Ford Goes Further By Stuffing Bound Gagged Women Into the Back of Their Cars to Sell Them

This article by Abby Zimet is re-posted from Common Dreams. Editor’s Note: These ads by Ford are appalling, but not surprising, considering the normalizing of the objectification of women in media. Our recent study of gender representation in 2012 films, underlines how the objectification of women and normalizing male dominance are constantly represented in popular media. The more important question we all need to ask is what is the correlation between media representation of women and violence against women?

An Indian ad agency had the brilliant idea for this real-live Ford ad, part of a series of grotesque ads mostly featuring semi-naked women bound and gagged under the tagline, “Leave Your Worries Behind with the Figo’s extra-large boot.” Of three ads, one had famously-womanizing Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in the driver’s seat.

Another had, somewhat inexplicably, Paris Hilton and the Kardashians, and one showed all men. After the ads were posted online, but before they were officially approved, they caused a wee bit of a stir, though Italian coverage seemed to worry more about giving offense to Berlusconi than to women.

The ads were subsequently pulled and Ford apologized for images “contrary to the standards of professionalism and decency.” Given pretty much everything about the ads – not least of which the fact they appeared in India, where a woman is said to be raped every 20 minutes – you think?