This photograph of an ad in a Netherlands train station was snapped by a Shapely Prose reader. It’s an ad for identity theft prevention — in short, the woman in the photograph “loses her head” over seeing a bag of candy, and her distraction allows the man behind her at the ATM to see her personal information and presumably her PIN number. Because she’s fat. And fat people, they just love the candy! Get it. GET IT????
Kate Harding does a much better job than I could of tearing this bullshit to threads:
This goes the basic “Fatties are obsessed with food” theme one better, adding the message that fatties are infantile (which is a fairly common theme, too, come to think of it). See, all you have to do is dangle a gross-looking bag of candy in front of a fat woman, and she’ll completely forget she’s an adult performing banking functions! (Hey, maybe that explains the correlation between fat and poverty.) Since we all know fatties have no impulse control, adore cheap junk food, and can’t take responsibility for themselves — just like small children! — it makes all the sense in the world!
And then we have the decapitation. Now, I’m assuming this is part of a series of ads in which other stereotypes also “lose their heads” over seeing something people like them ostensibly enjoy. (I’d bet a whole lot of money there’s one of a young dude losing his head over a hot, barely dressed woman.) So I don’t think they just thought it would be hilarious to cut a fat woman’s head off — though I’m kind of disturbed that they thought the whole “losing your head” premise, expressed this way, was funny at all. But still, for all its cartoonishness, this is a picture of a woman’s goddamned head separated from her body; it’s a violent image. And we’re supposed to laugh at this violent image, because, dude, IT’S SO TRUE! FAT WOMEN CAN’T CONTROL THEMSELVES AROUND CANDY! And also, of course, because fat people are intrinsically funny. Did you see her double chin? SITTING ON THE GROUND? Har har!
I for one am really fucking tired of seeing women (and people of all genders, but women get it the worst) devalued based on their weight, and fat being used as the butt of a joke — particularly in ways that portray overweight people as stupid, childish, inherently unhealthy and obsessed with food. It’s not funny, it’s demeaning and it’s bullshit.
Oh, and by the way, when those completely off-topic and ill-informed, “but it’s unheeeaaalllthy to be fat!!! Why are you promoting unheeeaaalllthy behavior???” whiners inevitably show up, their comments are going to get deleted. Deal with it.
I see this add as a lost opportunity to criticise ogling and street harassment. Imagine a very attractive woman in the place of the candy and a man in the place of the woman.
But I guess that any critique of objectifying women is something that the advertising industry couldn’t do without exploding.
Yes, the ad is offensive, not only in its choice of representing the “losing one’s head” aspect. Put in any combination of characters – a gay man checking out another guy, or a man and a woman, or vice versa, or a woman checking out shoes or a man checking out a football match, or me distracted by stall selling used books. There is no good way to represent the ad’s sentiment using this arrangement of characters without exploiting some sterotypical image or being found offensive to someone. The message could still be delivered but the sentiment used to deliver it would have to be different. Overall, a poor decision by the advertising agency that made it. (later on when I find it I’ll send a Dutch ad to be picked apart – one that I like, both for message and presentation, but I would find your opinions interresting).
just – kudos for this post.
At first glance that ad creeped me out ’cause I thought the kid had a head on a string that he was dragging along with his candy, and I was like “Halloween is officially *messed up* now! Geez!” And the bag of candy kinda looked like guts or something… maybe I’m just morbid.
Now that I see what’s *actually* going on it’s still creepy. I agree with greg; it seems impossible to represent this “adult-so-distracted-by-X-they-lose-their-head” idea without relying entirely on stereotypes, which is pretty much inescapably bad. It’s fat-shaming with a massive dose of “she was asking for it” while simultaneously failing to inform about ID-theft. …So just a lose-lose, really.
I see this add as a lost opportunity to criticise ogling and street harassment. Imagine a very attractive woman in the place of the candy and a man in the place of the woman.
But then it would be the woman’s fault the guy’s ID was stolen. Duh. ;p
um…. WHAT??
seriously? who the hell that this ad was a good idea? the only thing *I* am getting out of the ad (without the knowledge given by the critique) is that young children are a menace who behead overweight older women with purported bags of candy. from the print, i don’t even SEE a connection to identity theft! yes, the explanation makes it makes sense, but without it the scene is just… macabre.
plus its fucking insulting. the people who designed this ad went out if their way to make the woman as unattractive as possible and then punished her for not living up to THEIR standards of beauty. i had advertising…
erm.. that is, i HATE advertising. sorry.
[...] Feministe » Well Maybe Your Identity Wouldn’t Have Gotten Stolen if You Weren’t So Fat "I for one am really fucking tired of seeing women (and people of all genders, but women get it the worst) devalued based on their weight, and fat being used as the butt of a joke — particularly in ways that portray overweight people as stupid, childish, inherently unhealthy and obsessed with food. It’s not funny, it’s demeaning and it’s bullshit. [...]
[...] Well Maybe Your Identity Wouldn’t Have Gotten Stolen if You Weren … By Feministe ,November 23, 2008 This photograph of an ad in a Netherlands train station was snapped by a Shapely Prose reader. It’s an ad for identity theft prevention — in short, … [...]
And to top it all off, the ad itself isn’t even helpful! The PIN is of no use to someone who doesn’t already have your bank card and/or account number. Unless things are entirely different over in the Netherlands, or I have some crazy bank that requires a PIN to verify the information you just provided.
I’d bet a whole lot of money there’s one of a young dude losing his head over a hot, barely dressed woman.
Bingo!
Sliver, it’s not, but you’re right. It tries to make the point the you should screen your PIN so that subsequent copying or stealing the card is useless, but erm… well, I don’t see it either. I just see awful.
glad you put that last bit up about the “it’s unhealthy!!!” whiners. um…so you say it is unhealthy…why does that give you the right to hate people? is what i would say to them.
Ugh, what an awful ad… Completely sickening. Honestly if you hadn’t explained the ad, I would have been like wtf is this crazy ad even selling… identify theft? a bit of a stretch.