Ikea 'Regrets' Airbrushing Women out of Its Saudi Catalog Now you see her, now you don't

By Rebecca Cullers
 

Click your way through Ikea's regular catalog and its Saudi catalog, and you will notice something odd: They removed all the women (though not the young girls) from the latter. In some cases it's clear they were Photoshopped out, in other instances they simply have replacement pictures. For example, there's one image of four women sitting at a dining table where clearly someone said "Screw it" and just reshot the table. The changes have caused a bit of a stir with government officials in Sweden, as they seem to suggest Ikea doesn't have much of a commitment to women's rights. Ikea apologized, saying, "We should have reacted and realized that excluding women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalog is in conflict with the Ikea Group values." Though Saudi Arabia is a country where women are expected to be covered in public and are not allowed to drive, they do not prohibit depictions of women in advertising, so it's not entirely clear why Ikea removed them from the catalog in the first place. It's the second time in a few weeks that Ikea has had to apologize for unfortunate deletions. Two weeks ago it removed a photo of four people in balaclavas from its Russian corporate website, just in case someone thought they supported Russian band Pussy Riot, who just received a scorching sentence for protesting Putin while wearing balaclavas. But this faux pas has captured much more Internet time. Check out this hilarious Tumblr, where images of women have been replaced with Ikea furniture.

Read more about this on Adfreak at: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/ikea-regrets-airbrushing-women-out-its-saudi-catalog-144140

Freaky Domestic Violence PSA

FNSF - Le film choc from FNSF on Vimeo.

The ad above has to be one of the most disturbing PSA to stop violence against women. It’s a French PSA to stop violence against women shown in France. It actually scares me that people in advertising can use this type of imagery to scare people into feeling guilty for not speaking up. The imagery in the ad above goes so far over the top that I almost didn’t want to watch the advertisement. Causing people not to watch or be unreceptive to the message of the ad. It would be a disservice to the target audience if people were so put off by the ad that they didn’t watch. And yes, I am one of those people that would walk out of a movie if a woman was being physically abused.

I walked out of the Jennifer Lopez movie “Enough” and came back when she was on the run and prepping to beat her abusive husband up.

Also, another important observation about this ad is that it shows same sex couples, something that would never be shown here in the states.

Best,
-A.B.

Adidas Reaching the Ladies

About three days ago, one of the readers of my blog alerted me to a new campaign by Adidas known as “Jersey Swap.” The campaign was designed to encourage women to show support for rugby in New Zealand. Adidas would like women to actively show their support for the 14 rugby teams. They could even have their two favorite players swap jerseys. You can get to the site by clicking here.

Now here is where the sexual innuendos come in to play. After the players swap jerseys they don’t even put them on they simply drape them over one shoulder. Adidas even places a button on the site that makes the players take off the jerseys in slow motion. Yea, like the audience isn’t going to figure out what their intentions were with that move. But hey if it increases female viewer ship, good for you Adidas.

The agency that created the campaign for Adidas is TBWA\Whybin, New Zealand. I am wondering what sort of account planning techniques they used to determine sex sells with this campaign? I am not saying they were wrong, I’m just wondering how they came to the conclusion? The campaign is very creative and seems to be well executed.

By the way I have finally mentioned a new agency. Yay for me!

The reader that alerted me of the campaign also maintains a blog at Sweet Pea.

Best,
A.B.