No, this isn’t one of them.
Let’s admit it: our society is one that loves to objectify people/things for the sake of revenue. It’s a proven tactic—and it’s worked. Plus, there is something just so alluring about photographers: with our big lenses and all. One of the staples of marketing is appealing to a human need. In this case, it’s the primal instinct to reproduce and have pleasure. These ads tend to stay in the back of one’s mind and in today’s viral society promotes a spread that is almost uncontrollable. This is an ode to some of those ads as well as a bit of an analysis and a history.
Editor’s Warning: Some of these ads may be a bit NSFW. Please exercise caution.
Pentax
Sure, Pentax can make some sexy and fashionable cameras, but their ads can be too! This ad ran in a Swedish magazine and according to Adrants the headline, “A Perfect Body With All The Right Accessories” caused quite the riot amongst female photographers. They reasoned that the ad stated that women are supposed to have perfect bodies and that only men were good enough to be professional photographers.
These days, Pentax seems to have changed their marketing tactics by offering cameras like the Pentax K-r and K-x in a multitude of colors (something that many male consumers don’t necessarily care about.) These cameras are unlike the K-5, which would perhaps be more like a burly lumberjack.
Editor’s Note: You’re probably not reading this text.
Sony Ericsson C905 Cybershot
Gorgeous, isn’t she it?
Though not quite a camera, this is an ad for a phone with a camera stuffed into it. Once you actually read the ad, you learn that it was shot with the 8.1MP cameraphone—further convincing the audience that it can shoot stunning photos. What it doesn’t talk about is the obvious amount of post-production that went into this ad: like making the model’s skin that velvety smooth. Nor does it mention the lighting schematics.
Sony has been known for their sexy cameras targeted towards consumers. The exception is the NEX-5, but the image quality that comes out of that camera says otherwise.
Nikon S60
Detects up to 13 faces…somehow I don’t think that’s enough.
This ad for the Nikon S60 point and shoot proudly touts the camera’s ability to detect lots of faces in a photograph. Rather than appealing to families that want to capture a photo of everyone at a gathering, this ad takes a more playful approach. The two barely 20-something year old girls are being a bit adventurous for all the world to see.
In some ways, it actually makes a lot of sense. There are loads of young girls that take sexy photos of themselves and post them online where lots of male web surfers stare at them.
Olympus E-3
The world’s fastest autofocus is apparently faster than the male gender being able to focus in on a health female’s supple breasts. At least that’s the feeling I get from this ad. When I showed it to a bunch of people on twitter a while back a response I got was, “Boobies!”
To which I responded, “Okay, what else do you get from it?”
“Big boobies!”
“Okay, anything about the camera?”
“Dude, boobies!”
Either way, it’s a fun ad that is still actually quite harmless and is a very real situation. Here in NYC, women tend to dress in ways that show off lots of skin. When a female bends over to adjust her shoe, there very well could be a couple of men that immediately activate their own spot focusing system.
Now if only Olympus could make it that accurate.
Nikon Coolpix3100
Seriously, look at the size of those pixels.
While this ad is obviously photoshopped, it does stand out to make its point that 3MP is a lot more than 2MP. This ad caused a lot of controversy a little while back. Granted, the French can get away with things like this in their ads.
Are there racier ads? Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments below.
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