Blogs Sep 8, 2010 at 9:27 am

Comments

1
What do you mean "we"? Do you have a mouse in your pocket?
2
I thought wife... She has a ring on.
3
Perhaps it was her pimp?
4
Thank you Rotten666. I was wondering the same thing.
5
I thought it was a sugar daddy. I mean, really...who MOURNS in little short shorts like that other than a gold digger? I'm not saying that a modicum of modesty is needed, but most of the women I've seen at a graveyard aren't dressed like they're going to the beach, especially if they're still breaking up at the tombstone.

Note the size of the ring as well. The ad mockingly asks "Do you think your new hot trophy wife can take care of your kids?"
6
Who the hell is wondering whether she's a wife or a daughter? That certainly wasn't my first thought.
7
@ 2, that ring's on her right hand, not her left. And it's hard to tell at this resolution, but it doesn't look like an engagement ring.

@ Charles, "we" assume she's his daughter (or her daughter - why assume that it's dad and not mom who died?) because she looks like a teenager. Her clothes don't look like ones that a woman in her 20s or 30s would wear. (I'm sure some women do, but you see shorts like that on high schoolers a lot more.)
8
I assumed it was her partner. Especially as the elderly (her father) are much more likely to have planned for death.

Her similarly aged partner's death, on the other hand would have been suprising creating the add copy "If you died today who would take care of your (young) family."
9
Um, because she looks maybe fourteen? That ring is on her right hand and came out of a gumball machine. And, seriously, sex? You see sex here? Girl = sex? That's it? No other possible interpretation? And you have a daughter?
10
@ 9 FTW. The rest of you all have perception issues.
11
Hey Charles,

"we" don't assume that it's her father. Then again, I've been to more than my share of military funerals where it's not unusual for the wife to be barely 21.
12
If you don't see a little sexiness in this ad, you're either gay or in denial.
13
And by "gay" I mean man-gay. Not lesbian-gay...they get it right away.
14
You are really creepy Charles.

And stop including me in all your odd observations. "We" don't even know each other.
15
You're not alone Charles, with your ridiculous perceptions. i instantly imagined a girly little slut boy bent over for his new step-daddy. Slog's influence fucks with the mind.
16
The ring may have been intended for the left hand, but they photographed it from the one angle. I mean, its a cheap setup as it is, they may have only taken 10 photos, and they wanted it to face the other way...so "reflect."

Then, again, intention vs actual meaning is the whole discussion here.
17
Charles and his pocket mouse wish you a fond farewell Laurence Fishburne. RIP.
18
@16, are you under the impression that this advertisement is a real grieving girl? What could it possibly matter what hand the ring is "really" on? It's a posed advertisement.
19
Charles--because "we" are a man?
20
There was a conscious decision to put short shorts on a young model and bend her a certain way while covering her (implied) emotional face.

Our eyes are generally going to wander to that image over a more-accurate depiction of grief.

21
This is stupid. Most people are going to assume father because the life expectancy in the country is almost 80 and most people, although not all, end up marrying people within 10 year of age of themselves. This isn't to say that people don't die young and that people don't marry at disparate ages, but the automatic assumption based on logic and age is that this is a daughter.
22
I didn't really assume anything about the dead person, but I did initially assume the young gal was tonguing the gravestone.
23
@20, we thank you for making those fine points.
24
Is that a mouse in your pocket or are you really glad to grieve me?
25
What do you mean "we," indeed — why do YOU assume only a male relative of hers could have died, and not her mother?

I didn't think of her relation to the tombstone at all, actually — my first question was why is such a supposedly sad subject captured in a picture that's so overexposed? Seriously, you could turn the brightness down on that with, like, LivePix 2.0. And what's with the white tee-shirt? and the flip-flops? Who was the art director on this campaign? Didn't anyone have at least a BLACK tee to put this model in? And why is her pose so unnatural? That's hardly a universal posture of grief, unless your grief is accompanied by a migraine.
And is this person RECENTLY dead? There's grass grown in quite healthily and to the same length completely surrounding this grave (except on the sidewalk there, which is inexplicably about a foot from the headstone — was this taken in a PET cemetery? The only thing small enough to be covered by that amount of grass is a bird or a rodent, possibly a tiny cat. Or an infant, but this ad is theoretically not targeted to infants, assuming we're supposed to imagine it's US under that headstone.) By the time the grass has grown, and the headstone has been finished and placed, the financial repercussions of an unexpected death have probably abated to the point where her exaggerated grief, apparently caused by having no one to take care of her, is out of the ordinary. She should really start processing these feelings. So at the heart of it, this isn't an ad for life insurance — this advertisement is advocating families be aware of the mental health institutions available to them, so that if you die suddenly, your daughter or sister or wife doesn't have a nervous breakdown wearing utterly inappropriate clothing at a parakeet's grave. That, or the ad is asking who would buy your kid Aleve.
26
Jesus, get a grip. It's a teenager in shorts. I see shirtless guys running all summer long and don't automatically think sex. Maybe you need a girlfriend.
27
What I find interesting is that this is an ad for life insurance - for in case you die NOW, or soon, when your family is depending on your income - and people are talking about the deceased here as if he lived well into his 80s. Insurance companies don't try to sell life insurance to people who are that old.
28
She's probably a college-age girl who just lost her father and is wonder how she's going to pay for that ivy league education. of course the photograph suggests that she wants to get fucked doggy style in front of her dad's tombstone.
29
This shitstorm has gone far enough! It's an idiotic ad trying to scam people with shitty life insurance policies.
/thread
30
@22: Me too. Well, I actually imagined her sucking someone off. She's on her knees, leaning forward, and this is on Slog, OK?

@20: Agreed. It's one of those cheapo, random internet ads that casts "attractive" regardless of the situation. I remember a faux newscast banner that had a early 20s blonde in a tanktop. News anchors don't look like that. Try harder.

It's just a bizarre image all around ... her dress, denim short-shorts in a cemetary, and the awkward pose. She'd be a lot more comfortable crying on that tombstone if she had knelt closer.
31
Um, Charles, there is nothing sexual about that ad. Unless you're into necrophilia and looking at tombstones give you a boner. You are seeing what you want to see. Now wash that dirty, dirty, sex crazed mind of yours out with some soap!
32
I actually thought it was her mom who died. Before I saw the carefully placed ring.
33
@18 Wedding Ring vs Jewelry is, to many people, an important distinction, especially when it has the word "family" in the text. After all, we're talking about purely academic and social interpretation, as opposed to merely "This is a poorly made advertisement that should have cost $40 at most." We're reading this as if we're supposed to react like the advertisers would hope we react by seeing a grieving girl.

@25 True analysis FTW. <3
34
1) why the hell is sex being used to sell this, srs.
2) I assumed it was the father that was in the ground because she looks like she's in her mid-20s. most people aren't married by then, and if they are, their husbands probably aren't dying (unless its a sugar daddy)
35
I'm mostly offended by the alignment of that type (plus the kerning).
36
I have the weirdest boner right now.
37
Charles is still a total creep

I can't believe one of these let him put his ugliness inside of her and spawn
38
30 you don't watch Fox, do you...
39
I am pretty sure you need therapy.
40
I'm not seeing a blatant attempt at sex here - just a crappy internet ad.
41
Wonder what would happen if you ate one of those while looking at a double rainbow.
42
I thought young wife. What it also tells me is that Charles has made Adsense aware of his reflections on life.
43
I thought daughter. Archetypal mothers don't dress in short shorts.

I see the sexy end of it - she's a young, hot teen with sexy legs. They could've easily made it non-sexual by putting her in some jeans, using a child, or using someone not as attractive.
44
Charles,
I disagree. Sex can't sell anything. It's scantily clad (or less?) young women's bodies that sell most anything. Indeed, even young handsome scantily clad male bodies can sell a product. Remember the Calvin Klein underwear ads in Times Square (NYC)? To be sure, our desire might be wanting to have "conjugal relations" (my euphemism) with that model. But, the immediate draw is that of the human body. From art to advertising (some would say advertising is art), it, the human body remains the "object of desire".
45
I'm with @9. She's dressed like a teenager, or MAYBE a college kid. The ring looks like one of those ugly-ass high school class rings to me.

It's not unreasonable to assume that the corpse is male, because despite of the waning number of stay-at-home moms and increasing number of stay-at-home dads (relative to the 50's, for example). The default stereotype remains that men are the main providers.

Ergo, this ad is likely aimed disproportionately at men, and a grieving daughter is probably the best way to tug the heartstrings of a concerned father. (And apparently, we've now learned, attract creepy men who automatically sexualize young girls)

Nothing sexual at all in my eyes.
46
Um, she looks about 12. The way she's dressed, the lack of breasts or hips, the little-girl ring...not to mention this is NOT the way most widows dress to visit a husband's grave.

Grampa, maybe. Husband, no.

Seeing a sexual image in a 12-year-old girl's bare thighs kind of squicks me.
47
@25 Puffin FTW!

If there's an award for critics of crappy internet ads, you should definitely win that, too!

Thanks for the giggles.
48
Why do you assume this picture appeals to viewers' sexuality? This image was created with intention to invoke feelings of protectiveness for the innocence of a young girl, and gauging by your reaction, it fulfills its intended purpose. You comment on the photo because you sense the model's innocence and you want to do something to protect that

Try not to be so unsophisticated when digesting images.
49
Did you know that San Francisco has really great burritos? I'm guessing she is mourning the loss of the owner/operator of her favorite burrito truck.

All this talk of burritos is making me hungry, by the way. I'll check back in a little bit later.
50
At first glance I actually thought it was a women with her head down contemplating her own mortality and who would look after the kids if she were to die.
51
I think that Charles and the French Intern should collaborate on a piece about Death and its Meaning.
52
I assumed father of a tweenager because as an adult woman, if my husband died I would take care of myself. Right ladies?

But beyond that - maybe also as an adult woman I am not getting how this is an example of sex selling, unless any young girl wearing shorts is somehow selling sex. What are you saying exactly Charles...I'm not following.....

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.