Dear GAP: Stop It. Right Now.
Seriously. You know what I mean, GAP. You and your creative agency, Laird+Partners. Just stop it. Leave our precious Audrey Hepburn alone, could you? The dance scene in "Funny Face" was sweet, charming, and endearing. But cutting Ms. Hepburn out and having her shill your sweat-shop-sewn, generic American uniforms to the backdrop of AC/DC? That's just wrong. It was wrong when it was Fred Astaire posthumously hawking vacuum cleaners, and it's wrong now. So stop it.
Also, GAP? During her "Funny Face" heyday, Ms. Hepburn was certainly a tall, skinny drink of water, appropriately suited for "skinny pants" and the like. As a matter of fact, she was 5'7" tall, and weighed in at a whopping 110 pounds. Just like so many American women of today! A full 2% of American women, I believe the statistic is, fit that body type now. So, good luck (but not really) with your brilliant ad campaign, and the sales of a record number of "skinny pants," GAP!
I think you're gonna need it.
Comments
You sing it, Belinda. We HATE that commercial here in Boston. HATE IT. Talk about ruining a perfectly excellent dance number in a wonderful movie by shilling pants that nobody wants to wear. Never mind that nobody can fit into the damn pants. Even my daughter, who is 14 and wears a size 4, hates them because they make her look fat. And they DO!!!
You gotta wonder what Hepburn's family was thinking when they signed away the rights to her privacy in death. Shame on them!
Posted by: Margalit | October 8, 2006 01:12 AM
Thank you-my sentiments exactly-the commercials just look freaky? They could market the pants to the 2% who are that size without being so tacky!
Posted by: Jeannie Smith | October 8, 2006 10:55 AM
Thank you-my sentiments exactly-the commercials just look freaky? They could market the pants to the 2% who are that size without being so tacky!
Posted by: Jeannie Smith | October 8, 2006 10:56 AM
I hate the commercial, and I hate the damned pants. May they saty in the past where they belong. PLEASE.
Posted by: Erin M | October 8, 2006 11:34 AM
Preach it sister! I saw this commercial just yesterday and I was nauseated. Thanks for speaking up!
Posted by: Whimspiration | October 8, 2006 12:13 PM
OMG, Thank you!!! Finally someone says exactly what I've been thinking since I first saw that awful commerical!!
Posted by: Melissa | October 8, 2006 12:18 PM
Hate it.
Hate it.
Hate it.
But, GOD I love that movie. It is a feast of vintage clothes.....the eye candy can make me begin talking in tongues.
I can only hope that skinny jeans will go the way of formal shorts, parachute pants and, please God soon, leggings under dresses.
Posted by: Julie who is any*mouse | October 8, 2006 01:59 PM
Hey, Those skinny pants aren't too bad. I get them a few sizes too large and wear them under men's shirts around the house. Much more comfortable than jeans if you get really stretchy ones. My boyfriend hates them and calls them my ugly pants though. But.......when you have eaten too much at dinner the stretchy material can make all the difference in the comfort zone.
I don't like the new Gap Ads either. Wonder who would have sold A. Hepburn's rights to them to use this way.
Posted by: Laura | October 8, 2006 04:34 PM
The word is that her son sold the rights, with the guarantee of proceeds going to one of Ms. Hepburn's charitable concerns, most or all of which involved the welfare of children. But I hardly think that the grand lady herself would have done business with the GAP at all, since they are NOTORIOUSLY neck-deep in sweatshop and child-labor controversy pretty much all the time.
Unless there's been a huge company-wide cleanup that I know nothing about. In that case, mea culpa.
I can remember working retail as a teenager and in college breaks (mostly for Limited Corp., which owns Limited, Limited Express, Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body Shop), and once a corporate rep. came in and was positively giddy in his bragging about the handmade sweaters we were selling that Christmas--the point being that while we were selling them for around $70, the company was "paying some little Chinese woman 35 cents to make it." I will never forget those words--how true they were, I do not know, but they made an impression on me. I do not now patronize ANY Limited stores, ever.
And I will never forget the documentary I saw about Asian sweatshops that make American clothing and shoes. They would tell the workers what the shirts or shoes they made were being sold for, and the looks on those poor peoples' faces crossed any language barriers. GAP was the most common offender in that special, with Nike right on its heels.
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October 8, 2006 10:26 PM
AMEN!
Posted by: Jason | October 9, 2006 12:35 AM
I LOVE you! :)
I am hinterlens over at flickr...
The way they cut the scene in the ad - to rererepeat is frickin' annoying as hell. I want to scratch something out every time I hear it. I only watch two (okay four or five) after 10pm shows and the ad runs and runs and runs. GAH!
Posted by: eko | October 9, 2006 11:12 AM
And I thought it was just me that hated that commercial. I don't know why it irritates me so much everytime I see it, but it does! I'm glad that I watch most TV off of Tivo so I can just fast forward through that commercial!
Cecelia
Posted by: Cecelia | October 10, 2006 04:02 PM
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I'm so glad someone said it. I've been so sick of that commercial since the first time I saw it!
Posted by: Dana | October 13, 2006 12:12 PM
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I'm so glad someone said it. I've been so sick of that commercial since the first time I saw it!
Posted by: Dana | October 13, 2006 12:13 PM
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I'm so glad someone said it. I've been so sick of that commercial since the first time I saw it!
Posted by: Dana | October 13, 2006 12:14 PM
Funny Face is one of my all-time favorite movies. Do you know I tried to MEMORIZE that dance when I was 12? And perform it in front of my mirror? You can only imagine how cool THAT must've looked! :)
Posted by: Suburban Turmoil | October 16, 2006 03:47 PM