Don’t know if you have noticed where you are, but Eduard have lately been advertising their wares in magazines with full-colour full-pages ads depicting scantily dressed women.
Not that I’m not interested in the female forms [}:)], but was that absolutely necessary? I now can’t even read my mags (well, some of them) without checking in my back to see if the Mrs is not looking… [:D]
I think Eduard should not go that way. Soon enough, we’ll have covers of our favourite scale modeling mags looking like auto or bike rags, where the only way to get someone to buy a particular title rather than another is to have the best looking half-naked woman suggestively posing with the car or the bike.
One of the great things about fine-scale modelling is that it is a ‘safe’ hobby for a married man with children. I don’t have to explain to my wife that it is not my fault that an ugly-stug is pretty…because the stug does NOT represent any competition.
I was excited to get a SAMI magazine the other day, and asked her to drive so I could read in the car. About 10 pages in, I find myself flipping past this Eduard Ad as quickly as I could. Amazingly, it wasn’t quick enough
If there were a nice, simply way of saying to Eduard, “thanks, but no thanks”, I’d like to do that.
I don’t think that sex sells (for me personally)-if I want something bad enough-I don’t care how it’s advertised. Unless we’re talking lingerie, bikinis or, well, sex.
Yes, it does sell everything from alcohol (mainly beer) to you-name-it. If anything, it gets one’s attention. Is it in poor taste, sure, but admit it, we really don’t mind it that much now do we? [:D]
I know what you mean Eric, but it still bothers me to see breasts and bottoms, as cute as they may be, in a scale modeling mag. What message are we giving young modelers? or female modelers for that matter…?
Eduard’s ‘Tight Fit’ series of ads are very poor in taste.
Been wondering if anyone would bring this up. Their campaign is for their masks, something like “skin tight fit” or whatever. I can’t really complain, but I do find it REALLY stupid and comletely unimaginative, catering to the status quo by making their adds like that. As to their effectiveness, well I didn’t buy their masks then, and I won’t now either. And when I look at their add, well it won’t be their product I’m admiring [:p]
Hey, it might get the youngsters involved in the figure(non-military) side of the Hobby.
Great advantages there can be many original design kits that cna be sold cheaply because no copyright exists.
But generally I feel the same thing those ladies are a nuisance and often hide good detail on a car, etc.
But than I was told on my Grandfathers knee that only 2 things make the world go round: money and sex. And often one is used to get the other.[:I]
I’ve only seen the ad in SAMI, but it’s caused a bit of a stir in the modeling world. Kind of a dumb way to advertize paint masks IMHO, but the young lady does have pretty nice buns [:)].
I can see how some people may find Eduard’s advertising in poor taste. However, modeling a B-17, B-24, or B-29, representing (among other things) planes that bombed and killed civilians can also be seen as being in bad taste.
Sex sells, but violence (and military hardware) sell better.
Personally, I think Eduard’s advertising is within the bounds of good taste. The point is that their masks fit as tightly as the models’ clothes.
I would much rather explain to my (soon to be born) son about the birds and the bees than the bullets and bombs.
Having said that, I like modeling military vehicles, so I guess my kid will have to learn about that too. [:)]
Really it reminds me a bit of RC modeling mags from the 80s. Every magazine had on the cover a bikini clad girl holding an RC plane or posed behind a larger RC truck or something.
As for the Eduard ads, they are pretty conservative considering some ad campaigns I’ve seen.
On North American television we are bombarded by endless ads for feminine hygene products and a certain shampoo (which will remain nameless) that has spent the past five years at least using women faking orgasms in the shower to sell it; now THAT is poor taste!
Eduard could do much better in advertizing their product, but they still have a long way to go before they are trully plumbing the depths of poor taste.
