What is wrong with sexist advertising? Is it not a reflection of society? What is sexist advertising?

At the recent Cannes Lions 2006 Lynx won numerous ads for their new campaign “Lynx Jet”.

The target market (in marketing term, “the people we want to talk to”) was young males. This is what came out as a result.

TV Ad

This here is another Lynx ad targetting “young males” which screened in England.

Is this sexist? Does this bother females?

If you want to see the entire campaign check 21stcenturymarketing for a documentary on the making of this campaign.

I think it’s appropriate (at least from me) that my first post on this collective project puts a shout out to Chris Locke and Co. for their insight and vision some time back when they, like us here at beezhouse put their minds together to pen a book titled The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual

This book changed my life and is partly responsible I think, for the fact that every Goat, Monkeyboy, Oz and Daydreamer is now blogging. A pretty big statement you might think, but when I read this a couple of years ago and then again earlier this year, the light inside my head that flicked on the first time blew up and infiltrated every bone in my body.

Don’t get me wrong everyone, this is no commercial plug, believe me, The Cluetrain does not need it. It is more like an acknowledgement of respect to insight that has to a degree been taken to community application.

For those of you who are interested in reading it, here is a short review from Amazon:

How would you classify a book that begins with the salutation, “People of Earth…”? While the captains of industry might dismiss it as mere science fiction, The Cluetrain Manifesto is definitely of this day and age. Aiming squarely at the solar plexus of corporate America, authors Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger show how the Internet is turning business upside down. They proclaim that, thanks to conversations taking place on Web sites and message boards, and in e-mail and chat rooms, employees and customers alike have found voices that undermine the traditional command-and-control hierarchy that organizes most corporate marketing groups. “Markets are conversations,” the authors write, and those conversations are “getting smarter faster than most companies.” In their view, the lowly customer service rep wields far more power and influence in today’s marketplace than the well-oiled front office PR machine…

Buy this book at Amazon

 
 

How often have you wondered why banks make soooo much money? I certainly have.
Record profits every year.
“HSBC has unveiled the biggest profits ever by a UK High Street bank, making a pre-tax profit of £11.5bn($20.97bn) in 2005, aided by growth in new markets.” “Two federally-controlled banks, the Caixa Econômica Federal (basically a savings and mortgage institution) and the Banco do Brasil, have announced record operational profits in 2005.” “National Bank sets record year-end profit”. and so on.
What this says to me is that a), someone is charging a shitload in fees, b) the small guy is losing out, c) why haven’t I founded my own bank and d) is there an alternative?
Well there seems to be an alternative. Although I don’t want to promote a company here as yet, there are apparently some banks starting up now where the money you borrow isn’t directly from a bank, rather from other…people! Interesting concept. Mediaeval maybe, but interesting.
It’s bascially a swap market for money - people lend it and people borrow it. It’s abit like buying on ebay, someone is willing to lend you money for a certain interest rate (which is lower than that of the major banks), and you have to “bid” for it to get that amount of money at that lending rate. It seems great.
However, what also fascinates me is one companies concept behind it all - making “borrowing and lending money fun” and supporting a good cause.
I guess the question is how safe is it, which it seems to be to an extent.
Really however, your money is never “really safe” though is it?