I want to hear a man say, “No, actually, I don’t need a hooker-themed headless toilet to compliment my extensive porn collection, Maxim subscription, strip club souvenirs, 2005 nudie calendar, Playboy coffee mug, and pen with a naked woman on it when you turn it upside down. Those items will serve my naked woman viewing entertainment needs just fine and I don’t need any more, thanks.”

I figure there has to be a point where men push the sexbot plate away and signal they can’t eat another bite, but men’s ravenous appetite for consuming women seems never to be satiated.

Though, I don’t think people exactly get tired of things they find attractive. It’s not like people get so sick and tired of tasteful decor that they have to close their eyes. Repetition can be boring, but nice things are nice.

The practice is so ubiquitous that I doubt that a sexy model alone is enough to sell a product. But the absence of images of beautiful people is, from an advertizing standpoint, unacceptable. We’re all so used to seeing the symmetrical, wrinkle-free faces with perfect skin and widely-spaced eyes that are used to sell every product in the world that models that didn’t possess these qualities would probably register as having something horribly wrong with them. Even the “controversial” Dove’s “Real Women, Real Curves” campaign seems to feature women who, while not anorexically thin, are still far beyond typical.

Subtext is everything in advertizing, and cultivating an assocation between a product and attractive people is probably the most basic form of the “this product will make you attractive to others” (or “this product will give you access to attractive mates”) subtext. I can’t see it going away any time soon.

As for the environmentalists using this method to sell their point of view, it’s an interesting dilemma: Sure it seems kinda sleazy, but on the other hand shouldn’t they employ the most effective advertizing they can to get their message across? Especially when the message is designed specifically to counter the supposed aphrodisiacal claims about turtle eggs?

Are you arguing, Flamingbanjo, that because misogyny is an accepted marketing tool, it is an acceptable marketing tool? How does it make sense to ask people to give a fig for turtles, and to not give a fig for half their own species, at the same time? Are there really only so many figs to go around?

It is unclear whether turtle eggs are a worthier cause than human social issues, but does one never just stand up and say “enough!”?

If I’m running for Student Council and my opponent hands out cupcakes and I hand out brussel sprouts because “cupcakes are bad for you”, which of us is more likely to accomplish our goal of bribing potential voters to vote for us?

Since the target audience for this ad was men who think that eating turtle eggs makes them more virile, the creators of this ad no doubt aimed it squarely at that demographic. An ad that pleased feminists would probably not have pleased the target demographic. So again, my devil’s-advocate question: Is it better to take the high road and be ineffective or take the low road and actually stand a chance of accomplishing a noble goal?

which prompts me to share this bit from a local high school booster club. it’s an advert for the cheerleading squad’s upcoming carwash, written by one of the moms, to wit:
……………………
Hello Booster Club Parents,
The -HS Cheerleaders are holding their first fundraiser of the new school year this Saturday…It’s the “much anticipated” Cheerleader Car Wash. While we can’t promise anything quite as exciting as Paris Hilton’s famous carwashing video, we can promise that it’s entertaining. Don’t worry, dads are on hand to make sure they don’t leave too much grime and that the suds are properly rinsed away.

The girls would certainly appreciate you all forwarding the attached flyer to your members. Thanks so much.
………………………………
it’s positively enervating really … one can only hope that the daughter whose mom wrote this IS NOT AWARE of how her mom views her own flesh-and-blood’s abilities …

I’m pretty sure PETA would approve of neither.