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
Michael Greenberg
Marvin Bernstein
George Zelinsky
Jason Greenberg
Scott Greenberg
And please blind carbon copy the Center at so we can keep track of how many letters have gone out. Thank you!
So are young men going to rush into nursing school to find nurses who look like this? Give me a break! Its only an ad, she looks pretty hot! Silly but hot anyway! Just be glad we are not lawyers...what a load of junk they get from everyone! And it is all bad.
Personally, I don't think it's so much that media damages our kids and their perceptions of what is and is not acceptable... it's parents not really helping them understand the difference. My kids know that loving yourself at 115 lbs the same way you would at 215 is true acceptance. That's what we should strive for... not to look great in a pair of thigh-highs.
And, as cheesy as it sounds.... it's her body. If she wants to make a fool of herself for the sake of media (even in a nurse's dress), then so be it. But, I'm not going to blame her for "ruining" my kids perceptions of what's beautiful or not.
LT Dave
63 Posts
So are young men going to rush into nursing school to find nurses who look like this? Give me a break! Its only an ad, she looks pretty hot! Silly but hot anyway! Just be glad we are not lawyers...what a load of junk they get from everyone! And it is all bad.