by Ben Shapiro
Advertising has only gotten worse since the arrival of the porn generation, with the rise of brand marketing like the repulsive Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F). When they’re not marketing thong underwear with the words “Wink, Wink” or “Eye Candy” printed on them to seven- to fourteen-year-old girls, they’re putting out pornography catalogues designed to pique the interests of teenagers. Company spokesperson Hampton Carney called the underwear “cute and fun and sweet,” by the way.11
Illinois Lieutenant Governor Corinne Wood called for a boycott of A&F to protest its November 1998 catalogue, the cover of which portrayed four girls and a boy in bed together, with the girls triumphantly holding aloft the boy’s boxers.12 In 1999, A&F put out its Christmas catalogue, entitled “Naughty or Nice.” In the catalogue, porn star Jenna Jameson was featured lying on a bed with her rear absolutely visible; she also conducts an explicit interview with the catalogue. The catalogue printed a “mock interview with a Santa Claus portrayed as a child molester” for good measure.13
When they’re not marketing to the teeny-boppers, A&F markets to the 18–22 crowd. “Our customer is actually the eighteen- to twenty-two-year-old college student,” says Carney. “We are trying to keep it as cool, editorial, edgy, and sexy as possible.”14
The 2001 A&F Spring Quarterly contained an article entitled “XXX Adventure: Get Wet, Set & Go on Spring Break.” The article suggested that a Catholic high school senior in love with a nun persuade her to break her vows. The issue includes an interview with a male porn star of over 1,700 films, who gives career advice. Illinois state senator Patrick O’Malley, a Republican, described the marketing strategy as “relying heavily on shock value in its advertising, using not only photos but especially narrative that is obscene.” And Bill Johnson, the president of the American Decency Association, observed that “[t]heir marketing is based on the recognition that teens like edgy, line-crossing, taboo things.”15
The 2001 A&F summer catalogue featured naked bodies galore, and required a valid photo ID for purchase. William F. Buckley Jr. commented, “[T]here was never a pitch more naked than Abercrombie’s: the non-display of its products, in deference to sheer biological exhibitionism.” 16
The 2003 A&F Christmas catalogue was pulled from shelves because of the outcry it provoked (although Carney protested that A&F pulled the catalogue “because we just launched a new perfume called NOW and we had to make space on the counter for the product”).17 This issue of the catalogue included the usual nudity, as well as advice from a “sexpert” urging kids to get as much sexual experience as possible, including “sex for three.” After Dr. James Dobson went on the offensive regarding the advertising/pornography, A&F removed the catalogue from its stores.18 Carney wants to make sure, however, that no one gets the wrong idea about A&F: “Our spring quarterly will be back in stores mid-January and everyone will see that there’s no change in our editorial policy,” he said. “We will still have butts and partial nudity.”19
As Joseph Sabia of the Cornell Review points out, A&F also markets gay sexuality like it’s going out of style. They employ noted gay photographer Bruce Weber and advertise in Out magazine.20 Cathy Crimmins, self-proclaimed “fag-hag” and author of How the Homosexuals Saved Civilization, actually writes that fraternity guys wearing A&F are imitating a gay lifestyle by buying into Weber’s ideas of male beauty.21
Sabia concludes that “sex is all around us in advertising, but A&F’s practices are particularly troubling with regard to its stealth campaign to sexualize young teenagers.”22 To that end, A&F distributes an “outta here” checklist for college life: “C is for ‘condoms in ample supply.’ M is ‘martini shaker.’ Q is for ‘queen sized bed.’ P is ‘progressive politics.’”23 A&F dispenses advice on sex as well. On “dorm room seduction”: “it’s okay to start on the sofa, but don’t stay there.” Other insights include “invest in a good, plush rug. The floor can be fun,” and “negotiate a special group rate at a local motel, which your entire quad can take advantage of.”24 Just make sure you’re not the second group to rent that room.
Then there’s clothing brand FCUK. FCUK stands for French Connection, United Kingdom. But hey, kids—if you switch the U and the C, then, by golly, you’ve got a naughty word. So use FCUK as a brand name, and wait for the dyslexics in the crowd to figure it the coarse new brand. What a gimmick!
Thought up by advertising guru Trevor Beattie, the new FCUK brand name pushed French Connection’s 1997 interim profits to an 81 percent increase.25 Those clever marketing execs also came up with slogans (for use in Britain) like “Fcuk like a bunny” and “Fcuk for England.”26 In America, meanwhile, FCUK began advertising in Times Square, with slogans like “i you want” and “night all long”—see, the phrases are mixed up too, get it? Just like the letters in fcuk!27 Other FCUK ad campaigns have included ads for glasses, accompanied by a picture of two men and the word “homospecsuality”;28 an ad depicting a beautiful woman walking toward the camera, with the copy reading “think my clothes off”;29 an ad containing two pictures of women and the caption “yes, both.”30 When New York City banned taxi tops from carrying ads like these, FCUK countered with an ad insulting the United States—the text reads simply “brave but not free.”31
Lynda Lee-Potter, a columnist for the London Daily Mail, encouraged her readers to boycott French Connection because its advertising message was “If you want to get laid, wear our clothes.”32 FCUK took retaliatory action by creating an ad campaign based specifically on that idea: Its new ads depict virile young men and women, with the word “guaranteed” plastered across them.33
The FCUK campaign certainly garnered a good deal of attention for French Connection. That was, after all, the goal. Beattie himself said as much: “I have two views on advertising. One is that it must always be simple with a single-minded message. Secondly, it should get noticed, because otherwise you’re wasting your money.”34
Thirty years ago, uttering the f-word in a classroom would get you suspended from school. Today, it’s common to see American youths running around in sweatshirts marked “FCUK.”
Why market this stuff to youth? Because the money’s already there—today’s parents are so afraid that their child won’t think of them as a “friend” that they’ve stopped exercising the power of the purse. One marketing researcher refers to such buys as “guilt money”: “Parents say, ‘Here’s the credit card. Why don’t you go online and buy something because I can’t spend time with you.’”35 In 2002 alone, teenagers spent over $100 billion, and got their parents to spend $50 billion more. Alissa Quart, author of Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers, writes that “those under twenty-five are now the fastest-growing group filing for bankruptcy”; she adds that marketing experts are now targeting nine-to thirteen-year-olds as well, “prepping the kids to be the sort of teen consumers that companies wish for.”36 Advertisers spend more than $12 billion per year on advertising aimed at the youth market.37
As Juliann Sivulka explains, “today’s youth-oriented ads touch on every area of sexual pleasure and perversion . . . If today’s young generation of readers are less shocked by open sexuality than their grandparent’s coquettish suggestions, can culture be far from a time when any sexual inclination will be freely portrayed in advertising?”38
Porn sells meat
In early 2005, the fast food chain Hardee’s (known in some regions as Carl’s Jr.) began a marketing campaign for their “Monster Thickburger”—an enormous greasy concoction—by running a series of ridiculously oversexed TV ads. In a spot titled “Fist Girl,” a blond woman in a strapless dress and high heels sticks her entire fist in her mouth, then pulls it back out and smiles. In a companion spot, a different woman in a spaghetti-strap top crams her mouth full of plastic straws. “How do you know if you can eat the largest double burger in the country?” asks the announcer in each spot. “There’s one way to find out.”
Another Hardee’s ad for the Thickburger was set to Foghat’s rhythmic “Slow Ride,”
and featured model Cameron Richardson writhing around on top of a bucking mechanical bull while appearing to have oral sex with an oversized cheeseburger. The announcer says: “We could’ve shown you some cowboy, sitting around a campfire, eating the new Western Bacon Thickburger. But then . . . who’d wanna see that?”
Writing for the online journal Slate, reviewer Seth Stevenson suggested: “I guess if the Thickburger qualifies as food porn, the Monster Thickburger is XXX hard-core food porn, with cheese bondage and underage buns and deviant bacon orgies.”
The ad game is all about selling perceptions—perceptions of sex, perceptions of products. In most cases, sex is merely juxtaposed with the product, the tacit message being: “Buy our product, get laid.” From cheeseburgers to razors to cars, simple juxtaposition does the trick. Britney Spears’ new perfume, Curious, is marketed by selling her as a sex symbol. Commercials show Spears checking into a hotel, exchanging glances with a guy checking in to the adjoining room. The Dallas Morning News details what happens next: “They share a wild, pant-pant fantasy as they stand on either side of the wall, straining to hear (and feel) each other. Just when you think Britney can’t get any classier, she figures out a way.”39
In some of these cases, perceptions of sex are sold plainly, without any mention of product save a company logo. Joe’s Jeans, for example, shows the naked female body in many of its ads, accompanied only by their brand.40 That’s the idea behind the Victoria’s Secret advertising strategy as well: Sell the models, sell the brand. Yes, they’re wearing the lingerie, but who’s really looking at that? The Victoria’s Secret $10 million fashion extravaganza, TV’s “Sexiest Night,” is all about using attractive models to drop jaws and open wallets. Scalpers were selling 2003 show tickets for upwards of $10,000.41 The buyers certainly weren’t paying all that money to see a few sets of bras and panties.
In other cases, products are sold by equating use of the product with the joys of sex. In the movie When Harry Met Sally, Meg Ryan fakes an orgasm while eating at a restaurant with Billy Crystal. “I’ll have what she’s having,” a female onlooker tells her waitress. Ads have been copying the movie ever since, selling products through blatant allusions to orgasm.42
Herbal Essences promotes its shampoo in commercials depicting beautiful women showering and washing their hair until, shrieking, they reach orgasm. In one of their newer orgy-style commercials, “Streaking Party,” a large group of men and women streak their hair while dressed in towels and robes. On their website, Herbal Essences instructs customers how to hold their own “streaking parties.” Helpful tips include “Let your imagination run wild. Dare to go bare. Think bikinis, halter tops, sarongs, and terry cloth robes,” “Give out ‘naughty’ bags,” and “Satisfy your inner cravings.”43 This is innuendo taken to a whole new level. Herbal Essences spokeswoman Anitra Marsh explains that the original “Totally Organic Experience” ad “set a new bar for advertisements and pushed the envelope at the time, but in a way that stayed true to the product itself. The product is really about the experience.”44 I’m not sure that washing your hair classifies as an “experience.” If it does, are you promiscuous for using Head & Shoulders some days and Herbal Essences others?
Miller Lite’s infamous “Catfight” ad campaign, which ran during the 2003 NFL Playoffs, played on male fantasies about lesbians, depicting two very well-endowed, attractive women (one of them a Playboy girl) sitting at a coffee shop, discussing the relative merits of Miller Lite. “Doesn’t Miller Lite taste great?” the blonde bombshell asks her brunette friend. “Yeah,” the brunette responds, “but I drink it because it’s less filling.” They begin screaming at each other: “Great taste!” “Less filling!” After pushing over the table, they begin clawing at each other. They end up stripping down to their lingerie and catfighting in a pool, and then in a vat of mud. The commercial then cuts to a bar, where one guy tells another: “Now that would make a great commercial.” The other guy responds: “Yeah, who wouldn’t want to watch that?” The camera then pans to their girlfriends, who are not amused. The pitch for Miller Lite ensues. In the uncut version, one of the guys then says: “I’ve got an idea for the ending.” Cut back to the two mud-covered women, one of whom turns to the other and says: “Let’s make out!” The commercial ends with them swapping lesbian spit.
Apparently, men are so ridiculously stupid that basic juxtaposition of lesbian sex and beer is enough to sell the product. That’s the joke, said Miller company spokewoman Molly Reilly: “We’re making a little bit of fun of it.” Oh. Too bad that according to Reilly, 30 percent of the people who saw the commercial were under twenty-one.45
Coors did its own version of the Sapphic sell during the same playoff season. Their commercial, “Love Songs,” featured a montage of different things guys like, including several shots of two good-looking blonde sisters making eyes at the camera. As Shari Waxman of Salon.com wrote, “Besides being just plain hot, the aesthetically gifted twenty-six-year-old blondes featured in the campaign are twin sisters. Twin sisters whose four blue eyes seem always to be saying, ‘Hey boys, anyone up for a three-way?’ Sisters in a three-way? Gross.”46 Coors’s ad company, Foote Cone & Belding, Chicago, doesn’t see it that way: “Nobody would argue men love women, so why not two of them? That’s why twins rings so true.”47
Hillary Chura, a reporter for Advertising Age, stated that the Coors spot worked wonders: “Previously, the brand appealed to women and older men, and the problem with that is that they don’t drink as much as twenty-something guys.”48 The commercials were so popular that they spawned a series of ESPN Sportscenter imitations, with new screaming lyrics each week, and cheerleaders as the twins. The “twins” ads were the highest-scoring spots in Coors history, according to the fortuitously named Ron Askew, marketing chief for Coors. Askew defended his use of the twins as sex objects, claiming that they were actually “leaders, not followers. The women are in control. They’re the ones inviting you into the party at 4 a.m.”49
That logic seems a bit askew; it would mean that prostitutes are not sex objects, since they are usually the ones inviting johns into entanglements.
Unintended consequences
The focus on sex in advertising shapes cultural beliefs about beauty and gender to increasing levels among the porn generation. Fifty years ago, the emaciated waifs who resemble twelve-year-old boys more than women would never have populated our billboards and our television screens to such an extent. Now, young girls are dieting in order to look like them. Barry Gunter of the University of Sheffield states: “Idealized body images in advertising may contribute to lower levels of self-esteem, especially in relation to their own body shape, among some individuals. These effects most commonly occur among young women . . . A number of experimental studies have indicated that exposure to advertisements containing images of alluring models with slim physiques can result in lowered body self-esteem and greater overestimation of own body size and weight, especially among young women.”50
According to the International Journal of Eating Disorders, by fourth grade an incredible 80 percent of American girls have been, or are currently on a diet. Forty percent of six-year-old girls wished they were thinner, and half will have tried dieting by age eight.51 According to another study, 53 percent of American girls dislike their bodies by age thirteen; that figure rises to 78 percent by age seventeen. Joan Brumberg, author of The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls, elaborates: “Although elevated body angst is a great boost to corporate profits, it saps the creativity of girls and threatens their mental and physical health.”52
The objectified image of women in advertising damages girls on an emotional level as well. The women in these ads are sexy, risqué, and often quite aggressive. Oversexed advertising is not likely to benefit normal girls: If guys can get their rocks off just by watching a Guess? ad, how can the “normal” girl compete? The only way to compete is to imitate. The “liberated” woman model encourages girls to show off for the benefit of their
male counterparts, all in the name of equality.
Meanwhile, men who used to be considered effeminate are the new standard-bearers for male beauty. Shaved pecs, toned abs, and bleached hair are all the rage in the age of the metrosexual. It was Calvin Klein who initially set the trend with his underwear ads.53 Soon, everyone had jumped aboard. Soloflex, the exercise equipment company, put out ads with a female hand reaching out to touch muscular athletes; the caption read “A hard man is good to find.” Jerry Wilson, founder of Soloflex, explained, “There’s no way I can sell the product without selling sex.”54 Tom Shales of the Washington Post noted the new “manly” image: “It’s a pecs-and-biceps world now.”55
Gay sex/advice columnist Dan Savage was more blunt: “That our culture is now thoroughly dominated by gay men is not some paranoid Christian conservative’s fantasy... but a fact of life. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy confirmed something everyone already knows: outside of rap and hip-hop culture, stylish gay men . . . are the only tastemakers. And gay men weren’t content to just setting tastes in jackets and hair products and cowhide accent chairs. Hardly. We were, however subtly, setting sexual tastes as well. Out went the virile man (so long, Burt Reynolds!) and in came the vulnerable boy (hello, Ashton Kutcher!).”56
Men are market-oriented, and they want to provide what women want—so they allowed the gay ideal to become the reality by buying into it wholesale. The image sold by advertising becomes the goal for men and women, but the reality doesn’t live up to the fantasy. Constant pornography doesn’t equate to happiness or even sex appeal; ultimately, this coarseness translates to boredom.