Now this is twisted. And it falls right into that category we’ve seen so many times before. Racy ads that try to get you not to have racy thoughts but are, in a sense, racy themselves. We saw it in an ad that put big boobs on 12 years old girls, a tactic which was supposed to inform pervs that if they look at an underage girl as something more than what she is, that’s a really bad thing.
Now we have What Would Your Mother Do underwear emblazoned with statements like, “zip it,” “dream on,” “not tonight” and, of course, “what wold your mother do. The goal is to, well, keep guys out of a girl’s pants.
But it’s a little weird that the brand hypes the line by saying on its website, “Boy shorts are hot right now. Slide into the right pair (we swear you won’t find any better!), and good goddess, you’re good to go.”
Good to go. Hmm. Just what sort of message are they delivering here. Even creepier is the promotional video which entails a photo shoot during which a guy just leers at a girl the entire time like he can’t wait to scream “I don’t give a shit what your mom would do but I know what I want to do right now, baby!”
Mixed messaging at best. But marketers don’t care. They’re content to push the sex appeal approach as far down in age as they possibly can.
Of sex and selling, back in 2005, we wrote, Inherently, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with sex. It’s natural. It’s healthy. It’s normal. Everyone does it. However, for one to successfully navigate the murky waters of that form of human engagement, one must possess a certain degree of wisdom achieved only through age, education and experience. Try telling a 13 year old girl, today, she doesn’t need to wear a thong, a midriff-baring top and do-me shoes while dancing in front of a webcam. Try telling a 13 year old boy he shouldn’t drop everything he’s doing and dive right into all that.”
