Sex Sells

Have you seen the new Reebok commercial? In it a great-looking girl wearing ultra mini-shorts pretends to hawk sneakers while the camera pans along her upper thigh and derriere. When I asked my husband what the spot was actually pitching he couldn't remember. Which is precisely the point. I can't remember either, because I was so incensed by the nature of the ad I was grabbing a pen and making a note to fire off a scathing post to the Reebok Corporation. We're all familiar with sexist content in the world of television advertising, be it subtle or unabashed. Luscious-lipped models sell cosmetic cures. Laundry detergent is peddled by women agonizing over how white they can get those dirty tube socks. Married couples are depicted as trim, attractive women teamed with schlumpy guys. Have you ever seen a commercial pairing a heavy, unattractive female and a good-looking, fit male?

What made the shoe ad especially disconcerting was how flagrantly it breached the line between sexy and sexist. The girl in the ad is in on the joke, happily flaunting her body with a wink and a nudge. Have we gone so retro that Madison Avenue thinks it's OK to regress to Mad Men era mores? Having grown up during those years, I recall the National Airlines ad campaign that was met with derision by the then-embryonic women's movement. It featured stewardesses introducing themselves by name followed by an irresistible invitation: "I'm Eileen. Fly me." Feminists were enraged. National reported a 23% hike in passengers, nearly twice that of the industry as a whole.

That was over thirty-five years ago. We need a Peter-Finch-in-Network-moment here. Are we going to turn back the clock and ignore the enormous strides made in the name of equal rights since then? Let's flood the CEO of Reebok with angry letters and boycott the brand. As the poster I once carried in a Washington, D.C. march read, "We won't go back." When they start selling men's underwear by showing hunks in tight briefs parading down a runway a la' Victoria's Secret, I'll stop complaining.