WATCH ABOVE: Montrealers have been struck by the bombardment of hypersexualized advertising amid the holiday displays downtown. Rachel Lau went out to talk to shoppers and found a range of reactions – from outrage to indifference.
MONTREAL – It had the potential to be a cheeky and fun holiday poster, but this eyebrow raising American Eagle ad for Christmas-themed underwear may have gone a little over the top.
Mother of two young children, Samantha Cockburn, definitely thinks so.
“You don’t want to have to explain what it means to be hot or sexy or,” she said. “I just feel they shouldn’t have to try and understand that yet.”
The manager of American Eagle declined to an on-camera interview. She doesn’t have permission from head office to speak to us.
She said a few employees commented that the poster was a bit much, but so far she hasn’t heard any complaints from people walking by the window.
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“There’s more advertising now than ever before,” explained Na’eem Adam, Creative Marketing Vice-President of Mediavation.
“The competition to grab your attention, and they only have around two to three seconds to do that, is harder to do so. So it’s going to become more explicit, more extreme.”
Sexuality in advertising nowadays is obvious. Walk down Sainte-Catherine street in downtown Montreal and the signs are there. This used to cause a stir, but now it seems many are just indifferent.
“I didn’t even notice it,” said one passerby. “I saw it, but it didn’t affect me. I just kept walking.”
Saman Ahsan, the Executive Director of Girl’s Action Foundation, says she’s sees first hand the subtle effects a poster like this can have on young girls.
“Indifference and complacency is not good and it only shows how much these messages are out there,” she said.
“It highlights the need for media literacy education for young people so they can really learn to deconstruct the messages that they’re getting.”
This seductive ad continues to garner quite a lot of attention online.
Some, like Cockburn, say they hope advertisers will open their eyes to the impact they’re having on young children.
“Maybe the next thing will be to swing the pendulum back the other way and have some wholesome advertising and surprise everybody that way,” she said.
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