Swimsuits

A recent article I read spoke about how Target was advertising for women's swimsuits in Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition. This may seem surprising but according to the article 18 million women flip through SI. The ad is an eight page insert giving beauty and style tips and Target's swimsuit line. One issue brought up is that this could alienate the male readers who read the magazines for the fantasy in Target's marketing venture. The article says this about the intrusions of the ads.  “How does this make them feel, to have a really obviously female-skewing message in the middle of their very traditionally male book, this little treat
that they get every year?". What do you think.  Would you be off put by a message that is not of the typical gender market in your favorite publication or magazine?

http://www.marketingpower.com/ResourceLibrary/Documents/newsletters/mne/2013/2/target-swimsuit.pdf

In Response to Janell Grassman

Janell raised questions about Doctor Pepper 10s advertisements that featured statements like "It's not for women" and other such statements clearly claiming men to be its target audience and also posed the questions "Do you think that this is a brilliant idea or a massive mistake? Did they take things a little too far? Also, do you think that companies do the same thing but advertising towards women and alienating men? Can you think of any?"

I think it is bound to offend more than it will promote though personally, I view it as more like a silly over-exaggeration rather than an actual issue. It clearly does not take itself seriously, so I don't see the need to take any offense over it. I can't specifically think of any ads that have that level of exaggeration targeting women. Do you think men would get as offended if there were a commercial that was exaggerated as the Doctor Pepper Commercial?