Alexx's Journal

I just got a robo-call ad from Marriott Hotels. I don't get many such calls, so this was unusual to start with. But then it occurred to me -- I was physically inside a Marriott for a few hours on Monday. Did some system note my presence (or at least the presence of my phone number), and therefore figure I was a reasonable marketing target?

A while back I posted about an ad for the upcoming Lord of the Rings: Online game. In one of this month's mags, I saw a 2-page ad for the game. It has the same basic imagery as the one-page version, but with more and different people gathered beneath The One Ring. So, here's an update.

More women this time, up to about 30% of the population. They're also much less clumped than they were in the first ad, mostly appearing in sngles and pairs.

Two clearly identifiable black people. One female, front and center, one male off near the edge, and back a bit. A few more people in the middle who might possibly be identified as black, but no more definites. Given that this ad is twice as large as the previous one, I hink that has to count as "no change".

Was in Park Street yesterday, and it was postered with a more-interesting-than-usual ad campaign. Apparently, Dove soap has decided to target a currently under-served market niche: women who don't look like super-models. They're calling it Campaign For Real Beauty, and have a website set up, campaignforrealbeauty.com. The women on the posters I saw were still a lot less diverse than the actual beautiful women I see in the real world, but I think it best to not get too nit-picky over this. Rather, I choose to celebrate this as a step in the right direction, toward a saner world.

On a related note, I was talking about weight/image issues with some folks the other day. I mentioned, off-hand, that I didn't think I was acquainted with *any* women who didn't think of themselves as overweight -- even the ones who clearly weren't, by any rational definition. This was challenged, and I admitted I wan't 100% sure. So, if you're a woman reading this, and don't think that you are overweight, I'd appreciate hearing about it in a comment.