"The New iMac. You can’t be too thin. Or too powerful." This was Apple's latest ad campaign for their new flat screen monitors. While it is easy to see why they decided to reference the Duchess of Windsor's famous saying for selling thin paneled monitors, it is also easy to see why this is an irresponsible use of the adage.
As a recovering anorectic and bulimic, I found this to be completely offensive and I wasn't the only one. As discussed in the following article, http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20070820/bs_prweb/prweb547551_1, The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness called upon Apple to remove the ad. It should be noted that Apple has since withdrawn the ad and changed the slogan to "The all new, all-in-one iMac", which I applaud, but I can't help but be amazed that the ad was even created, designed, and distributed. The impact that the slogan could have on millions of young men and women is astounding.
In fact, when I read "You can't be too thin. Or too powerful." it brought back memories of how I used to question whether or not the statement that "you can never be too rich or too thin" was really true. Its commonality in everyday dialogue once led me to conclude that one really can never be too thin, but the millions of individuals (including myself) that have suffered or are suffering from an eating disorder know that one can, in fact, be too thin.
But am I (and the Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness) simply being oversensitive? In another blog, an individual reacted to the Alliance for Eating Disorder Awareness's press release by stating, "Where to start with this one...Never mind that Apple is one of the few companies to never have used wafer-thin models in its commercials to lure the young male geek audience. (By the way, has anyone ever met an anorexic computer geek?) Heck, never mind that it's an ad for a freaking computer. The really ridiculous part about all this is that they making this claim that images in advertising could have an effect one eating disorders against a company that, for the last thirty years, has used a piece of food for its logo. Oh, the irony..." (http://www.macinspector.com/2007/08/group-takes-iss.html)
Is this blogger correct? What do you think? How responsible should advertisers be for the messages they send?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Another popular Mac slogan was "Think Different"---so much classier and smarter than You can never be too thin.
"The New iMac. You can’t be too thin. Or too powerful." ... I found this to be completely offensive and I wasn't the only one. .... I can't help but be amazed that the ad was even created, designed, and distributed.
Are you serious? You honestly truly took offense to or were disturbed at the phrase you can't be too thin. Or too powerful. in reference to a COMPUTER? For God's sake people, it wasn't like they were using an anorexic woman on the poster and suggesting that you change your dieting habits in the side-panel.
Maybe there's a backstory to this that I'm not aware of; but my websearching and reviewing the ad shows that only someone *looking* for an excuse to justify anorexic tendencies would make that interpretation. The so-called 'muckrakers'.
-AHMAD
Actually, I too did do a double-take when I saw the ad but did second guess myself thinking am I too sensitive (being one of the recovering Eating Disordered) On the other hand, consider the thousands of men and women who have the "skewed perception of self" and they too may be doing a double-take and second guessing themselves, thinking maybe "you can't be too thin".
Post a Comment