BBH

Advertising.


http://www.lynxeffect.com/

We had a talk with BBH, another international super-advertising firm. We were given the talk by a two-man creative team. It's not news that advertising perpetuates negative gender associations, but a large subject of the talk was the future of advertising, and all these new ideas...I wondered if anyone thought over-sexing and objectifying people isn't a an old idea.

Some of their ads for Levi's were funny, and more gender-balanced.

They spoke about viral advertising, where companies pay for events of films, and then get publicity for sponsoring cultural things, rather than just promoting their products. A lot of these films can be seen on youtube--the internet is the biggest portal for subversive advertising. I imagine what could happen if creative people in advertising used these opportunities in a way that could further people's thinking. perhaps that not really possible, the goal is still to sell things, but it's a nice thought.

When we first got here, some of us noticed how we felt women were sort of approached differently- motherhood for instance--I was having lunch in the courtyard of the V&A and several women had young children, one of which was scootering around the pool completely naked, something I thought was that at home this situation would never take place, or seen as quite an annoyance, no one there seemed to mind. Walking home in the afternoon you see men in suits outside every pub drinking beer, but you see women too, which is sort of interesting because they seem like a male oriented atmosphere. I'm not sure how different gender is here than in the states, have a seen enough to know, are these false first impressions, and how this connects to what advertisers do, since they communicate with the masses. It's a bit strange actually, there are sort of differences, but sort of not?