Modelling Behavior?

Straight Guy,

Remember my Nov. 5 post about my gym and its new Calvin Klein underwear ads on the men's locker room wall?

It's gotten worse. They've gone from small and black and white to large and in color.

Love the eye candy, but it also reminds me how impossible that physical ideal is to attain. It's not making me want to work out harder.

Question: Would anyone buy underwear if the man or woman modeling it looked like a fairly normal recognizable human being?

--Gay Guy


7 comments:

Straight in Upstate said...

First, I've never been influenced by underwear ads. What's cheap and doesn't chafe? But I gotta say, I'm totally brainwashed, not sure how I would react to "normal models". Even the Dove "Real Beauty" campaign (I think, I could be wrong) uses models that are at the lower end of normal body size and weight. They aren't sticks but they aren't national average, either.

Unknown said...

I concur with Straight in Upstate, I am more about comfort and no perma wedgies. (thongs only last a few minutes on me and it comes with a set of....) :) I do however, love the Dove campaign since it was very inclusive of women's varying shapes, complexion and ethnicity. The pictures on the boxes of undies do not influence me, although they are nice to look at that is just about it.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure if real life models have ever been used in ads. It would be interesting to see what happened if suddenly it was switched. Would we all give our the conscious/unconscious reflected glory we get when purchasing the items?

Gay Guy said...

Thanks for all the comments. I can only hope that my gym ceases or at least slows down on the soft core porn. I'll be less pensive . . . and you'll have to read less.

BothWays said...

I don't think I want to see underwear models with average bodies. I just enjoy the eye candy - that's what models are there for.

When it comes to Dove...while I like the idea, it's hard to get behind a company that puts this message out and then continues to sell beauty products, including skin whitening cream. This has kinda been an ongoing discussion at another blog I read - http://www.feministing.com/archives/007835.html

kathryn said...

Why do we have to SEE the underwear on a PERSON? I think we've all seen underwear at one time or another in our lives, no? Do we really need to see it on a person to make us want to buy it?

I say we steal all the posters, turn 'em over and draw stick figures of people holding the undies at arm's length, with big grins on their faces. Then we'll put 'em back up in
the exact same spot.

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