The Witches of East End

I’ve heard good things so far about the Witches of East End tv show that’s premiering soon. And from what I could tell, it was a refreshing change for a tv show, in that it was about three women, not some set I men inevitably outweighing the number of women. Strong women! Powerful women!  This is progress!

And then I saw this while walking in the subway yesterday:

I kid you not, I was floored. And disgusted.  And appalled.  This marketing campaign was bigger than life-size covering every wall for a full city block.

What marketing team decided that they had to be naked?  And what network said, omg guys, great idea. Advertising has a pretty bad rap already. Their job is to relentlessly sell us stuff that we probably don’t want, and the ridiculous lengths to which they will go are well chronicled.

But this is beyond my ability to stomach:

I forget, what part of a witch’s job requires nudity, let alone the virginal “Oh, no, don’t catch me naked!” pose they’ve been required to hold?  Let’s admit that it’s insulting. I just can’t get over the fact that the ONLY marketing angle they could come up with for WITCHES was sex.

To be fair, though, maybe I’ve completely misunderstood the show’s premise. Maybe this is the Sex and the City version of the paranormal trend. Except that Sex and the City never advertised like an issue of Playboy, did they?  Because their target audience was women, not the warped male gaze of 18 to 29-year-old white straight males.

I’m saddened. I was looking forward to seeing how this show did, hoping that it signaled empowerment for women, at least in some form. I guess we’ve still got some growth to do.

#Advertising #GenderParadigms #WitchesofEastEnd #TVShow #NewYorkCity #Emily