Fleshing out the latest television trends
One of the trends that has evolved in advertising is the use of barely clothed women and sexual innuendos. I have witnessed more and more cleavage being used and shorter and shorter skirts and dresses on many of the shows on television. On one recent "American Idol" segment, Mariah Carey looked like she was about to fall out of her top. Yes, she's attractive and has a nice figure, but why is it necessary for her to showcase her breasts while critiquing the contestants? It does make things a little confusing.
If the skirts get any shorter on some of the celebrities, they might as well just wear their underwear and call it a day. Letterman had Gwyneth Paltrow on one night and she practically had to get into a position that resembled a contortionist to sit in the chair without showing her vital parts.
Well, the ladies may soon take a back seat to the next hottest trend, which is men without shirts. "Dancing With the Stars" regularly has men dancing without shirts. I thought it was cool in the beginning , but after a while it got to feel as if I was at a nudist camp. Seen one, you've seen them all.
Hot hunks are the new trend. I guess the Madison Avenue gurus figured they could only take so much clothing off the women before they were told to give it a rest. So now they've embarked on showcasing men who have unbelievable pecs and taut abs that you can bounce quarters off.
It started with Old Spice. You might recall the shirtless guy on a horse. He created a host of imitators who now sell Diet Coke, Kraft's Zesty Italian dressing and Liquid-Plumr. The drain cleaner features two hunky plumbers who appear to a woman in a supermarket who is fantasizing about having a couple of dreamy guys fix her drain.
I'm not writing this because I'm some kind of prude who walks straight ahead and never dares to look at an attractive man. Nor do I think products should be sold by individuals wearing shrouds. But let's get real. Will we soon see naked people advertising Cheerios?
It seems ironic that the advertisement that has gotten the greatest buzz lately is the one with the kids in the Verizon ads. It's clever, fun and gets the point across. Maybe the ad men should wake up to the fact that we need more ads that are clever and expose less flesh. But, hey, that would be too clever. (Enterprise News)
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