Weekly wrapup: Fighting sexism FTW

FTW or fail

Each week we select one campaign or marketing move that we agree is 'FTW' (for the win) and one that...isn't.

A study in contrasts this week, with one brand demonstrating an understanding of the challenges women face, especially in the working world, and a couple of other brands demonstrating not only dedication to sexist stereotypes but also ignorance of their own customer base.

Our FTW campaign is this excellent ad by BBDO Guerrero in the Philippines for Pantene, which eloquently illustrates a series of devastating double standards. We'll have more on this campaign's origins and intentions next week. (It also gets extra points for the Tears For Fears song.)

For our fail of the week, we cite Microsoft, and to a lesser extent Sony, for apparently forgetting that 45 per cent of gamers are women.

Microsoft, as reported in many places including Quartz, posted an email form letter that guys could address and send to their significant others in order to persuade them about buying the new Xbox. The email began:

“Hey honey, Not sure if you’ve heard, but Xbox One is now available. That means we can start playing games like Dead Rising 3. I know, I know. You’d rather knit than watch me slay zombies.”

Knitting?

For its part, Sony placed an ad on page three in the UK's The Sun. That spot is where the newspaper normally features a topless woman (speaking of sexism), so this might have been an opportunity for Sony to actually win points among women. But instead the ad went with the following copy: "Apologies to Rosie, 22, from Middlesex. Today’s page 3 is for the players." 

Because women aren't players, you see.

 

Top stories

The most-read items on CampaignAsia.com for the week of 29 November through 5 December.

1. Carter Murray on Draftfcb restructure and new international president
2. Xaxis APAC lead Michel de Rijk on merger with 24/7 Media
3. Shannon Dix takes on HTC global marketing role
4. Branded content: That's entertainment
5. Shortlist for Agency Network of the Year released
6. Leo Burnett Hong Kong wins Grand Kam Fan award from HK4As
7. Nike uses hero archetypes to get Chinese into running
8. From China, with love
9. Being Worldwide wins remit for two Mondelez biscuit brands
10. Josephine Tsai resigns from The Gate Shanghai after three months

 

Distractions

A few items that crossed our glowing screens this week, most of which are at least tangentially related to marketing.

1. Last week we mentioned British Airways' cool OOH ad where a kid on a dynamic billboard pointed to real BA flights passing overhead. As our UK colleagues at Brand Republic reported this week, Domino's was quick to have some fun with the concept.

 

2. We enjoyed this list of 30 new year's resolutions for brands compiled by Digiday. Some choice examples:

• I won’t call ads content.
• I  won’t pretend we have a “newsroom.” It’s really a couple of PR people and a fancy flat-screen.
• Strike me down if I say “surprise and delight.”
• No more relying on my 12-year-old daughter for digital strategy ideas.
• Will stop confusing stunts with big ideas.
   

3. Lego recreations of movie scenes are a thing, as you're probably aware. But Bricktease's jaw-dropping Lego version of the infamous shopping-mall car chase from the 1980 film The Blues Brothers is the most ambitious (not to mention insane) that we've seen. Watch the side-by-side comparison video below, and the extensive making-of video, to see if you don't agree. From a marketing point of view, we're not sure whether Lego supports Bricktease, but it certainly should.

4. Analog TV broadcasts in Sydney ended this past week, all at the same moment. We appreciate that someone preserved the event for posterity. It's not terribly significant, but stlll interesting in an end-of-an-era kind of way.

 

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading Campaign Asia-Pacific.