Do you find this ad offensive?

Does this ad offend your sensibilities or do you find it clever?

A German lingerie firm, Liaisons Dangereuse, has an ad featuring Middle Eastern music, a beautiful, thin, dark haired woman, stepping out of the shower, discretely naked, getting dressed in Liaisons Dangereuse black lingerie including garter belt and high heels, no other clothes, then putting on a niqab, similar to a burka. "Sexiness is for everyone."

And, of course, the shock factor from sexy lingerie to niqab is carrying this ad around the world. The company is getting a lot of free advertising.

My take
An observant Muslim woman would likely never allow herself to be photographed in such a manner, I wouldn't think. (I have Muslim friends.)

Sure, we who are not Muslim tend to think wearing a niqab or burka is because of the regulations of men. In some cases, it likely is, but being circumspect or modest in dress is something honored by many, religious or not. I have friends who are equally circumspect who are Mormon and religious Jews.

It just feels disrespectful to me.

What do you think?
Does this make you want to rush right out and buy this lingerie -- or the opposite?

Is there another way the lingerie could be marketed to Muslim women? Or do you think this ad is not appealing to Muslim women at all, but rather to others?

In a perfect world, would you like to see more respect of varying beliefs? I wish to honor the spiritual journey of others, not denigrate it, as I feel this ad does. Is nothing sacred?

Karin

Blog Traffic Exchange Related Posts
  • blog traffic exchangeHow to look 10 years younger I saw a friend the other day, and as we were talking, she remarked that she had read somewhere that there were only three things we needed to do to look 10 years younger: Do...
  • blog traffic exchangePrada Infusion d'Iris How many iris scents can one person own? Judging from Prada Infusion d'Iris, there is always room for one more, even if the bottle is gigantic. I fell in love with this on the first...
  • blog traffic exchangeObsession (fragrance) I have always enjoyed smelling Obsession on other women. I have not enjoyed it on me. For whatever reason, it was either too much or too little -- it was too sweet or just not...
  • blog traffic exchangeDisharmony in perfumes I'm enjoying navigating the Le Jardin Retrouvé site. I have babelfish translate a page, if it hasn't been done for me already, or read along in my very rusty French. Disharmony in perfumery written and...
  • blog traffic exchangeLong or short hair? Katie Holmes, whose change from long to short hair made women everywhere want to chop their locks and was the sound of shears heard round the world, has done it again. She's gone to instant...
Blog Traffic Exchange Related Websites Online Stores If you liked this article, vote for it on del.icio.us and stumbleupon.


Categories:

Fashion, Spirituality and God, Style, What were they thinking



2 comments ↓
#1 Sasha Muradali on 01.09.10 at 12:58 pm

Oh my — there is a a lot going on here.

First of all, thank you for posting this Karin, I didn’t know about it and found it VERY interesting.

I, personally, don’t find it offensive, but I could see how other people would.

And I could imagine it if was a nun, the Catholic Church would be up in arms over this.

I found the ad to be rather creative at the end, and although they may or may not have been going for a ‘shock’ factor — I think it gets the point across.

My question is — who is their target audience?

If it’s people in German, well that would be different than say, if this AD was airing in the Middle East.

Personally, what I liked about this advertisement was that they are/were trying to show that women are sexy and beautiful — regardless of what social cultures in different parts of the world, think or make them out to be.

Watching this ad — that’s what I got out of it.

However, that being said, I also think this ad could give the wrong impression that Middle Eastern and burka wearing women are sex symbols to be objectified b/c they are wearing sexy goodies under a lot of black cloth.

I mean there are so MANY ways you can look at this.

It’s an interesting question.

Thanks for sharing!!! :)

Sasha

#2 Karin on 01.09.10 at 2:32 pm

I think it was the nudity and near nudity that bothered me — not in the ad until the woman put on the burka/naqab. Minus the burka or naqab, it would not have bothered me.

So have they made their company a target from a certain segment…

It was, however, clever.

Leave a Comment