A quick overview: the Mic Mac Mall in Dartmouth, NS ran these ads for their back-to-school campaign. All of their ads had a similar style as depicted above, and all featured women only. The ads were pulled by the mall after only a week. So many people complained about the ads being sexist, insulting, and demeaning to women that the mall actually issued a formal apology as well as donated $5,000 to an organization which works towards empowering women.
My personal thoughts: do I feel that these ads are sexist? Yes. Do I feel that the mall did the right thing in pulling them and apologizing? Yes, but they shouldn't have run them in the first place. If I was part of the mall's advertising board, and received the proposition to put out these ads, I would definitely voice my opinion and do all I could to make them see that it is wrong. Sometimes I don't understand how these types of things are green-lit.
Despite us living in a (supposedly) modern, forward-thinking world, sexism is still very much prevalent. Some would probably like to argue that with me, but they'd be just as bad as all the others if they can't see that women are still not viewed as equals to men. There is too much ignorance in our world. Think of all the stories you here of rape and sexual assault. How many of those victims are women vs. men? To any women reading this, how many times in high school were you told to change your outfit because it was too revealing? How many times in the workplace are you limited in what you wear? How many times do your family members tell you to 'cover up'? And to all the men out there, how many times has this happened to you? Do you ever feel unsafe in clubs and bars, or social settings? Do you ever fear for your life and your safety whenever you go out drinking?
We live in a society where it's okay to tell a woman to cover herself up, because the men around her will be 'distracted' by her exposed skin and can't get their minds out of the gutter. At what fault is that of the woman? Why should she be punished and judged because the men around her can't control themselves? It's a disgusting way of thinking, and we've been trained to think in this matter because it's been taught to us in high school and at work. And this advertisement is another perfect example of degrading women to the status of less-than-human.
The first thing which comes to mind when reading this ad, is the message "women are stupid". According to this ad, women or girls don't like school and would rather be buying clothes or on Facebook than studying or working towards higher education. The next thing I think of is that this ad makes women seem like objects. I think of this because the ad uses illustrations of women rather than a photograph. This allows the ad to give the women a more 'mindless' feel to them, since they are not real. It's almost as if you can state that women are ditzy and only care about shopping, and it's okay because they're not 'real' women shown. It's still not okay. In fact, it's images like these that make some people believe that women really are stupid, or less than human, and can be treated as such as well. Something like this may not seem like it would be a contributor in rape culture or sexism, but even the smallest things have an impact on the bigger picture.
I feel like the Mic Mac Mall has done what it could in order to apologize for these ads, but the agency which executed and made the ads for them has seemingly done nothing. I would have liked to see them also release a statement or apology for these ads they created, but I doubt that will happen. Hopefully, the more we push these negative images out of our media, the more we can work towards equality for women. It may seem minuscule, but I truly believe that every little change can help.
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