is easy. There are many managers and publicists that have grown in the back shops where the latest Max poster with some popular showgirl is a must. If you put together some craftiness, the easily accessible “row material” and the cultural context, you’ll get the classic case of someone who is convinced to have had a stroke of genius, but
actually fails the campaign.
The archaic attitude towards women in advertising has some limitations. When the paradox is focused on the goal, it is accepted by the audience. Otherwise it doesn’t work at all, and publicists know it very well. In advertising, a paradox has an extraordinary demonstrative skill. Think about the advertising of cars. The blonde girl lying on the hood is an invitation to purchase a product that could be the access key to marvellous conquests. The audience does not accept paradoxes with no logic meaning. For example, exaggerations as cars that rush on sidewalks, climb buildings or shoot colours everywhere.
Besides paradoxes, there are certain limits that publicists respect and, in this case, produce positive effects. Have you noticed that, when explicit sex is the subject matter, publicists become smarter?
I’m thinking about the latest campaign against male impotence (a match catching fire before its partner) or the amazing and funny ad campaigns by Durex that tell about sex in a witty but never vulgar way. In these cases, they could have chosen the easiest and most direct way, included the above-mentioned neighbour, but no, intelligence was much more effective.
Then, let’s speak about men. In the recent times, besides female bodies, media are full of beautiful male bodies. David Beckham spends more time in his underwear on placards than on the playfield.
And let’s speak about the Dolce & Gabbana model who, on a boat floating in front of the stacks, gazes at the camera with his deep blue eyes, similar to the colour of the sky. Maybe you could think that I should better change the title of this article.
In fact, according to the latest trends, the title of the article could have been different. It could have been “Gnocco (not gnocca) and advertising”. But I won’t change it, for two reasons. The first one is that it wouldn’t just work; it would sound trivial and not at all teasing. The second one is that it would be wrong anyway. Sexist advertising must be observed as a prism, it has several faces, it does not only concern women but also the opposite sex.
by Mirko Nesurini, CEO GWH Swiss SA