I Know What I Want For Christmas

  

     This advertisement is taken from Tom Ford’s ad campaign for his men's cologne. Ford is known for using blatant sexuality and nakedness in his campaigns and he often appears in his ads completely naked. Tom Ford's latest cologne ad might be considered a little crude, but the sexy advertising technique is certainly proving effective.  This ad is getting a lot of attention for the provocative image of a woman grabbing her unnaturally (definitely unnatural) round, full breasts with her perfectly manicured hands. She presses them together to show off a bottle of Tom Ford for Men Fragrance in her cleavage. If that were not enough, the lubed-up woman has her bright red lips parted wide to suggest some form of shock or to suggest something rather sexual.
    However, he sends his most blatant message upfront; capitalizing on the fact that sex always sells. "Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at... The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object - and most particularly an object of vision: a sight"[1]. This definitely, unabashedly being marketed to straight men. This woman in this picture see herself as a 'sight', which is why she is so comfortable presenting herself in such fashion. She is what they would call the 'perfect girl' by most guys. But realistically this is not how woman look and this is not something woman should be aiming for.
    Aside from the fact that this one more thing pushing the boundaries in decency just a little bit farther. I do not find this any more shocking than the explicit material you can find published practically anywhere. Bus stops, magazines, billboards, television commercial and pop-ups.
 ‘To be naked is simply to be without clothes, whereas the nude is a form of art’[2]. At least Tom Ford has made it some what artful, I mean just look at the image. He has to an extent taken his advertisements and turned it from being naked to what some would consider art.
    However, in the end sex most definitely sells. And I would be surprised if a small portion of Tom Ford's success is attributed to use of woman in his advertisements.

Work Cited

[1]Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin, 2008.
[2] Berger, John. 53