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Bad Ads II: Sisley makes me mad as hell

Welcome to your daily dose of “What the Hell?!?” Just when I thought advertisers had already stretched the limits of good taste past the breaking point, another campaign comes to blow (literally) the doors of civility clean off their hinges. Take a look at this new Sisley ad and feel dumbstruck for yourself:

Yes, you saw that right: doped up models “snorting” a white dress with the tagline ‘Fashioin Junkie.” Look more closely and the outrage only gets worse. The black-smudged eyes of one of the models are literally rolling back into her head, mimicking an oh-so-fashionable overdose. How heroin chic! The other model is mid-snort while showing a bit more than we like to show on these safe-for-most ages pages (sorry, we had to add a black box). How totally titillating! And — just in case you missed the point of the straws and the white line-like spaghetti straps — there appears to be an actual pile of cocaine ready and waiting on top of a credit card. How coke is it! I wonder if Chase got a kickback for the use of its card? Or perhaps the company is beginning its own new campaign featuring alternate uses of its plastic product. Next up: How to jimmy a dead bolt with your platinum card!

According to Ads of the World, this print campaign is being used is in Asia. I was trying to figure out the odd spelling on “Fashioin.” At first I thought it might be Italian since Sisley is an Italian brand, but no. And then much to my continued horror, I realized it was probably just a play on the word “Heroin.”

Now, I could go off for pages and pages on what a terrible, terrible message this sends to women, particularly young women. I could rant for days on end about the supposed humor and the giving-the-marketers-more-credit-than-they-actually-deserve commentary this makes on the drug culture in the fashion industry. Or I could expound on how it’s not even original since David LaChapelle already shot the same concept with Amanda Lepore and diamonds (Warning: link NSFW). But what I really want to do instead is stick my head out of the window Network-style and make my point with a succinct yet satisfying, “I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!” Won’t you join me? Trust me, you’ll feel a whole lot better afterward.

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