Ridiculous Reebok Commercial

Recently I’ve been seeing some of the most ridiculous and idiotic commercials ever. And just when I think they can’t get any worse, the next one comes on my television screen and proves me wrong. The commercial that has been annoying me the most lately is one for Reebok’s EasyTone sneakers, which more closely resembles a soft-core porn than an advertisement for running shoes. I understand they are trying to attract audience’s attention by showing a practically naked women in bed wearing only sneakers, but give me a break. Reebok’s slogan for the campaign is that buying these shoes will give women “better legs and a better butt.” But here’s a concept: go buy any pair of workout shoes and start working out for an extended period of time. I can almost guarantee you will end up looking “better.” Reebok also claims that these shoes will “help you make 88 percent of men speechless and 76 percent of women jealous.” (I’m sure a very well-respected researcher came up with that statistic.) On another note, this commercial goes along with most of the hegemonic images of women that are shown in the media. The woman in the commercial is faceless, and thus reduced to an object whose only valuable attributes are her toned body. By no means do I claim to be a radical feminist, but it seems that the objectification of women for an ad geared towards women doesn’t make much sense. I guess what I’m trying to say is this commercial just plain weirded me out.