Does A Butchered Woman Hanging From Meat Hooks Make You Want To Shop?

So far, Twenty-Three Shockingly Sexist Vintage Ads, posted on AWR last month, has been the subject of a Washington Post survey and has been viewed more than 11,500 times.

Now this...

 

This makes-me-want-to-be-sick ad for high-end Turkish fashion retailer Beymen Blender came to me via a rather circuitous route. (I haven't included a link to the advertiser's site on purpose.)

Lynn Harris author of Unwritten Rules: What Women Need To Know About Leadership in Today's Organisations, sent it to me by email.

Her link took me to The New Agenda (A Voice For All Women), who credit of Hardy Girls Healthy Women for having sent it.

The New Agenda refers to blogger Susannah Breslin at The Frisky,who quips:

…one could say it’s misogynist, offensive, or a series of other criticisms, yet what if you take it to the bottom line: Does seeing this chopped-up, butchered woman hanging from meat hooks make you want to go buy clothes? I can’t parse it if I try. She’s naked so … I should cover myself up? Or someone will chop me up?

It appears that Breslin found the ad on the blog of a New-York-based creative guy whose Twitter nick is @copyranter.

The cynical Mr. @copyranter, a hater of many things it would seem (he gives the world the finger in his Twitter DP :), dissed the ad for poor photoshopping, as did a slew of commenters on Ads Of The World, which credits the ad as follows:

• Advertising Agency: Rafineri, Istanbul, Turkey
  
  • Creative Directors: Ayse Bali, Murat Cetinturk
  • Art Director: Can Guven
  • Copywriter: Gorkem Yegin
  • Photographer: Koray Birand
  • Published: April 2010

The Ads Of The World voters (39 in total), to their credit, rated the ad overall 2.7 out of 10.

But of the 20 or so who commented, NONE mentioned anything about the offensive nature of the ad, which to me speaks volumes with respect to why we STILL have so much sexism, and objectification of women in advertising.

What do you think?