Attn:
Brad R. Haley & Andrew F. Puzder
Dear
Carl’s Jr. Executives,
I am writing to address my concern
with your advertising for your products. I am sure I am not alone, nor the
first, to inform you that the sexual objectification of women displayed in your
marketing is both offensive and highly distasteful. I hope to be more than just
another nagging voice, however, by offering some pertinent research
perspectives on the matter.
The most interesting to you I assume
would be that, while individual studies do suggest that sexual content in
advertising does increase attention-getting, but also that sex is distracting
from the product being promoted and can thus decrease attention and memory, and
that sex does not generally appeal to women and can turn women, particularly
conservatives, away from the product. Most importantly a study done just last
year complied data from 44 different studies on sex in advertising and
performed a meta analysis on it, resulting in the conclusions that brands that
used sex as a marketing tool were evaluated less liked, there was no effect on
purchasing intent, and as the sexuality of the ad increased, the purchasing
intentions actually decreased. See Reichert 2001, Dahl 2008; 2009, Lull &
Bushman 2015 – meta analysis for reference.
In addition to its impact on the
direct profit of advertising, sexual objectification of women teaches women who
are exposed to it that they should view themselves and others as objects, feel
less competent, have body dissatisfaction, and etc. So not only are you making
enemies of women by the objectification in ads, you are helping to corrupt
their self-worth, and this impact even children who see this media. I would
assume you would want your product associated with positive emotions instead of
negative connotations.
I personally quite like the food at
Carl’s Jr.; I enjoy eating at your establishment. But I cannot justify
patronage to a company that has such a blatant disregard for the value of
women. Carl’s Jr. is a place where I cannot even suggest when eating out, for
fear of being associated with approval or acceptance of those awful ads. Your
marketing actively turns me away from your product, which to my mind seems
counterintuitive. I would heartily request that you change your marketing
strategy; I would be glad to return my patronage to your establishment and only
hope you at least consider the arguments presented in this email and realize
what you are saying about women with your ads. Thank you for your time.
-Amanda
Cottle
