Horrors! Target Disses BloggersPosted by Bruce Pilgrim Talking to My Cats: 02-12-08 First the ad. Unmistakably, the model's crotch is positioned dead center in the bull's-eye of the logo! This is the most horrific example of the classic sexist objectifying of women in the history of civilization! The art director – obviously a man, of course – is clearly acting out his own violent rape fantasy with this misogynistic piece of dreck – and inviting all other men to indulge in their own sick mind games. The impact of this crime is likely to be felt for generations. Young girls will be forever traumatized, unable to make eye contact with other women or, most especially, with men, lest they too be targeted in just the same way. It could even drive them into lesbianism, which is just what men want, isn't it – as long as they're permitted to watch, right? It sickens me as a member of the advertising and communications community that this sort of thing still happens, even now in the 21st century. I thought we were beyond this, liberated at long last from centuries of treating women as chattels, as somehow less then men, as something to be used, wrung out, and then discarded. Yet, as horrible as the ad was Target's insensitivity to the blogosphere is clearly much, much more horrific. After one Amy Jussel, of the shapingyouth.org blog, contacted Target to complain, a PR spokesperson responded: “Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets,” the New York Times reported. Imagine the gall! The unmitigated insensitivity to the billions of bloggers! These unsung heroes are online working toil day and night without compensation in their bathrobes in their mothers' basements, not even stopping to shower, living on Twinkies and Red Bull. The disrespect shown by Target to these almost kinda sorta journalists is unconscionable. Doesn’t Target get it? Don't they know that the blogosphere brought down Dan Rather? Bloggers are the new media, the voice of the people, and the collective wisdom of the masses. In a day when the Lapdog Reporter constantly promotes seminars on how to pitch bloggers, when bloggers are invited to live blog political debates, and when the influence of these keyboard kibitzers has grown all out of proportion to reality, dissing the bloggers might be career suicide. It also reveals appalling laziness on the part of Target. What, don't you have time to respond to every yahoo with an e-mail account on this planet? Hire some more staff; get some more interns, or bring on the troops from Edelman. Ignore the bloggers at your peril! This is what the web has wrought. Any idiot, including yours truly, can send their dumbass thoughts out into the ether unfiltered, unedited, and uninformed. Democracy is a wonderful thing. Bruce Pilgrim is the CEO and janitor of Bruce Pilgrim Marketing Communications, LLC. He recently published his first book, Talking to My Cats: A Small Business Journal. Bookmark This
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What's worse: the recent Target ad showing a woman in winter clothing lying on the Target logo, or the subsequent shit storm over Target's policy of not responding to bloggers? This is a real toughie, because both acts are extraordinarily heinous events.