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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

..to love the harvey nics walk of shame ad

435 replies

spiderpig8 · 09/12/2011 17:21

OP posts:
Greythorne · 09/12/2011 23:38

Ireallyhatemycat

You thought the one in a semi catatonic state at the bus stop scarfing a takeaway looked ok???

LEttletownofBOFlehem · 09/12/2011 23:50

"Can't working class girls dress well and posh girls dress like slappers?"

Leaving aside the implicit judgemental sexism of the concept of slappers, this advert would appear to show the exact opposite. Would posters be told to 'lighten up' if it was racial stereotypes rather than sexist/classist ones?

Prolesworth · 10/12/2011 01:13

The whole concept of a 'walk of shame' is woman-hating because it just doesn't apply to men. Men aren't encouraged to feel ashamed if they've had a one night stand. They're encouraged to feel pleased with themselves. It bolsters their masculinity. How many men, in truth, would make their way home after a one night stand looking humiliated, ashamed, embarrassed, unhappy (as the women in the ad do)? How many men would be marked out as 'shamed' so obviously by their clothing (as the women in the ad are)? And it's no good saying "well, the stupid women shouldn't go out wearing hardly anything and in ridiculous shoes they can't walk in" because the reason women wear stuff like that is because that's what's required to meet a standard of 'hotness' they never created. The clothes men wear on a night out don't look stupid or embarrassing the following morning and the shoes they wear don't cripple their feet. Men 'stride with pride' when they do the exact same things that the women in the ad have done, and they don't have to have spent a fortune in harvey nicks to do so. They can stride with pride in their reasonably priced top man gear, and if they look a bit dishevelled and hung over they're most likely going to get nods and winks from other men, not creepy, judgemental looks (as the women in the ad are subjected to by the men who pass them: the jogger, the delivery man, the bloke coming out of the tube station).

And what I find really disturbing about this is that these women who are so hi-lariously doing their walk of shame are the ones who'll get told they were asking for it if they're raped, because they were drunk and/or because they were dressed 'provocatively'.

Already there's a spoof of the ad out there (created by a couple of blokes of course) where the captions have been replaced with "a slag isn't just for christmas ... especially a posh slag" Hmm

demetersdaughter · 10/12/2011 02:51

I don't understand how rape was shoehorned into this thread but the ad is awful in as much it's elitist because only women who can't afford to shop at HN look dishevelled after a night on the tiles.
And I don't think any of them looked fat.

TroublesomeEx · 10/12/2011 07:30

FWIW Prolesworth I agree with you.

takeonboard · 10/12/2011 08:01

Oh dear, I feel awful saying I like the ad, I keep thinking that maybe I saw a different version than the rest of you. I don't thnik its sexist/classist/fatist or any of those things and I didn't assume that any of the girls had been on one night stand, its December - the party season remember?!

To me its says if you look great you will feel great even then next morning when dressed inappropriately for the place/time and good shoes won't cripple you.

And it is funny to see people comment on her posh home in St Johns Wood/Kensington etc, since when did the Thames run through there? Its Hammersmith ladies, not all that posh....

frillyflower · 10/12/2011 08:07

Lot of people on MN keen to perceive social slights. I really think this ad is about fashion - not some kind of Class War. It's funny - as others have said 'lighten up'

akaemmafrost · 10/12/2011 09:24

Yes it's Hammersmith but only just across the bridge from Barnes, which is extremely posh.

daveywarbeck · 10/12/2011 09:32

Vile advert. For all the reasons already given.

penguinpenguin · 10/12/2011 09:49

Fatties?!!! Oh god ladies, don't look this way... Thought the girls looked lovely and 'normal', do not like this ad at all.

LEttletownofBOFlehem · 10/12/2011 09:51

Only 'fat' by model standards, obviously. But the Harvey Nicks woman isn't- she's a beautiful slim model.

UnexpectedOrangeInMyStocking · 10/12/2011 10:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

splashymcsplash · 10/12/2011 10:34

Yes it is Hammersmith as others have pointed out, not st johns wood. Hammersmith is actually quite I think, and a flat like that wouldn't leave you much change from a million. Seems like there are a lot of snobs here! Not quite up to kensington standards but good enough!

MainlyMaynie · 10/12/2011 10:36

It's a bit odd to complain about misogyny and then describe women as 'fatties' IMO.

MollyTheMole · 10/12/2011 10:59

I like the ad, having done the walk of shame many times I relate to it totally Blush

Shutupanddrive · 10/12/2011 11:00

Well I think it's funny, some of you lot need to lighten up!

LEttletownofBOFlehem · 10/12/2011 11:12

The word fatties is being used to describe the trope the advertisers are using, not the women themselves, obviously. Otherwise they would have used all fashion models.

Trills · 10/12/2011 11:19

This is the trope - "Hollywood pudgy". They are not fat, but they are fatter than women normally are in the context of a fashion advert.

KateFrothers · 10/12/2011 11:20

I thought it was an ad for coats. It made me want to buy a coat. It didn't make me want to look like the model at the end. Who, incidentally can't have had that great a time because her hair wasn't messed up enough and her dress wasn't creased.

I'd never even heard of the walk of shame until recently. Seems an odd concept. I've never felt ashamed about being independent and sexually liberated.

Trills · 10/12/2011 11:21

sunshinestate - I was expecting it to be an advert for nice coats as well.

Go to Harvey Nicks, buy a coat that looks great with your party dress, then in the morning you won't be cold and miserable.

KateFrothers · 10/12/2011 11:22

Not that I'm v sexually liberated any more. I've been married for nearly 5 years although I have still arrived home when the birds are just waking up Grin

Trills · 10/12/2011 11:23

The "walk of shame" as the phrase was used at my university absolutely applied to everyone, men and women. Not because you should be ashamed at having sex (it wasn't about sex) but because everyone and their grandmother would see that you were wearing last night's clothes. If you got hit by a bus you woudln't be wearing clean underwear.

KateFrothers · 10/12/2011 11:28

Shock at not wearing clean underwear!

I actually feel chilly having watched that ad . I must be getting old because I also thought "what she needs is a nice big bag to go with her warm coat where she can pop her party shoes, get out some of those rolled up flats, keep a spare pair of tights (all those bare legs!) and a hair brush and a mirror and some wet wipes".

But then I'm the odd woman who looks better the morning after the night before than she did at the start of the evening.

diddl · 10/12/2011 11:30

"If you got hit by a bus you woudln't be wearing clean underwear."

Am I the only one who used to go out with clean underwear & a toothbrush in her bag "just in case"?BlushGrin

LEttletownofBOFlehem · 10/12/2011 11:46

I don't understand the people saying they think it's harmless fun etc. You don't exactly have to be a Professor of Semiotics to read the sub-text, surely?

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