Target Disses “Non-Traditional Media.” Hey, That’s Us!
A girl is spread-eagle over Times Square. The billboard is courtesy of Target. Amy Jussel, executive director of Shaping Youth, which focuses on the influence of marketing and media on kids, wrote about it on her blog. She also called the media people at Target Corporation, left her concern, her contact information, and a request for a call back. This is what she got:
Good Morning Amy,
Thank you for contacting Target; unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with non-traditional media outlets. This practice is in place to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest.
Once again thank you for your interest, and have a nice day.
Whoa, wait a minute! Aside from the tastelessness of the ad itself, the bloggers here at Beauty and the Breast are just totally offended by Target’s disdain for those of us NOT in traditional media. Traditional media is failing for a reason, namely that it’s not doing a good enough job informing the public on such things as, oh, I don’t know, breast implants?
Furthermore, we thought Target’s “core guests” are the with it and hip, a demographic that comfortably fits in the 18 to 49 age range. Well, about 85 percent of such people are online, and NOT exclusively hanging out at, say, newyorktimes.com. They are spread across gaming sites, social networking sites and… blogs. Gawker, the Smoking Gun and Digg are among in the Top Ten News and Information sites in 2007. They certainly don’t think of themselves as traditional media. If their reps called, would Target shun them too?
So now we know. Walmart may be evil, but Target’s just plain stupid.
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Just showed the photo of the Target billboard to my husband. He was angry and said he finds is offensive to all women…and ” the only thing that is missing is an arrow pointing to her crotch!” What the hell has gotten into the advertising mentality that they think this sort of thing is cute? I don’t put all the blame on the companies though… some of the blame belongs on the consumers that tolerate this sort of crap! GRRR
Pam
Comment by Pam — January 15, 2008 @ 10:34 pm
If bloggers are the voices are real people, and Target doesn’t care what bloggers have to say, that’s symbolically disdaining the consumer, no? I mean, Amy Jussel is NOT tolerating it, but when she complained, Target wouldn’t even give her the time of day. It’s amazing that a company like Target, which works so hard to be cool and hip, maintains a PR policy that positively 1990s! I bet they pay millions for some hoity-toity advertising company to handle this stuff for them. Hey, Target, give me just 1 % what you’re paying for your PR — even 1% of 1% — and I guarantee you’ll get better advice!
Comment by Gloria — January 15, 2008 @ 11:05 pm
Mary and Gloria, as I wade through the flame-throwing hate mail and personal attacks on being a ‘dirty minded sex fiend’ with accusations of ‘craziness’ or ‘probably some god-squad type’ I’m heartened to at least hear some sanity from colleagues in the field dealing with these issues on a national health level.
I’ve tried to ‘take the high road’ citing statistics and studies and the APA taskforce report ad infinitum about the early sexualization and objectification cues in our appearance-driven media culture, but it seems to fall on deaf ears as a big ‘over-reaction.’
I hope it either blows into a larger story about the universal context of advertising objectification overall (vs. the focus on one this one ad) or they let it drop altogether and move on to the big issue of ‘non-traditional press’ (which to me is actually a huge story, based on their archaic/misguided handling of Web 2.0 users, to your demographic points above) but it never ceases to amaze me how short-sighted corporations can be dancing on the fine line fringe of ethics and responsibility. (e.g. like their ‘Rounders’ stealth street team for buzz-marketing using kids as shills a la P&G’s Tremors.com)
Realize I’m slow getting the interview questions to you, but as they say, ‘it hit the fan’…so apologies for the delays. Thanks for the support…feelin’ a bit battered and bullied by a population I’m having a hard time relating to on a ‘centrist/logical’ level…bleh.
Flamethrowers sans reasoned debate is NOT my cuppa tea, so thanks for the kind words. Nicest discourse I’ve had all day. Best, Amy
Comment by Shaping Youth — January 16, 2008 @ 12:18 am
And Pam? Do thank your husband for his input; nice to hear a male’s perspective too…many have echoed same.
Here’s some visual commentary/pithy prose along the lines of ‘what if they’d art directed the ’snow angel’ as a targeted MALE model.
Comment by Shaping Youth — January 16, 2008 @ 12:24 am
Amy,
The Deets is tooooo funny!
Comment by Gloria — January 16, 2008 @ 9:35 am