Wtf is this advert? I find it disturbing.

I wear my knickers around my arse and hips, not my chest- have I being doing it wrong all these years?

I think the "oh no, we can't show men and women in the same way and that is sexist" is a little old at this point. Sure there is a cultural element to how different societies view secondary sexual characteristics and if we lived in the Amazon jungle we might see them differently. That doesn't make it bad to see breasts as a sexual signifier though.

Useful in what way?

Well I find it useful, so I’d prefer to see them on a model and not a mannequin. Again, different strokes for different folks.

Yeah, nobody needs to see knickers modelled; you can bet 90% of the buyers are shaped nothing like the model so it's not particularly useful.

I've just done a bit of online research on knickers.
Many of the well known high street stores don't even model the knickers, the underwear is simply shown on its own or, if they're a pack of, say 6, are shown one on top of the other.
A few online sites show the knickers on models, but the picture is cut off at just above waist level.
Others have used a mannequin to advertise knickers. Again, it is only the waist to lower hip region shown in the photo.
I don't see the need to show any further up the body when you're trying to sell knickers.

I've just bought some!

I’m always looking out for some comfy pants, they look comfy, the model looks comfy in them, and the advert made me laugh! I just thought the advert really spoke to me, as I’ve explained from my previous posts. If I’m going to buy pants, which I will, I might as well check this company out!

That’s interesting q will! What about the ad would encourage you to buy from them?

And isn’t this the best thing that has come out of this new way of advertising? You can have your opinion on it and won’t buy from them. I have a completely different opinion on it and it would encourage me to buy from them.

Eww this is so ugly and so confused.
it’s drawing attention to the chest, not the product. What have bosoms got to do with knickers? If you want to make a point about what bits of ladies you can show, there must be a simpler way. And this photo is still objectifying her, even if the choice of blonde at beach is supposedly ironic.
what has any of it got to do with them being comfy?
I read it as some awful self righteous’we sell to men who want to wear Women’s knickers as well’ which made me feel a bit ugh tbh. Not even knickers are our own any more.
it also looks as if she’s had a double masectomy, which is also not a way to install the best of feel good feelings.
just yuk. I reckon a junior creative team who wanted to suprise. Be fun to know what sex they are. I reckon women who want to be right on and a bit shocking.
Too wierd if blokes.

Sorry, I’m not sure I was clear enough. For me it was nothing about the nipples, as I said, I felt it was just a a way of communicating how women’s bodies are objectified in the media, when men’s aren’t in the same context.

Would you be more inclined to buy them if the woman advertising them was topless, though? That's the point, it would make zero difference to the vast majority of women.
Men, certainly, but they're not trying to sell them to men.

I think it’s hard to aim things at ‘all women’, you can see from here people have different opinions. I’d buy those pants as they look comfortable, but to some they wouldn’t. I’ve worn a lot of different pants over the years, and not sure I want something that caters for everywoman as bums come in all different shapes and sizes.

im not sure how this is aimed at men though (I’m not sure this image appeals to the majority of men or women). Do men still buy underwear for the occasions you’ve mentioned? Seems pretty outdated, and they’re hardly the 90s tacky Anne Summers type things?

I just really don’t think it’s about showing nipples or not, just a social commentary on how the same item of clothing is marketed for men and women.

It doesn't feel like an ad aimed at women. Even the point about being able to show male nipples/breasts but not female nipples/breasts does not feel like it has any relevance to women in this context.

Are men expected to buy these for women? If it was Christmas or Valentines season, maybe.

I think it's basically a marketing gaff designed by people accustomed to catering to the male view.

(I also find the hairless male chest unattractive.)

@Qwill they can - but it’s disingenuous to pretend that young topless women are not used as objective sexual used objects in advertising. My point was that if this ad is meant to be a statement about women not being able to go topless it is not really doing much to challenge the tradition of objectifying young women in advertising.

but you make an interesting point about how it could be otherwise interpreted.

Some womens boobs are literally that flat so would that be disturbing? I wonder how you function in life and manage to leave your house if something like this creeps you out

not that’s what I think this advert is doing, but why can’t attractive young women feel happy to be topless?

Ok, I just didn’t see it about nipples really at all, the nipples just being the vehicle to show the difference in advertising. Images, and all art is so subjective, and it’s a great way to discuss how we see things. Men have often looked at women’s underwear catalogues as a stimulant, this advert would probably have a very different effect on them - depending on what they were looking for!

If this genuinely was a call for women to be free to go topless - it would not be a skimpy attractive young woman photoshopped and jumping around for joy about being topless.

if it was a woman in her 50s who’s breastfeed two children i would be more inclined and indeed open minded to seeing it as a call for female empowerment to be free from body objectication. This is not that.

I also take it as a statement about male nipples being ok but not female nipples. Isn't there some kind of #freethenipple campaign around? I seem to remember talk about it when I was breastfeeding and reading around that topic.

But the reality is that womens boobs are much more likely to be a source of sexual attraction than mens chests

I think denying this is just defaulting as always to the malw
body as the norm and the woman’s body as the other/different.

I agree! They don’t need to show a man’s tits either, but they do. That’s why I think it’s a great advert, nobody has made such a stink about showing men’s waxed nipples before whilst promoting pants.