Wise consuming

(In order not to offend the sensibilities of anyone, I've decided never to post ugly pictures in this blog. So for this post I'm putting an old Kate Spade ad because it's nice, not because it makes me go "huh?") Ad campaign image from here.

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Ever looked at a new clothing ad campaign and thought, "Huh?"

I have. And more often than I can count!

I'm referring to local clothing brands that have ads that seem to be undermining their purpose--which is to sell. Here's irony for you: on an ad campaign of a brand that's supposed to be selling t-shirts, a male model wearing the t-shirt is trying to pull the shirt off. What, are they saying their shirts are itchy?

And there's a brand for jeans (and underwear?) with a billboard that has the model in a weird pose, wearing some tasseled arm bands/leg warmers, jeans with the fly open... and a bra under... nothing. While I get that they want to sell the underwear, it isn't like people normally walk around with nothing over them (and with arm and leg tassels, lol)! And the jeans? It makes you wonder if the model wore them that way because the button has popped out and the zipper caught.

I have a friend who once wrote a letter to this same clothing brand company to tell them that their underwear ads are not very tasteful. You know what they told her? There's no other way to sell underwear but to do that! I'll say they're just too lazy to think of a better way.

While I would love to support Philippine brands by buying from local stores, it's difficult to stay loyal when you know that some of your money goes to the production of such mind boggling ads. I bought two pairs of jeans from a local store because I like how they fit and how they're not over my budget, but since then, I've spotted some barely-dressed ads with that same clothing brand emblazoned on them, and I can't help thinking my jeans-budget went on to proclaim that barely dressed and voluptuous is the beauty standard of today.

Call me over-acting, but must we consumers let clothing companies dictate what sort of "creativity" goes out there? To thrive, they're the ones depending on us after all.