Okay, my friends, please help me out and comment on this picture.
We have bottled water delivered to our home. Each month I get an email stating my bill is available to view and pay at the Water.com website. So imagine my surprise when I went there yesterday and found this graphic on their home page. Yes, you can go to the Water.com website right now and see this.
Maybe I'm just a dirty 58-year-old man, but this strikes me as just weird. The woman's pose at the front door and the delivery guy's big smile seem a little too obvious. Add the big "We Deliver!" promise and…well, I could be wrong.
Does this seem to be a subliminal marketing attempt to mix sex with bottled water delivery? Do you think it was on purpose? An accident? Good idea? Bad Idea? Am I just seeing things?
Conversation with my wife: “Uh, Honey?? Um, yeah… cancel our water delivery service will ya?”
You’re right this is very weird and a bad idea. The marketing people wanted an attactive women at the door, but she shouldn’t be suggestive. I guess they are going after the lonely demographics?
Are you sure that they aren’t just trying to differentiate themselves from the do it yourself grocery filling machine?
Well, I always wear high heals around the house in case a hunky delivery guy shows up! Your PC meter jumped but not everyone has one (or taste for that matter) so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Well, the old saying must hold true, sex sells. What’s next? The postal service running similar ads?
A picture says a thousand words, but that picture should support the message you are delivering, pardon the pun. In this case they may have gone a little over the top.
Dan
I guess they must not have a pool boy……
If I was a customer of theirs I would call and let them know I was switching to another company and I would let them know why. That’s not OK! Shame on them…
I don’t see any water in the picture. Where’s the water?
You are seeing things. This is so extremely tame compared the bulk of the “sex sells” advertising we are bombarded with that I didn’t even notice when I went to pay my bill with the same company.
I’m older than you are Steve and yes I am a dirty old man too. The pose and the heels do say they are using sex to get the point across. I’m not sure it was intentional, but it is a bad idea.
My husband used to be a UPS delivery man. Remember the tag..”What can brown do for you?”. You would not believe the stories he would come home with. The lonely housewife tales are real and not urban myths. I do not think your PC jumped. Sad to say I think it is a very intentional play. They are aiming dead on for that market.
Let’s face it, sex sells and for both genders. Men are visual creatures and women are suggestive creatures and this image covers both bases. People can be all politically correct in public, but we are all thinking the same thing; and this image did exactly what it intended – draw attention. Whether it is positive or negative makes no difference, a bunch of us now know a brand we never knew before. If I used this company a subtle image like this wouldn’t stop me from contuing my service. If that was the case, I’d quit going to grocery stores because they display Cosmopolitan in the checkout lane. Talk about sexually suggestive!
A friend of mine told me that he read on Steven Phillips blog (he’s a photographer and artist) who said that if your artwork or work doesn’t stand out, put a fish in it. This means make it stand out, draw attention to it. Put somehting in there thsat doesn’t make sense and it will draw attention to your work.
This “ad” is just that. They put a fish in it.
I just don’t see a problem with the image. Perhaps it’s my generation, the original MTV generation. Maybe I’ve been desensitized to subliminal message. All I know is, it takes more than a “housewife” in heels to make me think “sex”. What if it’s a picture of a woman who just got home from work (hence the heels) and is relieved to see the water delivery guy (another stereotype) at her front door? Just one more thing checked-off her to-do list.
I think it is probably accidental. The delivery driver is likely to be a man so they want someone hunky looking and of course he will smile (rather than moan about the steep driveway he just had to hump the water up). Therefore there has to be a woman in the picture and it looks to me as though this is a typical model from the third tier of modeling agencies that supply folk for trade shows to hand out leaflets – all they know is how to pout and stick their chest out. That said, the lack of awareness of how this could look is sadly indicative of our culture.
I’d be curious if there is someone sitting on their marketing team that is reading your blog and thinking, “I know, that’s what I said…”
So what’s the lesson? Did you really cancel the bill… or did water.com just get a lot of exposure? Is it true; is bad exposure a good thing??
WOW – this add is definitely using sex as a marketing! Look at the pose of
the woman, the high heels, the arch of her lower back…ugh,I could go on!
So, here’s the question….does this reflect the mentality of our society or
just the water – WE DELIVER – company?!?!
Obviously the ad did it’s job – it got everyone’s attention. I think that as far as the “sex sells” part this ad is suggestive but definately on the tame side. There are far more blatant attempts out there.
My Mom used to joke that I was the milkmans kid .. maybe in 20 years people will be saying their kids look like the water man 🙂
This was definitely on purpose. It goes back to my college Advertising 201 class in the late ’60s when it was pointed out to me in Playboy magazine how the ads for Dewars Scotch showed a big frosty highball glass. Hidden in the ice cubes was a subliminal “sexy woman” outline. Yup, you’re a dirty old guy but aren’t we all.
Steve,
After just returning from Europe where they have a different view on sex I think it would work well there.
For the US it is over the top. This reminds me of the old stories of the Fuller Brush door to door salesmen (this will date me).
I think that the company wanted to show how easy it was for water to be delivered. Yet we have some of the best tap water in the world so the company must use every trick to get you to buy delivered water. It is higher priced than the gas you buy for your car. Now that is marketing.
Hi there,
i dont believe the ad is that suggestive. Just shows the man carrying the water in. You have to really look into it to make it dirty. You can look at almost any ad and make it dirty. nothing wrong here.
Nope you;re not the creepy one, these ad guys clearly are. I guess the water guy is the new pool boy!
I don’t get it…if the chick was posed in anything other than a LONG SLEEVED sweater and a busines skirt/heels, then I would think twice.
This doesn’t fall under the category of “sex sells” to me. This is “busy woman getting water delivered instead of having to get it at the grocery store herself.”
I don’t see where this is over the top. I think it has a bit of “Sex Sells” but not too much. Very Subtle.
If she was dressed suductively, then it would be too much and very obvious.
I can’t say my wife would cancel over this. I wouldn’t.
However, check out the recent Labatt beer commercials with the bisexual women not subtly promoting beer. My wife used to drink nothing but Labatt beer. Now,she drinks nothing but Molsen’s. I know she’s not their demographic but they’ve lost her.