[Repat]

Please note!

Inject me: Skechers tries on the stereotypes with Christina Aguilera as "naughty and nice" "nurse"

August 2004 -- In the coming months, shoemaker Skechers reportedly plans to run a global ad campaign called "Naughty and Nice," featuring Christina Aguilera, as part of a long term marketing deal with the pop music star. Ms. Aguilera will be featured in three different ads: as a police officer confronting a woman bending over a car, as a schoolteacher confronting a student sitting at her desk, and as a nurse confronting a patient sitting on a hospital bed. In each photo, Aguilera plays both figures, and there is a strong element of sado-masochism, with the authority figures as the dominants. All figures are dressed and posed in sexually suggestive ways, often with exposed bras and/or short shorts. In each case the dominant wields a symbol of her physical authority in a threatening, if goofy, way: the teacher holds a ruler, the cop some handcuffs, and the nurse is about to inject a patient with something that looks like a huge 100 cc metal syringe connected to an 8 gauge needle. The submissives seem to wear expressions of mock alarm. Although the Christinas are apparently all wearing Skechers, on the blackboard behind the teacher someone has written many times: "Skechers Are Not Part of the Uniform." This campaign will reportedly be run in pop culture and teen magazines and placed in retail stores around the world, and it has already received significant coverage in the business and advertising press. Send this letter to Skechers.

Evidently, someone has a reason to think that auto-erotic and/or sado-masochistic lesbian role-playing fantasies with a touch of petty rebellion sell consumer products. However one might feel about the themes underlying these ads, the nursing image presented here clearly plays into harmful stereotypes that have been a factor in the profession's current crisis. The image of Christina Aguilera (who is, to say the least, closely associated with public sexuality) holding a gleaming silver syringe/vibrator, wearing a sultry look, a nurse's cap with red cross, a white "nurse's" mini-dress that fails to conceal much of her breasts, her red heart-patterned white bra, her near-fully visible garter belt which runs down to her white stockings and white dominatrix boots...well, it's not exactly what we had in mind to attract bright young students, or those seeking a second career, to nursing. This ad simultaneously exploits the "naughty nurse" and the battleaxe/Nurse Ratched stereotypes, setting the nurse up both as an available sex object and a mock-malevolent authority figure, rather than a competent professional. Of course, similar things are being done with teachers and police officers, but those professions are not in the same posture as nursing in terms of gender composition or global shortage, and in any case, they are no doubt able to look out for themselves.

Yes, it's a big tease, but given the role of these stereotypes in fostering a harmful public image of nursing, we strongly object to this ad, which will apparently be distributed widely around the world.

We urge everyone to write to Skechers or send our instant letter to ask that this depiction cease immediately.

We understand from Skechers public relations department that these print ads will be primarily running in European and Canadian magazines. Skechers refused to reveal their "print list" of magazines where the ads will appear. We will be counting on our international members to alert us if you see these ads in print.


See more on the advertising campaign from cherryflava or from the businesswire.


If your internet security software won't allow you to paste your original letter onto our form on the next page, please send your letter to the following email addresses:

Robert Greenberg <RobertG@skechers.com>
Michael Greenberg <MichaelG@skechers.com>
Marvin Bernstein <MarvinB@skechers.com>
George Zelinsky <GeorgeZ@skechers.com>
Jason Greenberg <JasonG@skechers.com>
Scott Greenberg <ScottG@skechers.com>

And please blind carbon copy the Center at <letters@nursingadvocacy.org> so we can keep track of how many letters have gone out. Thank you!

[Altra]

UN-BE-LIEVABLE!!!!

[Marie_LPN]

I feel really sorry for the poor souls who will be receiving my email regarding that pathetic marketing scheme.

[Repat]

Please, if you write, be sure to blind copy to letters@nursingadvocacy.org. It's important for them to keep track of numbers! Thanks!! Also, it's a great site!

[Dplear]

Come on this is ridiculous....Nurses as a group need to get over themselves and realize that it is ADVERTISING for crying out loud. So I see an ad shouwing someone as a scantily clad nurse or teacher or cop..I take it and so does the public as for what it is..an ad. Oh Vey!!!



Dave

[Repat]

Dave - to quote the letter that nursingadvocacy.org is sending:

"Many who display negative images of nurses doubt that such images can really harm the nursing profession. However, as public health professionals at USC's Hollywood, Health and Society project and elsewhere can tell you, entertainment media do affect how people think and act with regard to health issues. A 2000 JWT Communications study found that US youngsters in grades 2-10 got their most striking impression of nursing from the fictional television show "ER," and consistent with that show's physician-centric messages, the youngsters found nursing to be a technical field "like shop," a job reserved for "girls" and one too lowly for private school students. Nursing is none of these things. A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that "ER"'s message is so influential that one-third of their viewers use information from the show to make health care decisions. A key reason that nursing is in its current state--understaffed, underfunded and underempowered--is that the work of nurses is undervalued by the general public and health care decision makers, all of whom are consumers of media and advertising."

Perhaps you don't mind "type-casting", but I do!

[jackleg27]

I agree with Dplear -- Who cares

[SmilingBluEyes]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh theTV generation....people DO drink in and suck up what they see on tv and it begins young. What a shame. This, however, is not new,is it.

[teeituptom]

Thinking of Christina in that aforementioned nursing outfit really sounds hot to me, I wonder if they will be selling any POSTER sized pics........

Sounds pretty SIZZLING to me


YUMMY even


WOWSA

[Sadie04]

Originally Posted by jackleg27

I agree with Dplear -- Who cares

I don't see the big deal either. It sounds kinda silly but nothing to get upset about.