‘If in doubt, get the breasts out.” That is not an official advertising slogan, but it might as well be. Cleavage has always been the uninspired ad man’s best friend. Flogging fast food? Show a bunch of busty models eating burgers in bikinis. Hawking ice-cream? Film a slow-motion shot of it dripping down a woman’s chest. Selling cars? Boobs. Selling home insurance? More boobs. You get the idea; you would have to be a boob not to.
While breasts are not exactly unusual in adverts, Adidas’s new marketing campaign for its expanded range of sports bras takes things to the extreme. Instead of just showing a bit of cleavage, the advert features 25 pairs of bare breasts. Some are scarred; some are small; some are saggy; all of them are unapologetically uncovered. Accompanying the nudity are layers of predictable PR guff about how Adidas wants to celebrate inclusivity and showcase the many varieties of modern mammaries etc etc. Frankly, I would have respected the company a lot more if it just said: it is not that deep – we know this is guaranteed to get people talking, which means our brand name will worm its way into your unconscious and hopefully translate into a sales boost for our bras.
I don’t know how the bra sales are going, but the “get people talking” strategy is working. Some people have been celebrating Adidas’s advert for desexualising breasts; others have called it exploitative. “They are now trying to sell us objectification as if it’s liberation,” an associate professor of sociology at the University of California at Irvine told the Washington Post.
We believe women’s breasts in all shapes and sizes deserve support and comfort. Which is why our new sports bra range contains 43 styles, so everyone can find the right fit for them.
— adidas (@adidas) February 9, 2022
🔗 Explore the new adidas sports bra collection at https://t.co/fJZUEjvopQ#SupportIsEverything pic.twitter.com/CESqmsXOwI
It is a fair point, but, after much consideration (I have been thinking about breasts all weekend), the former marketing professional in me has decided the ad is quite good, actually. Unlike male chests, women’s breasts are still ridiculously sexualised – so much so that female nipples are censored on Instagram. Adidas’s ad might be a shameless attention grab, but anything that helps normalise nipples is OK with me.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
