The Frankenstein Bikini Approach ~ Saving Chinese-made brands
Visually, a common way of scaring people is to take a nice beach or ocean scene and totally bend our perceived perfection of the place. AdAge does that in the following article:
AdAge: “Brands Blind to China Crisis ~ Experts Slam Marketers for Sticking Their Heads in the Sand” by Mullman and Neff ~ August 20, 2007
with this image (reduced):
Normally I wouldn’t feel that a simple manipulation of a playful ocean shot is terribly creative, but I think that the image here, produced by Tim Bradley, has combined several other cliche “scare” elements to make it pop.
First off, he has added a Barbie-like doll. With reports that Mattel has fallen into the recall trap on many of its toys, this is not just about representing people with a doll. Mattel is often considered to be synonymous with Barbie. This doll has actual meaning. Then putting her parts back together with metal nails talks to the scary metal contents that have led to many of the Chinese toy recalls. The specific Barbie recall is apparently about small magnets. From Mattel’s recall notice PDF:
“These magnets can be swallowed or aspirated by young children or placed by a child in their nose or ears. When more than one magnet is swallowed, the magnets can attract to each other and cause intestinal perforation, infection or blockage, which can be fatal. Aspiration to the lungs requires immediate surgery.” See Mattel Consumer Relations Answer Center
Intestinal perforation is not fun, hence the second element of rearranging the natural path of the body parts and putting them back together with nails instead of magnets since those are now off limits. He tops it off with the final actual cattle branding of “Made in China” on her hourglass stomach (more sand), a classic way to make some Americans cringe about product quality and loss of jobs, not to mention taking an American symbol, stripping her of her beach freedom, and marking her for recalled destruction.
Maybe I’m just reading into it all. Maybe Bradley was just responding to the authors’ own subtitle cliche that “Experts Slam Marketers for Sticking Their Heads in the Sand”. With as many escape and paradise images that surround us, I would say that they have had their heads there for a very long time.
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Posted on August 19, 2007
Filed Under Bikinis, Business and Commerce, Cultural Symbols, Growing Up, Public Service Announcements (PSA) |
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