Let’s jump back 40 years in time to the 1980s, which is when I grew up. Advertising, supermodels, and commercials were all over the place, and any major brand would feature a very attractive person, such as, let’s say, Christie Brinkley:
On Saturday morning, I walked into a local Target store to pick up something one of my kids needed. I don’t make a habit of walking into retail stores, especially the moment they open on a Saturday, but I was running some errands and wanted to get this task done. I did not go into Target with the objective of writing a post about it, but here we are.
The moment I walked into the store, right next to the huge Pride display (which has been getting all the attention lately) I was confronted with this image:
It struck me as very out-of-place. After all, they were trying to sell bikinis. The kinds of images of women in bikinis I grew up with didn’t feature women there were overweight. They featured slender, sexy models that looked great in bikinis. The idea being, obviously, that a shopper looking at such a poster would think that they would look something like that as well, and all they would have to do is buy it.
But it got worse immediately, because I walked a few steps more and saw this massive image, way up high for all to see.
It was immediately obviously to me that the woman pictured in the bathing suit was a varsity athlete compared to the other models they decided to use.
Now, I’ve never been in the market to buy women’s undergarments (honest!), but if I were, I’d probably want to be presented with some more inspiring images than those shown here. Or, I suppose, I’d feel an awful lot better about myself in comparison, which is maybe the point. I’m honestly not quite sure what the logic was behind their choices.
And it wasn’t just photos. The mannequins were in on it, too.
As I recall, back in the 1990s, there was a trend in fashion known as “heroin chic“, which featured models that were preposterously thin (as if they were heroin addicts, like that was something to joke about). Following that trend, I guess the massive cultural backlash against models that were unrealistically thin has hurled the pendulum in the other direction.
I can just hear the conversations in glass meeting rooms now…….”We want our models to look like our customers.”
Yeah, but do you think the customers want that, too?
I wish I could tell you that my observations only pertained to weight, but that’s before I took a few more paces forward. Apparently the corporation isn’t just celebrating the morbidly obese. They have also embraced the aesthetically displeasing. I mean, honestly……..yuck.
I know I’m no male model, but I’ve never had any reason to believe a company should put me in their advertisements. So why am I having to look at stuff like this?
I’m sure the person pictured above was getting absolute zero traction in their own modeling career, but then along comes Target and says not only are you going to be included, but we’d like you to show a nice big grin to feature that enormous unsightly gap between your teeth. Sign this agreement!
Not to be outdone, the cosmetics department saw the gap-toothed grin and said “Hold my beer“:
Yes, this is the cosmetics department. Take a good, hard look at the center of the photo. This person looks like they’re in the burn recovery unit of an intensive care ward. Why on Earth would I look at such a thing and be inspired to start chucking cosmetic products into my shopping cart? Jesus H. Christ!
Was it truly that insane when companies wanting to sell beauty products actually featured, ya know, women who were beautiful? Is there something WRONG with that now???
This all makes just zero sense to me. Everything’s a bell curve, people. In a bell curve of physically attractiveness, the people on the left side of the curve are very ugly. The people on the extreme right are very beautiful. One would assume you’d want to use those folks wayyyyyy over on the right side of the curve so that the folks in the middle would buy the crap they’re selling.
Let’s take a totally different human property besides superficial attractiveness. Let’s say you are touring private schools, trying to pick the best one for your child. Who do the competing schools feature in their literature, on their websites, and at their presentations? The slowest, dumbest kids from the school? The ones who are barely able to keep up?
No, they feature the smartest, most articulate, and most successful ones because…………that’s what YOU want your kid to become! It’s aspirational! This is human behavior 101: looking up to those whom they admire for some characteristics (be it physical prowess, aesthetic beauty, raw intellectual power, or whatever the case may be) and striving – – or at least hoping – – to emulate that in their own lives.
Why Target has decided to feature – – and I’m sorry to be so callous about it, but this is the simple truth – – – fat, ugly people on gargantuan displays is absolutely beyond me. Target is a business, is it not? The want to maximize sales and profits? That was my understanding. So unless looking at this wretched human refuse compels people to buy more stuff from Target than ever before, then I’m seriously not sure what the point of it all is.
Oh, by the way, they didn’t have what I was looking for, even though their website said they had it, so I left.
And I don’t think I’ll be going back.
