The ‘Say It With Chicken’ KFC ad featuring a man thanking his mate (with chicken) for introducing him to the joys of Pilates has been cleared by the Advertising Standards Board, despite receiving a number of complaints. The ad (by creative agency Ogilvy Sydney) features the men looking out across a class of lycra-clad women,…
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As we saw at the end of Mad Men season five (Spoiler alert!), the luxury car industry was especially sexist in the ‘60s. However, when it comes to gender and cars, not much has changed. Technology plays a significant role in our everyday lives today, as does our gender. In fact, the two are often…
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A full-page ad placed in The Times of India by an Indian multi-millionaire seeking a new wife has caused some reaction in the media, ranging from guffawing to head-scratching. Reported by The Age, the ad, placed by Dinshah Vimadalal – a 69 year old retired widower living in Mexico – outlines his many attributes and…
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No one will be surprised to hear that sexism is alive and well in advertising, particularly for popular or mainstream products. We published an article this week about employees being sacked from an Indian advertising firm for producing deeply sexist posters for a Ford car ad; a recent ad for a Playstation console featured a…
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Employees of an Indian-based arm of advertising firm, WPP, have been sacked following the release of sexist advertising posters for Ford cars. The posters included images of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, driving a car with three half-dressed, bound and gagged women in the boot, as well as one of a Paris Hilton look-alike…
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2012 was a bit of a feminist themed vocab lesson. From misogyny to discharge, Australians were schooled in words you just don’t say on telly. You may remember this Carefree campaign that Lip gave the thumbs up to last year for daring to discuss vaginal discharge and the normalcy of it in a TV commercial….
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Recently, I read this article, linked to me by the wonderful Jo, here at lip. It ties in what I was speaking about in my previous article – co-opting body positive speech and using my pet hate phrase, “real women.” I won’t rant any more about the phrase; I believe I covered it enough in…
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I was the fat kid. The token ‘Fatty Boomba’ at primary school. I relished tucking into a meal more than an excavation of the sandpit. I avoided the monkey bars because lifting my weight was a struggle. I was always the first chosen for trivia, yet the last for a game of kickball. Although aesthetically,…
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The news has been rife with stories recently of women making cruel or nasty comments towards other women. It all started with Germaine Greer criticising Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s choice of jackets on the ABC’s Q and A. Later, we saw British Daily Mail columnist, Samantha Brick, claim that women are nasty to her because…
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Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury. My last article discussed how the vintage trend could be represented as a new form of feminism. I also said that we should avoid looking at the past through rose-tinted retro spectacles, and I’d now like to elaborate on this with further evidence pointing towards why this is the…
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As many of you know by now, I am extremely opinionated. To the point of being completely unreasonable sometimes. After reading Emma Rush’s piece, I was understandably on edge and ready to rip Witchery to shreds. After seeing pictures of the girls I was even more horrified; they look their age. Yes I have been…
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The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf is the talk of lip at the moment! Despite it pretty much being required reading for Feminism 101, I only got around to reading The Beauty Myth this past weekend. There have been arguments that feminism and feminist theory is too deeply welled in academia, and that it can…
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The book that made me realise that I was a feminist was “The Beauty Myth” by Naomi Wolf. It is essentially about the ways in which images of beauty are used against both men and women to make us feel more vulnerable. The book has chapters focusing on different aspects of life, work, religion, culture,…
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Sex sells. I’m not denying that, but it shouldn’t have to be used to sell everything. Anyone with even an online advertising degree would agree. There was a time when advertisements for socks didn’t include a mostly nude woman lying in a provocative pose just to guarantee sales. Now it seems that the advertising world…
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