Just A Guy Thing

A woman’s scantily-clad behind with the slogan “On Special Offer” in French has been named the most degrading advertisement of 2008 by a French and Swiss feminist association called the Guard Dogs. The ad, made by Swiss underwear company Sloggi, was given the award for “promoting pornography and prostitution.”

The Guard Dogs – which have been giving the awards to the advertising industry for eight years – also gave another prize to Italian coffee company Lavazza for “gratuitous nudity that has nothing to do with the product.” The ad had a picture of a naked woman on all fours with some kind of dead animal on her back. Yech.

I would say the Lavazza ad probably deserves an award for “worst use of Photoshop”. Or how about “ad least likely to make me want to try the product”?

The Guard Dogs also hand out gold, silver and bronze ‘Macho medals’ for the most sexist remarks made by men.

Paris Archbishop Monseigneur Vingt-Trois took home the gold for his comments about the problem of recruiting more women into the church: ‘The most difficult thing is finding women who are well-educated. It’s not enough just to be wearing a skirt, they also need something between their ears as well.’ Congrats Monseigneur – you must be very proud.