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Have you seen the new commercial for Fling, the Mars candy bar for women? Here it is.
Very nice—quite the double entendre. (And far more clever than suggestive beer commercials aimed at men.)
According to Advertising Age, “Print work for the brand declares ‘It’s not cheating if you don't feel guilty,’ ‘Your boyfriend doesn’t need to know,’ and ‘Pleasure yourself.’”
Mars representative Ryan Bowling told Advertising Age that “the concept for Fling – which has been in development for more than two years – was to develop a ‘permissive indulgence’ for women.”
Wow. So women need permission to eat a candy bar? Hey, the 1950s called, they need their gender politics back.
Some critics are saying give me a break—and not the Kit Kat kind—over the Fling campaign.
“What the candy companies don’t quite understand is that for those of us who truly love candy, we don't see it as gender-specific,” wrote a blogger on the site Jezebel. “And for every bar like the ‘Fling,’ … that arrives, the idea that candy is something women should feel guilty or careful about is perpetuated, leading to a public perception that some things are ‘bad’ and ‘good’ for women to eat.”
Liberal mag Mother Jones also weighed in saying Mars has tapped “the under-utilized market of paranoid heterosexual women whose eating habits are monitored by their boyfriends.”
Mother Jones added:
“The PR packages that went out to media outlets contained sheer T-shirts that read ‘Try It In Public,’ equating the act of women consuming sweets in front of other people with being as taboo as committing sex acts in front of them. Couple this with the oppressive pinkness of the campaign, and one is left wondering when marketers will figure out that in order to make women buy things, they do not have to, literally, shove sparkles down their throats.”
Wonder what the Twitter-ati and mom blogs will say about it?
And since we're talking about gender politics and marketing, here's a 15-second clip from Mad Men, the TV show about advertising in the early 1960s. The main character, Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm) ponders writing ad copy geared at women.
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Good list, tho a bit US-centric. The world is full of unmitigated PR gaffes; Renault's F1 race fixing; UK PM Gordon Brow...
Comments (7)
This is a funny spot...to guys. And, maybe, to women under thirty. But who buys the most chocolate? And what's up with trying so hard to position a product just for women? Don't you know women have an incredible "BS meter"? If they want chocolate they want CHOCOLATE; not something just for them.
About four years ago we initiated proprietary research on which advertising resonated (or didn't) with women. Based on that I wrote a book "Re-render the gender" that is on Amazon. it examines why so much of today's advertising misses the mark with women...starting with the fact that most of the advertising (70%) is written by men, and a significant amount of the rest is created by women who are trying to think like men, (Which, no doubt, is how this commercial happened.)
Check it out if you want. and thanks for starting the conversation
http://tinyurl.com/cthmyo
Posted by Tom Jordan | April 8, 2009 4:38 PM
Posted on April 8, 2009 16:38
I'm laughing. When I see a product in the store, and remember that it made me laugh, that's a good feeling. When I get a good feeling about a product, I'm more liable to buy.
No heavy psychoanalysis, here, please. It's just good fun.
Posted by Vera Marie Badertscher | April 1, 2009 4:23 PM
Posted on April 1, 2009 16:23
Give me chocolate or give me death! Way to go, Mars!
Posted by prqueen | April 1, 2009 9:34 AM
Posted on April 1, 2009 09:34
While this ad was most definately catchy, the idea that women are going to rush out and buy this candy bar because, of course, flings are intoxicating for us is so outplayed. Companies are now trying to empower women with their products, when what we really need is something that makes our lives easier. Here's a tip: Create an entree that cooks itself, or a stick of gum that can give me three more hours in the day.
Posted by Krystle, Tehama Group Communications | April 1, 2009 12:03 AM
Posted on April 1, 2009 00:03
More innovative than most ad campaigns, and I don't mind the double entendre, but still...do women need permission to eat candy? With all of the campaigns that have us worrying about excess body hair, acne, dry, sagging skin, thin eyelashes, weight gain, colorless cheeks and brittle nails, making us feel guilty about chocolate is just....mean.
Posted by Toni Antonetti | March 31, 2009 6:43 PM
Posted on March 31, 2009 18:43
More innovative than most ad campaigns, and I don't mind the double entendre, but still...do women need permission to eat candy? With all of the campaigns that have us worrying about excess body hair, acne, dry, sagging skin, thin eyelashes, weight gain, colorless cheeks and brittle nails, making us feel guilty about chocolate is just....mean.
Posted by Toni Antonetti | March 31, 2009 6:43 PM
Posted on March 31, 2009 18:43
A flash in the pan candybar, I bet. Remember Toffifay, those of you over 35? 'A candybar for grown ups'. This reminds me of it.
I doubt I'll give this one a go - marketing turns me off slightly. I'm the kind of person who actively dislikes the 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas' campaign - you know, someone who doesn't like lying or cheating? So no surprise there.
It must be really inexpensive to change those candy manufacturing lines. There have been hundreds of new variations that have popped up in the last decade (10 types of M&Ms, 3 types of Musketeers, etc). Guess Fling is just another attempt to get an additional smidgen of market share off of Hershey or Cadbury.
Posted by Paula | March 31, 2009 1:30 PM
Posted on March 31, 2009 13:30