Bacardi "Get An Ugly Girlfriend" Campaign
19 Jun
Want to look hotter? Find a fat, ugly friend to stand next to, and bring on the Bacardi Breezers!
Jezebel found this doozie of a campaign created by some lumps from McCann Digital in Israel.
The site suggests that like Bacardi Breezers, ugly friends come in
several different varieties, and women should go ahead and use them to appear more
attractive in social situations.
The copy reads as follows;
"Lucy's rubbing thighs, magically combined with a sticking out jaw and drooping breasts will turn any trip to the mall into an unforgettable experience. Shop like never before with your own freckled pile of cellulite."
On to Sally who gives you the attractive edge because shes "97 kilograms of femininity, strength and double chins. No tire can disguise the lumpy rolls decorating that body. Look your best without every visiting the gym!"
Since when does a marketing campaign targeted to women use fat hatred and our body image wars to sell products? Seems an odd strategy to me, I mean, what kind of woman would think this crap is funny?
-mV
Wow…once again, speechless. I would leave a mindful comment, but I really don’t even know where to begin. All I keep doing is shaking my head, wondering what the fuck is wrong with this world we live in.
It sickens me.
Especially as a recovered anorexic, when I hear other women compare their bodies constantly, nitpicking at other womens flaws. I don’t get it. I really don’t. Why does it have to be like that? Shit like this feeds off insecurities. Excuse my colorful language. But anyone who buys into this has to be really insecure.
This is disgusting. I don’t get it.
Not funny at all.
I had a ‘girls’ night last night with a group of girls that i do not entirely know. Wine, cheese, music…sounds like fun?
Not exactly. These women (25-30 yrs old) spoke at length about how insecure they are with themselves, and mention that they routinely Skip meals and take fat burners. The conversation was so rationalized…”if i am really hungry i eat a carrot… everyone in this room is sooo beautiful….funny how everyone here has had breast surgery..etc.”
I left the party in shock..I feel so sad for these women, and sad that i can identify with them. One of the girls actually said “I think you looked great last year when u were rail thin, so jealous”. She was referring to my year long battle with anorexia that landed me in the hospital.
Apart from that, these women, myself included spend up wards of 2 hrs a day in the gym..all that work, to come home and say ‘i am so ugly’.??
These ‘Bacardi drinks’ sound like a fantastic idea for the women i just spent the evening with. When all you have is one dimensional thinking that centres around vanity, and pride your self based on your ability to engage the opposite sex …then feeling ‘better’ then the ‘ugly’ girl is just the thing for a great night out!
AHHHHHHHHHH
Note: The ad doesn’t only make fun of fat “ugly” women; it also makes fun of thin “ugly” women and disabled “ugly” women. And the divide-and-conquer strategy is an old and often effective one in marketing to women — remember “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful?”
Who needs the patriarchy when women themselves have become self-policing of tyrannical beauty standards?
OH.MY.GOD.
I am speechless.
This is truly disgusting
WOW.
I don’t know what offends me more about these ads: the suggestion that women are so concerned about our appearance that we might choose our friends to enhance it; the notion of “woman as accessory;” the implicit comparison between any two women who happen to be together — after all, you wouldn’t want to BE the ugly friend, now, would you? — or the fact that they have chosen perfectly nice-looking women to label “ugly.”
I think the worst lie this culture has attempted to foist on women is that we don’t like each other. This is just another example of that.
I notice how these adverts use ugly to describe fat, when the two aren’t mutually exclusive.
And making a joke out of advertising the women, with decriptions as though they are objects and not real people
When I thinkofoverweight people, I do not automatically connect them to being ugly, as rach above states. These ads are disgusting.
I don’t think they are funny at all. Totally uncalled for and rude. I may never buy Bacardi again.
yes – I think thats what this calls for – a bacardi boycott!
whats really sad is that their main customers are impressionable, underage drinkers (in the uk, anyhow)
So… Let’s tell them!
http://www.bacardilimited.com/contact_us.aspx
Awesome idea smudgeruk…I am always game for a good stoning.
Fire away girls – A am going to send this to a few other bloggers to see if we can get further traction.
mV
Update here http://www.mamavision.com/mamavision/2009/06/bacardi-responds-to-get-an-ugly-girlfriend-lame-ass-campaign.html
Lots o fun going on with this one as the brand dodges this bullet.
Saw this ad campaign on another blog, and wrote to Bacardi to express my disgust.
Now Bacardi is backtracking, saying they never approved this campaign. Um, really? So who did, exactly?
(BTW, I would TOTALLY hang out with ANY or ALL of these women. Not because they’d make me look “hotter,” but because we’d have fun.)
Who is Bacardi to say what is beauty anyway? The standards of beauty are outrageous, and with ads like these, its no wonder already beautiful women are puking after every meal if they are even eating at all. Or these beautiful women are getting their faces and bodies cut up to live to these standards.
When are we going to wake up and realize that we all have beauty in us. The only thing that living to these “standards” can do is create a “Stepford Wife” society.
Wow.
You know, I had a discussion the other day with Jessica. The last acceptable form of discrimination in this country is against the overweight and/or unattractive.
It is totally nuts. Color, sexuality, religion, age….all of these seem to have become acceptable. Only “unattractive” remains the acceptable demographic upon which we may discriminate.