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Women’s Fruit of the Loom Has a “Flawless” TV Ad!

OK, I know this entry has absolutely NOTHING to do with Cozy Mystery books. BUT, I went into WalMart the other day, and as I browsed through the magazines targeted for women to buy, I was left wondering when we became a nation where the covers of women’s magazines look like… magazines featuring center-folds of women! I mean, who decided that women prefer buying women’s magazines with air-brushed young, voluptuous (yet skinny) women, with either low cut tops – or no tops at all. Hmmm…

But, not all companies are sending us these crazy messages about what we should be interested in. If you have a minute, here is an advertisement (On You Tube) that I absolutely LOVE. It’s message is terrific! Its the “Flawless” commercial for women’s Fruit of the Loom undergarments:

Sorry, I posted a video in 2012, and it no longer works. I hope you were able to see the ad when it was on. It was different than all the other adds that feature models who are unworldly thin.

And, if you would rather not watch this You Tube clip, then here are the words to the “jingle””

For all the places I want to see
These legs are a vehicle carrying me.
What more could I ask them to be?
They’re Flawless.

Flawless

Beauty magazines offer their tricks
Tell me: What are they trying to fix?
I can’t imagine how your embrace
would be any warmer on a twenty inch waist.
I’m Flawless.

Don’t you know you’re flawless.

Love it!

Comments

  2. I too am appalled by the near naked adolescent women on every magazine with obvious eating disorders. It is apparent that the media is feeding this frenzy of hate against all women that are not young, pretty and thin. We hear it every day and its in all facets of the media. We are made to feel (if you buy into it I do not) less than adquate if we are not 20 something, thin and pretty. I made a vow to never buy another magazine about 2 years ago. I find them all insulitng, unintelligent and filled with hate of women. One disappointment-example was Lauren Conrad who I (had) admired posed naked on Glamour this month-I found that offensive to all women. SHe by allowing this cover continues the frenzy that our worth is only based on physical objectification of our looks. Her value as a businesswomen does not exist anymore, only her value as a sex object. It is clear that the magazines are being run by men, who like young women and the misgentic treatment of other women has reached epic proportions. It is a way to control women and minimize our accomplishments, our intelligence and our value as human beings. Do not allow the media to take your power, your intelligence or your value, just because you do not fit the sick ideal of a pervert sitting behind a desk at a magazine. We need to take a stand against this sick treatment of all women and stand up for our value as women!

    Reply

    • Alexis, the Glamour magazine for this month was the one that threw me over the fence. Enough is enough!

      Everything has its place. Had the model/actress (sorry, I don’t know who she is) been posing on the front of a “mens’ magazine” then, fine, go for it! But Glamour magazine is targeted toward women. It’s supposedly a magazine for women. Is that really what we all want? Is that type of magazine cover really enticing women to buy magazines?!?

      Good grief!

      Reply

  4. Ha!

    I stopped reading magazines years ago. Even Reader’s Digest has less in it than it used to. It has so many ads and less funnies. There are only one or two stories of interest and even some of those are down to a column. I still read Cooking Illustrated now and then, but I don’t take the magazine anymore!

    I just finished a book that would have been a nice thriller except for the cop-talk (which was rather filthy at times) and the ending, which was maybe supposed to be funny (this was after the mystery was solved) was…well, not. Maybe I’m a prude, but it was just over the top to me.

    Reply

    • Maria, I just think that the more we are ALL inundated with this “stuff” >>> the more acceptable it becomes to us. It’s very Pavlovian…

      Reply

  5. I must watch that ad. One thing that bugs me is clothes catalogs. I am large and buy all my clothes on line. When I look at the models, I can’t quite picture the outfit on me when the model is probably a size 10. It exercises my imagination.

    Reply

    • Regina, I just put the ad on my actual entry. (Actually, my husband did that, but I’ll take the credit.)

      Re: “It exercises my imagination.” See, there’s a positive in almost everything!

      Reply

  6. I was recently looking through some of my Mom’s old magazines from the 1970’s and thinking the same thing, Danna – how times have changed, and not for the better! The old magazines had patterns for crocheting and sewing (my hobbies), very good fiction, articles that featured natural beauty instead of the phony, impossible-to-attain unless-you’re-a-wealthy-celeb-type of “beauty” so popular today. I hope most of the young women today are too smart to fall for all the hype, and somehow have the wisdom to avoid the pitfalls Hollywood seems determined to push on them. Is it all driven by money now? Seems like no one tries to encourage a realistic approach to anything!

    Reply

    • Donna, I’m guessing that not just the young women are being saturated with the media hype. Young men are seeing the same images!

      Reply

  7. I truly don’t understand why women would ‘market’ themselves like that … have they no pride at all?! I wouldn’t buy a copy of any magazine with a nude anyone on it to begin with. And like Maria and her book she read recently – I love my ‘cozy mysteries’ and started a new series not long ago and all the “f***” words in it took me by surprise … needless to say I didn’t read anymore and tossed it! I’m no prude either and find filth is not necessary to make a great mystery!

    Reply

    • Petie, I just find it odd that the magazines think women want those type of covers. I’d rather see someone “interesting” on the cover of magazines.

      As for expletives>>> Apparently a lot of people buy these books, or else a lot of authors wouldn’t be on the best sellers’ lists. (I let my money do my voting.)

      Reply

  8. Thank you for posting that advertisement; it was a breath of fresh air to see real women for a change.

    I stopped buying magazines a long, long time ago. I decided to put the money towards buying books instead. I was sick and tired of seeing women with serious eating disorders being promoted as the ideal for how all women should look. My mother used to work in the movie industry and she always maintained that you could sit opposite 99% of female movie stars on the bus and if they weren’t wearing any make-up you would never recognize them. We can all look beautiful if we have had our hair and make up professionally done and are then lit and photographed to enhance our good features and hide our not so good features.

    Do we really want our children to believe that they are only attractive if they are borderline anorexic with breast implants?

    Why after all these years is trying to look like a living Barbie doll still promoted as being more important than any other accomplishment?

    I really admire actresses that grow old gracefully. I think that Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and Meryl Streep are far more attractive and better role models than Joan Rivers, Joan Collins and Cher. All that botox might in theory make you look younger, however, in most cases it just makes you look as though you are wearing a plastic mask.

    Give me real women with brains, personalities and normal figures every time over silicone enhanced, air-brushed, anorexic, airheads!

    Reply

    • Well said, Carrie.

      I’d rather buy a magazine with any of the three actresses you named – who are gracefully making their ways through life – than what I saw in the WalMart magazine isle the other day!

      Reply

  9. So funny to see your post. This is a huge Pet Peeve of mine. Today, while watching the news; the girls who won this year’s Tulip Court, for the May Tulip Festival were introduced. It is not, I repeat, NOT a beauty contest. They are chosen by nominations, interviews, leadership abilities and community out reach goals. It is a 63 year old tradition and if you saw the girls who win for Queen and Court you would be amazed. They are a wonderful representation of what beautiful, intelligent, strong, confident, independent young women should be. They are of all sizes and shapes and all BEAUTIFUL. Remember one of the most beautiful women in the world (in my opinion) Marilyn Monroe was not a size 0.

    Reply

    • Margaret, I know. I think I saw somewhere that Marilyn Monroe would have been a size 10. Not at all what our society “worships” these days…

      Reply

  10. Danna, Thank you for posting the ad. i enjoyed watching it. Except for Reader’s Digest, that is the only magazine i have in the house when my subscription to that expires I am finished. My husband gets a great deal of military magazines which feature tanks, guns and people rappeling down a mountain not offensive. We watched episode 1 of “Downton Abbey” last. Very good with no bad language.

    Reply

    • Regina, my husband and I enjoyed the first season of Downton Abbey, but (unfortunately) they lost us during the second season.

      Reply

  11. Danna, I too stopped buying magazines years ago. There just wasn’t anything in any of them that I wanted to read. One magazine years ago had a short story in the back of the book. I can’t remember which one it was but I know I haven’t seen any magazines like that on the shelves for quite a while.
    Wait, I do like the the gardening magazines. But I haven’t seen many of those on the shelves either. used to be around Feb. or march there would be quite a few on the racks in the checkout isles. But I haven’t seen many this year.
    I just don’t know who is editing these magazines with all the trash that is in them. Just about the only time I know what is in any of these anymore is what I read during my stay in the checkout.
    With all the stupid and silly ads that are on TV anymore I don’t know how any companies sell anything. So many ads play to the silly people. One thing wrong with some of these silly ads is that too many young people in real life will start acting like the people in these ads.

    Reply

    • I am guessing that all magazine sales are really down. I guess it would be another casualty brought about by the internet.

      Reply

      • Danna, Another reason magazine selling is down is because of the trash that is peddled in some of these. This is a pet peeve of mine, too.

        Reply

  13. Danna, could we possibly have a blog entry on Mysteries with Real Women? Please?

    Among my recommendations would be Anne Purser, whose middle-aged wife-and-mother sleuth works as a house-cleaner, (Just an ordinary, everyday, real-life woman!) along with both the G.A. McKevett mysteries featuring Savannah Reid, and the ‘Corinna Chapman’ mysteries by Kerry Greenwood.
    Reid is a plus-sized Southern PI who likes to eat, and says if anyone else doesn’t like it, too bad!!
    Corinna is a Size 20 Australian baker with a similar attitude. (And a gorgeous lover, to boot! *Jealous Hmph!*)
    Marcia Talley is another candidate. Her heroine is a married woman, post-mastectomy for breast cancer, who has decided that a (Surgical) replacement breast is not for her.
    The list might also include some of the Senior Sleuths, such as Sue Henry’s Maxie (And her Daschund, Stretch!) who decided, post-retirement, to go travelling on her own, in a camper – And why not!

    Underdressed / under-fed 20-something darlings Need Not Apply!!

    Reply

  14. P.S. As for the topic having nothing to do with Cozy Mysteries, this is your site and you can post what you want! 🙂

    Reply

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