Commercials. While most television viewers claim to hate the tiny annoyances that pop up on their screen and interrupt an evening with their favorite show, it’s equally true that commercials hold true potential to sway customers into buying a product. Numerous studies have shown the effectiveness of ads, particularly where fast food is concerned, which is why the companies continue to shell out the big bucks it takes to have their commercials run on television.
It’s equally true, however, that the wrong sort of advertising can turn a customer off of a product. Rebecca, a 28-year-old stay at home mom, says this was true of the deodorant Secret for years. “They always used to run that commercial. You know the one that said their product was ‘strong enough for a man, but made for a woman’? I hated that commercial so much. It was supposed to be a product for women, but every time they ran that ad, it felt like they were talking down to me. Like they were saying women weren’t as good as men, or something.” Her hated of the slogan made Rebecca vow not to use the Secret brand of deodorant.
In 2003, Secret changed their advertising slogan, to one much more friendly for their target demographic. The deodorant that was once “strong enough for a man, but made for a woman” is now advertised as “strong enough for a woman.”
Did that make a difference to Rebecca? “Absolutely. The first time I heard the commercial, I thought I was hearing things. But after a couple times hearing the new slogan, I figured I’d ease up on the product. It helped that it was on sale at the place I shop, but if they hadn’t changed their stupid slogan, I never would have tried it.”
A company that could stand to learn a lesson from Secret’s market plan is Subway. Far from respecting their potential customers, Subway’s ads seem determined to talk down to potential customers.
It is understandable that a company whose main spokesperson is Jared Fogle, the man who lost over 200 lbs. by eating Subway meals, would chose to focus their ad campaigns on the healthy qualities of their food. Indeed, the health quotient is the one area where Subway definite defeats the competition.
Still, the new crop of ads take this promotional tool too far.
In the ads, a very slender young woman goes up to the counter of a fast food restaurant and starts to place her order. The person behind the cash register cheerfully informs the patron that the meal will come with a side order of lower self esteem and losing her boyfriend.
Apparently, eating at McDonald’s makes you completely unlovable. The more troubling and implicit theme is that a woman’s worth is wrapped up not only in her waist size – something she should worry about even if she is Hollywood stick thin – but in her boyfriend as well.
These commercials do not offer a positive message about eating Subway to improve your health. There is no mention of saturated fat or calories, or the good that eating a fresh made sub can have over eating a greasy cheeseburger to a person’s arteries.
These commercials instead prey on young women, a portion of the population that is already predisposed to having the kind of low self esteem that leads to eating disorders. It’s made all the more abhorrent by the fact that that the woman in the commercial is thin enough that the idea of one meal at McDonalds making her “fat” and “undesirable” is ludicrous.
These commercials certainly don’t do Subway any favors. Healthy eating may be something we should all strive towards, but cultivating and mining already low self esteem is a shady act. It’s far better that a woman be a happy, healthy weight while eating a cheeseburger and not having a boyfriend than submitting herself to unrealistic and potentially deadly eating disorders to get one. This woman is strong enough to not eat at Subway for as long as they continue to believe otherwise.
