[net.women] update on bathing suit

chabot@miles.DEC (L S Chabot) (03/27/85)

Here's the results of my letters to IEEE Spectrum and Computer Dynamics:

William Saunders, Advertising Director and Assistant Publisher, wrote back
and said they'd watch the advertising more closely.

Susan Priester, Marketing Manager for Computer Dynamics, wrote to "Ms. Chabot"
(I only put the name "L S Chabot"), and defended the use of the picture:

    "We used an attractive female model for one reason -- to get the 
     attention of the overwhelmingly male audience ..."

    "The use of the model is admittedly a direct (perhaps crass) grab for 
     attention, but (perhaps unfortunately for the women's movement)
     it works. Just watch television for fifteen minutes or look through
     any consumer-oriented magazine. I may not approve of it, but sex still 
     seems to sell."


But this still leaves a bad taste.  Overwhelmingly male audience means the
women in the audience have to shut up or conform?  Also, why assume the male
audience wants this kind of ad?  Computer Dynamics was the only company to use
such an ad in that particular set of IEEE Spectrum cards,... perhaps their
marketing is behind the times as well as in the wrong media?  What's the 
morality of using something objectionable because it works? (gasp! and I call
myself an engineer!)

I preferred IEEEs approach--they didn't state any assumptions about me based
on my objection (and I forgot to include my member number, oops).

I haven't exactly decided about a reply or not, or just what to say.  Anyone
have anything to help clarify this?

L S Chabot
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nemo@rochester.UUCP (Wolfe) (03/29/85)

Re : ad for computer stuff with bathing suit clad female model.  As a
reverse side to this, see Infoworld, October 29, 1984, p. 29.  There
they show a (censored version of an) ad for Commodore Computers that 
appeared in the German version of Cosmopolitan magazine.  There is a
reclining nude male, and the text is apparently a word play on the
fact that the german word for computer takes the masculine gender (at
least according to the September Advertising Age, which is where 
Infoworld got it).  The translation is something like, "He's cheap,
easy to handle.  He will give you more time to be weak."
Any responses?
Nemo

dls@ahutb.UUCP (d.l.skran) (04/02/85)

REFERENCES:  <1362@decwrl.UUCP>

The best approach here is to focus on the source of
offense:

1)the use of sex to sell goods.

2)the implicit assumption that engineers are men.


If you object to (1)the only satisfactory add will
not involve sex in any way.


If you object to (2), an add that featured both men and
women in bathing suits could be put together in such as
way that a)it appealed to both men and women,
and b)it did not imply disrespect for either sex.


I suggest that you might bring the second possibility to
the attention of computer dynamics.

Dale Skran,
speaking only for himself