Oh dear. Sometimes I feel like I forgot to buckle up for a ride on George Orwell’s time machine.
The Mars corporation has just introduced the Fling, a chocolate and hazelnut candy bar aimed at the female market. NPR says:
"Wrapped in a shiny pink and sliver package, this
delicate “chocolate finger” is intended for women. The word “finger” is
an industry term for a long, slim confection, Mars spokesman Ryan
Bowling says, but with ads that invite you to “Pleasure yourself” in
pink lettering, consumers might come to other conclusions.”
With promotional postcards like the one above and a TV spot that starts out with the assumption that strangers are having sex in a store’s dressing room, it sure sounds like Mars is pushing the “I’m too sexy for my candy bar” button.
Word is that the confection is only 85 calories. Is that for the whole bar, or just one finger? No matter how good the candy bar tastes, the taste of the Fling campaign may end up getting the middle finger from female consumers.
"I'm too sexy for my candy bar" - good one Michele!
I'm with you on this one. I wrote about how "Men are from Mars, Women are from Hershey". Hershey's Bliss is targeting a similar audience, but with a very female friendly approach.
we'll see who comes out ahead.
Posted by: Holly Buchanan | May 18, 2009 at 06:42 AM
Michele, how on target you are! This is appalling! Once again, a brand that knows it's missing out by not approaching the HUGE women's market with something very focused, has listened to either a clueless agency, or a brand manager that... never bothered to ask women the right question: would this campaign appeal to you?
I wonder, however, if this isn't aimed at younger women - sadly, as noted in a post I did on Lipsticking, for a woman's shaver from Gillette, [ http://www.lipsticking.com/2009/04/parody-taken-to-a-new-level-funny-or-offensive.html ] younger women are not bothered by this kind of advertising. They not only accept it, they find it humorous.
Whether it will get them to buy, is another question. It just makes me shake my head in wonder.
Posted by: Yvonne DiVita | May 18, 2009 at 09:15 AM
Is this just the epitomy of using the titillation card to sell to women? Like we need SEXual inuendo to be inspired to eat chocolate... No doubt the model in the ad will be an 85lb waif who looks like anything but a choc-o-holic. Younger women may have a more base sense of humor these days but such ads smack of a fraternity boy mentality reaching to a pretty low consumer level. How many women were on this committee I wonder? Godiva for me please:).
Posted by: Susqn Ross, Business Development Coach | May 18, 2009 at 09:56 AM
I think that a group of dirty old men thought this one up...
Women deserve to be treated better than this and Mars should not get away with all the sex-based innuendo.
My wife votes Godiva!
Posted by: Bruce Christensen | May 18, 2009 at 06:07 PM
Puh-lease. The whole 'food as sex' thing is just plain lazy marketing. And do they honestly think an ad like that is going to be titillating? Maybe to 12-year-olds. But this 25-year-old is rolling her eyes.
Posted by: Kelly Watson | Womenwise Marketing | May 19, 2009 at 10:38 AM
My secret chocolate research centre, which I did while very bored in about 10 minutes late on a friday night in... 1998? I think (with no updates since then!) still holds to be true:
http://www.groovygames.com/pages/chocolate/
Posted by: Mark | May 19, 2009 at 05:26 PM
Um, it looks like a twix for ladies.
and no, we are not that dumb
Dr. Wright
www.wrightplacetv.com
Posted by: DR Wright | May 21, 2009 at 11:18 PM