There's a new ad out and it's not selling a product. The "Women Not Objects" campaign, designed by ad executive Madonna Badger, is actually selling an idea. The idea that the ads we see every day are too vulgar, ads that represent women the wrong way.
Badger creatively designed this ad, including dramatic music in the background, to remind men that women aren't objects. She cleverly represents how the ad industry uses women as sex objects to sell products by adding clever commentary from real women.
Naked women being used as trays, the perception that women have one night stands with men who probably forgot their name, disrespecting American history by having bikini clad women portray Washington Crossing the Delaware, etc. These are just some examples, but the examples that are presented in this campaign aren't the only ones like them. Search the internet like Badger did at the beginning of the ad and you'll see endless pages of examples like these.
Badger told the Wall Street Journal that the reason she made this ad was to have young women see what kinds of messages were being sent to them every day and to realize that it's the wrong message. She also made the ad to honor her late daughters who were killed in a house fire a few years ago.
Post-Its, Direct TV, Tom Ford and Burger King are just some of the companies choosing to objectify women. Think your favorite company hasn't made an objectifying ad like this? You may be wrong. Click here to see just how many other brands have been caught red handed committing this crime.
The ad certainly sparked a conversation, with celebrities tweeting about it and sharing it on their social media with the hashtag #WomenNotObjects. Hopefully their (and your) message will be heard louder than this ad, and the advertising industry will start to make a change.
