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You've never seen sports bras like these.

I ran across this via Feministing.com, and thought these almost-ads needed to be on the website. The backstory for these ads is that an ad agency pitched them to a running company, which passed on them. They are advertising sports bras, supposedly in a humorous way. They seem menacing to me:

a woman with a bloody nose

See the other two ads after the jump:

Here are the others:

A woman with two black eyes

A woman with a busted lip

For me, the blood on these women's faces has overtones of violence, especially domestic violence. Furthermore, I find it hard to imagine that an advertising agency wouldn't be aware of these connotations.

Comments

expression

i think if the expression on these women's faced had been smiles, having fun playing sport and not being disuaded by injury then perhaps their message would have gotten accross better

Could have been more empowering

I agree with the comment above that this ad campaign was poorly executed. As a collegiate women's rugby player, I actually was quite interested to observe such a violent portrayal of women. If there had been some aspect of sporting equipment, either a jersey, boxing gloves, etc, the ad campaign would have avoided the idea of "woman as victim" and more of a "woman as tough athlete". I do applaud the idea of women portrayed as tough, fierce athletes. In our society, contact sports are reserved for the boys. Face injuries, like broken noses and black eyes, while hopefully avoidable, occur in contact sports like rugby, water polo, boxing, etc. I applaud this ad agency for not shying away from the tougher side of women's sports, but wish it had been executed more tactfully so as not to border on victimization. However, it is important to remember that contact sports are not just for the boys, and can be incredibly empowering experiences for young women.

Yeah, but . . .

The referencing of battered women in these photos is obvious, and unfortunate. But in defense of the advertising firm, I can see what they were trying to do here, which is show tough women, to show women wearing the wounds of sport (glorious in our culture), rather than the wounds of abuse (all too common in our culture).

Maybe one way the ads might have attempted to reference sport (which is what I assume they're doing since the goal is to sell sports bras) would be to have shown some sports equipment in the photos. They could have slung a pair of boxing gloves over the shoulder of the woman with the black eyes, put a hockey stick in one of their hands, or otherwise visual referenced the ways these women could have been hurt in competition, from being tough, athletic competitors. Maybe that wouldn't have been enough to off-set the connotations of violence on these women's faces, but it certainly seems to me that it could have mitigated that issue some.

I think this is ad campaign is an excellent example of good intentions poorly executed, and thus, a failed message nonetheless. But the company didn't buy the ads, so somewhere along the line things worked.

I like your interpretation -

I like your interpretation - including some kind of sports equipment would have contextualized these injuries in a way that certainly challenged gender norms. But unfortunately, I don't think that's what they were going for. The product being sold in these ads (sport bras) seems to imply that the women's injuries are caused by out-of-control cleavage - hence, the need for these (better and more containing) support bras. I think that's another reason of what grosses me out so much about these, the idea that women's bodies could cause this kind of battery.

yes, but...

The fact that it's hard to unpick the point of these ads is a real issue - if it's not clear, consumer's won't take time to think! However, the real problem for me is in the way sports bras are portrayed as being the preserve of tough athletic women. This imagery was, until very recently, core to the marketing of performance sports bra brands. The problem is, that the sort of women that this imagery appeals to are likely to be the ones who know the most about sports bras, the need for them, and which to buy. The recent, and very welcome, trend has been towards encouraging wider uptake of the products through softer imagery - portraying the bras as part of a modern, enjoyable (and sexy) lifestyle, where a broad range of women can enjoy participating in sport.

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