The World’s First Televsion for Men and Women
As I was browsing the web, a new flash ad campaign caught my eye; in an interesting approach to marketing their new Bravia LCD TV, Sony is targeting both men and women by claiming it is “The World’s First Television for Men and Women.” This first catches one’s eye because a television isn’t immediately thought of as something that is dichomotized into male-geared/female-geared; after all, are there TV’s that are designed specifically for a woman, or even specifically for a man? None come to mind.
After this piqued my interest, I clicked on the ad to find out more about what could possibly gear a television toward either sex, and I came across this product site. The site is split horizontally into blue and pink, the ubiquitous girl/boy colors, and two buttons allow you to discover “Why Men Like It” and “Why Women Like It.” Expecting interesting differences between the two, I clicked on both and scrolled through reasons why men like the Bravia TV: “Amazing HD Picture, Wider Viewing Angles, Broader Color Gamut, and Slim Design.” And then I scrolled through the “women” reasons: “Amazing HD Picture, Wider Viewing Angles, Broader Color Gamut, and Slim Design.” They were the exact same reasons, but the descriptions were geared toward each sex by slight variations in the wording!
Ultimately, I felt cheated by the entire concept, which you could veritably apply to any sort of product at all. Even though the ads did catch my eye and bring me to the Sony site, wouldn’t it have been much more gratifying to see a more creative execution of the whole male product vs. female product? Not only was I disappointed after reaching the page, which contained little else besides the lists of reasons, but to view actual information about the product, you had to go to a different site altogether. At least they didn’t make a pink TV (see The Little Pink Toolkit for women).
Category: General Thoughts, Internet Marketing
