So, Reebok has these new shoes that supposedly tone your butt and legs more than regular sneakers, using "balance ball-inspired technology." (Hooray for science! I'm also hearing great things about the promise of jump rope- and yoga block-inspired technology. The future is now, people.) But since there are other footwear brands out there offering similar results -- really, if you're still wearing lazy-ass shoes that only offer exercise benefits directly proportionate to the amount you walk or run in them, you're a chump -- Reebok needed advertising that would make theirs stand out. And what's edgier or more original than objectifying women?
I saw this ad, in which a short-shorted woman tries to give a serious spiel on the sneakers, only to be distracted by the camera dude constantly zooming in on her sweet ass, while watching Hulu the other night. So this is definitely a real thing Reebok paid for.
This morning, I saw a Tweet from The Illusionists, asking, "Is this uber-sexist (and NSFW) Reebok ad authentic?!?" with a link to what you see below. Because I didn't want to wake my husband sleeping in the next room and didn't know where my headphones were, I watched it with the sound down -- and having already seen the first ad, I concluded that this must be a parody. I mean, the camera does nothing but linger on a woman's breasts in a demi-cup bra for a full 20 seconds, before it switches to an ass shot, and then the shoes it's actually advertising. Whoever made it had to be sending up the whole idea of using sexualized body parts to sell sneakers to women, right?
Then I found my headphones. And noticed that the ad is called "Dialogue." As in, a dialogue between this woman's breasts.
Righty: Hey, did you see? Nobody's staring at us anymore.
Lefty: Are we still hot?
Righty: Clearly! You know what? It's all because of that stupid butt down there.
You get the idea. Now that the ass is 28% more toned and thus getting all the attention, the boobs are jealous. And that, my friends, is how you use a close-up on breasts to sell sneakers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCNAlSnYOko&feature=player_embedded#http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCHKXICefFw&feature=player_embeddedhttp://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/feature/2009/11/13/reebok_ads/index.html