viz.

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

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.

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.