Coca-Cola is facing criticism over its marketing campaign for a new high-end milk drink, with online commenters labelling the ads “sexist”, “gratuitous” and “boring”.
The ads – made to promote the company’s new “premium milk brand” Fairlife, launching in the US later this month – feature photos of naked women covered in milk.
One photo goofily plays on Marilyn Monroe’s iconic flying skirt moment (“Milk with flair!”, says the attached tagline), while another sees a woman standing on a set of weight scales with a shocked look on her face, in that classic pose of female-directed advertising. “Better milk looks good on you,” says an accompanying caption; “Drink what she’s wearing,” says another.
According to Laura Bates from The Guardian, the ads appear to be based on “an existing set of photographs by London-based photographer Jaroslav Wieczorkiewicz”, called’Milky Pin-Ups’.
“Seeing these images of women’s bodies being used, once again, to advertise an unrelated consumer product is a tedious reminder that when it comes to the objectification of women in advertising, we seem to be slipping backward instead of moving forward,” wrote Bates.
Read the full article here. Lead image via The Mirror.
