The blogger who was writing about this was furious. National Cleavage Day (which took place on April 3rd) was a "holiday" being promoted by Wonderbra as a form of female empowerment.
The Wonderbra website explained the campaign with the following:
WONDERBRA has won a firm victory for social upliftment. Their NCD [National Cleavage Day] Party, whose constant, non-discriminatory support policies assure that both the left and the right remain empowered and uplifted, will now be in effect immediately.It was only through this extensive campaigning for a woman´s right to be wonderful, that NATIONAL CLEAVAGE DAY, on Friday 3rd April 2009, has now been declared a PUBLIC HOLIDAY.
Now, I won't deny that Wonderbra's public relations and advertising teams are good with words. That's not my issue here. They're paid to make anything sound good.
What I don't like about this whole campaign is how it attempts to cover up purely commercial interests with flimsy claims of female empowerment. I'm all for a woman's right to choose what to wear (or not to wear), but the way Wonderbra is using women's bodies to sell their products completely contradicts what their National Cleavage Day is all about. Women's movements have long been trying to desexualize the female body in public, and all National Cleavage Day does is promote highly sexualized images of women in the public sphere.
I thought the way the author of the Alternet post presented the issue was rather telling.
I shit you not.
A quote from the sponsor's spokesperson (Wonderbra's Samantha Peterson): "It gives women a chance to be beautiful and glow in the furtive, yet appreciative, glances their cleavage evokes from men," she said.
Male gaze ruled crucial! Film at eleven!
Sigh.
At its core, National Cleavage Day isn't about female empowerment. It's just another campaign following the not-so-ancient adage, "sex sells."
Here are two links to other women who've blogged about this:
2 comments:
nauseating!
Regardless of whether it's a campaign full of spins that's it's actually funny, the way it objectifies women is just disgusting. But then again, that has been WonderBra's strategy from the get-go.
I wonder what women were wearing (or not)at the party..? :S
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
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