Why you have to boycott Intimissimi now
Yesterday night I was walking by the U-Bahn Station Altastadt Spandau in Berlin and my look ended up in this big Intimissimi new bra advertisement. I was about to go through the underground crosswalk when I suddenly found myself alone with this big photo — in front of me, right on the other side of the floor. I had just the time to take a pic with my iPhone before it died and before to jump into the U7.
If my iPhone hadn’t died right after I took this picture, I would have twitted immediately my huge disappointment about this cheeky sexist Intimissimi’s add, but my phone’s death left me 45 minutes (Berlin Spandau — Warschauer Strasse) time to reflect on why we should start boycoitting Intimissimi now.
The question is: why in 2017 do we still need to sexualize women’s body to persuade other people (men and women) to buy clothes the big fashion brands want to sell — litterally at all costs?
The Intimissimi advertisement has a strategical structure where a pair of photoshopped boobs are geometrically placed not only in the middle of the photo, but also at the eye level of those who walk by. It’s impossible not to see it.
The Woman has a blank look which let her look like a lifeless mannequin, without personality, without the ability to communicate something with the eyes (listless) or with the mouth (half-closed, like she was about to say something but she missed the voice).
She is just a “boobs owner”, whom main task is to show how an unrealistic body can fit with the new Intimissimi bra.
Needless to say, Intimissimi makes use of women body for its marketing strategy, probably trying to attract men — who are going to buy the bra expecting their girlfriend to look like the model in the picture ( → Women Objectivation!) or even worse… trying to attract women — who are going to think that the way it looks in the add is the right way a woman body should look like ( → Unrealistic representation of woman body!).
In the age of a new fight against body shaming, where women are raising up for the other women’s right to be happy with their own body despite imperfections (boycotting the standardized racial, body, size targets), Intimissimi new sexist campaign is a slap in the face and a big drop behind: women breast has no good or bad standard, is not a matter of “perfect” or “imperfect”, is not to be adapted in the last fashion brand’s bra.
So please, STOP creating a fake and mostly men-centered paradigm of women body, far from the real beauty of its variety. STOP forcing women to feel ashamed if their bodies don’t reflect this fake model. STOP sexualizing women body to sell things. STOP photoshopping boobs to dictate a false representations.
Making the impact with a realistic women-first mindest, playing an empathy and not a shaming game, using the power of the identification process and humanity is the real good marketing.
