New “Old Navy” Commercials Offend…Just About Everyone October 5, 2009

this is the “true hollywood” -style background story to the newest old navy ad campaign known as “the supermodelquins.”

the most recent installment in this campaign playing in my neck of the woods features a “model” hawking sweater-coats who gets separated from her legs at the airport.  HER LEGS.  WTF?  seriously, watch the whole series if you have the time.  these commercials offend nearly every vulnerable population there is.  starving actors, the unemployed, women, POC, and the disabled are the ones i noticed first, although perhaps not in that order.  more videos are embedded below.

• the human element…where did the real people go?

first, as the economy continues to suffer and more and more jobs are lost, it bothers me that yet another franchise has taken to using non-actors to fill roles in their money-making schemes, also known as television shows, and commercials.  while this may be at the very bottom of anyones particular list, the failing economy has rocked my own corner of the universe.  for reals.  and while i am not an actor, i can certainly empathize with professional actors that have been hip-chucked out of their industry and left unable to earn a wage, and had their medical benefits lapse, due to long-term unemployment.  (the screen actors guild (SAG) has been quantifying the harm that reality-television has caused working actors since at least 2005.) 

this newest old navy campaign has made living, breathing human beings obsolete, (at least in front of the camera) and i think most everyone would agree that particularly in these times, that decision was unethical.  not to mention hypocritical, where old navy is relying on the disposable incomes of its customers to make its own living, but they arent giving anything back.  in fact, where reality franchises have replaced union workers with non-union ones, saving themselves the money and hassle (also known as ethics and regulatory oversight) of having to deal with SAG, old navy’s decision to forgo the human element altogether seems particularly self-serving, and cruel.

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