Here we have a young woman (possibly a teenager) with a vial of Fetish perfume hanging between her breasts. The text of the ad, which ran in magazines targeting young women, says:
Fetish #16: Apply generously to your neck so he can smell the scent as you
shake your head ‘no.’
I assume I don’t have to explain the implication of that one. I found it here.
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NEW: Here’s a Noxzema ad that plays on the same idea–that women actually like being harassed:
Sent to us by Laura L., who found it at the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center website.
8 Comments
This ad is also featured in Still Killing Us Softly 3, featuring Jean Kilbourne.
Assume you’ve seen this on BoingBoing- a children’s book about plastic surgery!
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/16/childrens-book-about.html
Or simply means you will be so attractive you will seduce men inadvertently, then you have to say no.
Or just the power to discard men…
Or…
I get the impression that it’s trying to present the perfume as giving the girl the ability to treat men as playthings.
That’s an interesting perspective–also sociologically useful.
i think if she was using men as playthings, she would look more powerful.
instead, she is not making eye contact, looks rather young and pale, and her eyeshadow makes her look sick, or drugged, or emaciated. and the pose is a little uncertain.
i think that i would be the last person to violate another woman, but i just realized there’s something i find disturbingly sexy about her saying “no” and meaning “yes” and the fact that our culture has made that kind of impact on what i find arousing.
Just a couple of notes.
The ad is from 1997 and has been retired after complaints to the perfume producers.
M
Oh, yes, I should have said in the post that it’s not in use any more. But it’s an interesting image for talking about marketing and uses of sex.