Referring back to the commercial mentioned earlier about the kids showing up in the morning - What if the guy had a small piece of jewelry in his hand? The implied point would then be to drop it in the drink, and make you double think an initial assumption of the ad. Just a thought.
The “creepy guy” really looks like Robin Thicke to me. Maybe completely unintentional…
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Maybe the guy looked so creepy that’s all the copywriters could come up with at the time."
While anything is possible, the copy is typically written before the shoot.
Bloomingdales has officially apologized.
There have been a gazillion threads about “rape culture” which circle around and arrive where they started. This little nugget of rape culture perfection seems to me like the perfect example. I doubt that anyone associated with the add “meant anything” by it. It apparently didn’t occur to them at all that this “cheeky” copy might be offensive. The pervasive culture makes it seem normal enough to enough people that it passes by the layers of editing unchanged. Some people even think that to find it inappropriate for a department store ad campaign is to be overly sensitive. Some people need to lighten up, they just can’t take a joke. 8-|
Wow–we have our first Bloomingdale’s in the state and now I don’t even want to shop there! That’s an awful ad, no matter what way you look at it. I have unknowingly drunken spiked eggnog or cider (can’t remember, it was decades ago). It took me a few glasses to realize it had alcohol on it and I stopped as soon as I figured it out. It was my boss, the Provost of the U who threw the party and put the alcohol in it for everyone to enjoy. When you’re very naïve, I can see how one can unknowingly a spiked beverage.
… zir drink
Oh good one, sorghum! What a conundrum if B had used zir drink … sensitivity to assuming everyone had a place on the gender binary combined with suggestivity of date rape … I think the internet would have broken!
I was well into my 20’s before I realized there was such a thing as non-alcoholic eggnog! Thanks Dad, for making it so strong that no one would be confused at all about whether or not it contained alcohol.
There are ways to “spike” someone’s drink that don’t involve alcohol, and which are colorless, odorless and tasteless. “Spike” doesn’t refer solely to alcohol.
Would your reaction have been different if it had been implied that a girl was spiking a guy’s drink? Or a girl spiking another girl’s drink, or a guy spiking another guy’s drink? Just curious.
Personally, @Pizzagirl, no. Putting something in anyone’s drink without his or her knowledge is still assault, and still undermines that person’s autonomy and dignity.
Well, I suppose it could have been slightly worse if they mentioned specifically adding “roofies” to the drink, but can’t believe this wasn’t reviewed and approved by MANY people and eyes! Yuck!
“My interpretation would be that the eggnog spiking, (however inappropriate), would be to get your friend to loosen up and enjoy themselves more at the party. After all, that’s the motivation for most of social drinking, isn’t it?”
The problem with this idea is many. First of all, at most adult holiday parties eggnog would have alcohol in it, unless maybe that was an office party or something, odds are the eggnog has alcohol (which in turn implies spiking it with something else, like maybe Rophrenol or some such). Secondly, the woman in the picture is very attractive, wearing a very form fitting dress, and the guy is looking at her , literally leering at her, while her back is turned, and it doesn’t take someone with grade 5 paranoia to see that.
What I don’t understand is if the ad is promoting the fashionable clothing and the idea is about attractiveness, why not have the guy looking at the woman (to her face) and have him lift a glass to her and her smiling?
There are so many ways they could have depicted a happy, festive, fashionable and victim-free party!
Has anyone seen the rest if the spread? I agree that it seems inappropriate and in bad taste, but that would be somewhat mitigated for me if the character at the center of the layout was supposed to be a villain of sorts. Like if it were supposed to be a play on “To Catch A Thief” or something and the other pages were “Steal your hostess’s jewels” or other equally inane captions. It would still be a stupid spread but at least it would be understandable. For me, it is really difficult to evaluate a single caption totally out of context.