Footwear Brand Under Fire for Feminist Ad: 'Equal Pay Is Not Enough'

“Listen up. There’s still not equal pay for equal work anywhere in the world. And it seems most women are not even angry about it. But we should be.”

No, that’s not a line from a Women’s March speech or even from a cheeky Secret spot. It’s from a shoe commercial. And not just any shoe commercial — clearly. From Danish footwear brand Bianco, the ad is causing quite the stir for its aggressive (but accurate) declarations and depictions.

What is meant to be an ad for their SS17 campaign is a not so veiled outcry for gender equality. And it’s all positive, feminist, and well-intentioned — until a woman throws a coffee mug at a man’s face…

The point they are trying to make, however, is warranted. “Our haircuts are more expensive. Our underwear is ridiculously more expensive. It’s simply more expensive to be a woman than to be a man,” a seductive Danish female says in a voiceover. And she can’t be argued with. “Should we seriously get paid less than a person who applies body lotion to his face?” Well that really has nothing to do with it, but yes, especially since that lotion he’s using was most likely purchased by his female significant other.

“Fashion is expressing yourself, and what every stylish woman is expressing is that equal pay is not enough,” the voice-over goes on to say before a woman hurls her shoe through a glass window at a bunch of men sitting in a conference room. Another woman then begins jumping on the hood of a man’s car. OK, things are getting weird. And they’re about to get weirder. Here comes the mug smashing against the chin of a man who appears to be the female thrower’s boss (wow, that’s one hard face).

Lastly, after showing a shiny white pump, the commercial ends with the hashtag, #WomenNeedMore.

The company is proposing the idea of setting “a new goal.” From now on, “equal pay is no longer enough, because women need more.”

In the YouTube description of the ad, the company writes:

“If most agree that pay should be equal but we still are not there, then something new must happen and this is why Bianco’s new campaign film puts petrol on the embers and suggests that the aim has simply been too low. Why fight for equal pay, when you can fight for more pay than men instead?…Therefore, in Bianco’s new film, the women have had enough and, with their shoes as weapons, they fight against those with the money under the slogan Equal Pay is not Enough and #WomenNeedMore.”

It’s a sensible argument, but many are not happy with the violence the ad portrays. “Hitting, abusing and assaulting man is now okay?” one user commented on YouTube. “Could you imagine the backlash if you showed a female boss getting a mug of hot coffee smashed in her face by a male employee? Oh, but this is fine because violence against men to sell shoes is cool, right?” wrote another.

Even feminists aren’t having it. “A lot of women are angry about it, but funnily enough not because we want to buy more shoes. Isn’t it great when capitalism attempts to cash in on feminism? What a load of bullshit,” one woman wrote on the brand’s Facebook page. Bianco responded to her saying, “If the campaign creates dialogue and encourage for debate – as it does now – the campaign has already done something for the better :-)”

Another Facebook user wrote, “I was hoping that the main theme in this video was the money issue with pads/tampons, but instead it’s hair, clothes and shoes? Yes, our haircuts are more expensive, but pads/tampons are seen as a ‘luxury’. We can’t drop them, because we NEED them. We don’t NEED expensive shoes and clothes. I just don’t get it. I might have misunderstood the video, but yeah.” To which Bianco replied, “Point taken.”

Then, there’s the one guy who pointed out that the ad is hypocritical because they are the ones selling overpriced items to women. “I find it hilarious that the ad complains about overpriced women’s products while trying to sell overpriced women’s products. Can you really not see the irony?” he said. The most expensive boots on the website are about $250.

In response to the criticism, Bianco told MailOnline, “The message of the advertisement is to point out the absurdity of that there is still no equal pay. We do this with the absurd argument that women must fight to get more pay than men, because it’s more expensive to be a woman than it is to be a man. The video shows some conditions worth being angry about, which is also why we show angry women. But of course we do not encourage to violence – that is neither the way to get a raise. The ad is a fashion commercial with a satirical twist.”

What do you think? Is the ad on point or did Bianco stick their foot in their mouth?

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