Aristoc is launching a major advertising campaign for its hosiery
range that shuns the sexual slant of competitors such as Pretty
Polly.
The work, the first from WCRS for the brand for a year, was developed
after agency research showed a growing backlash against tights
advertising that represents women as sex objects.
The new campaign uses stylish images from the leading photographer,
Nadav Kander, to move the genre away from the saucy stereotype of women
in black stockings. Kander’s previous advertising work includes
campaigns for Haagen-Dazs, Levi’s and Nike.
Both Aristoc executions feature soft-focus pictures of a model wearing
the brand’s new Slimline tights, which the company claims are the first
product to ’slim your legs from waist to toe’. The first execution
features the headline, ’It’s not my legs that are amazing. It’s my
tights’, while the second uses the line: ’The quickest way to slimmer
legs. Cheat.’
The ads are being posted in major conurbations across the UK this week
and will also appear in women’s monthlies in the run-up to
Christmas.
They were written by Will Taylor and art directed by Tim Robertson.
Sonia Sheta, account director on the business at WCRS, said that the
agency had persuaded Aristoc to take the subtler approach after talking
to women about how they wanted hosiery companies to target them.
She said: ’Women told us that they didn’t want to be shown as objects.
Generally, they think there are better ways of doing the genre than we
have seen recently.’
Sheta added: ’We think that this work is different and beautiful. It
also clearly communicates the benefits of tights that slim your legs
from waist to toe.’
The new Aristoc campaign comes less than a month after Pretty Polly
unveiled a risque poster for its Secret Slimmer tights through GGT. The
poster features a model in a tight black dress which ’peels off’
periodically to reveal her wearing just a pair of tights. Pretty Polly
also courted controversy in October last year with a 35-ft-high,
96-sheet ’vertical’ poster execution.
Media for the Aristoc campaign is being planned and bought by
Mediapolis.
