Do I Really Want Women Up My Nose?

I know I'm outside (just outside!) the target age demographic, but nonetheless I am once again disgusted by a high profile ad campaign that targets younger men. Shaving products Edge Eclipse and Edge Energy are featured in a combined TV ad that enlists young women scantily clad with GhostBuster or Austin Powers-esque equipment to explain why the products work so well.

I realize that shaving products have a long history of featuring beautiful women who find a close shave attractive. However, typically those ads feature a man who shaves and a woman who rubs his chin or cheek. Both are happy with the product and the resulting close shave. These ads permit the viewer to see themselves in this position - I'd like it if my wife liked my shave, I think I'll try this product.

The Edge ads (like so many others) feature a man (who is supposed to represent the viewer) and multiple women in a supporting role of acting stupid and looking sexy. In this case, the man is shaving, and the women are micro-size metaphors for a product feature.

In the first portion of the ad, the micro-women are in the man's beard spraying each other with white foam. The product feature is moisturizer in the gel. In the second portion of the ad, the micro-women fly into the man's nose and have a disco dance party (mirror ball and everything). The product feature is the product's smell. Seriously.

Feel free to make your own joke about the mirror ball. Were they trying to make such a stupid ad? It would be hard to do any better if you were trying.

This ad isn't just offensive because it shows women in this way. It is also offensive because it means that the creatives involved believe they couldn't get the attention of their male target market without a sex angle. Men AND women should be offended by this ad.

Below is a link to a post-production "privately edited" version of the ad. Listen for the two added special effect "punchlines" that do a much better job than I in pointing out how stupid this ad is...

SLE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrRA4l1qdu4

It's the Process, Stupid

Much marketing time, energy and dollars are spent on things like taglines, photos, ad placements, tactic development. These are all important. Yet individually they don't make a sale happen. Many businesses forget that the process is the glue, the framing, the rope...choose your analogy...that brings together the buyer and the seller. Mapping the marketing and sales process doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun. Yet understanding where sales really come from and how they get done in the real world of your organization and marketplace is invaluable. When working through this issue, rare is the time that one of my clients has done this work...and nonexistent is anyone who didn't learn from the process and have a deeper understanding of why (or why not) their organization's marketing is working. Often, working through the process uncovers gaps - areas where there is no process in place (which leaves the prospect navigating on their own) - or dams - spots where the process is clogged due to lack of capacity or other problem (which leaves even willing buyers unable to move forward and buy!). An example of a dam that I am dealing with right now - have a small problem on my roof flashing and don't want to go up on the 3+ floor high roof to fix it myself. I am stuck by a dam in the contractors' sales process; there is a lack of qualified estimators to spend the time to come to look at the job. I want to buy, I need to buy, I am an easy sale...but their own process shortcomings means I cannot buy. Yoi! Gaps and dams can happen at any stage of the marketing and sales process. I enjoy working through the process with owners and executives. It is often the most biggest "wow" of my coaching. SLE