Today has not been a good day for advertising agencies. First there was Fiverr’s deeply depressing exhaustion is success advert, then there was this gem from mobile spa app USPAAH.
Appearing at various locations on the Tube, the ad features a ‘guilty’ looking fellow, who appears to have gone for a large one with the ‘lads’ the night before and is having to make it up to his ‘missus’.
Don’t worry manly man, USPAAH knows how to “keep her sweet”.
Because you know what keeps women happy? Spas. Pampering. And anything else superficial and stereotypical. Just like men only like football and pints.
Needless to say, people weren’t buying any of that shit:
One person in particular used the ad to highlight why women were marching for International Women’s Day:
To which USPAAH replied, um, defensively:
Before adding that they are a company run by women:
And to be fair, their Twitter feed is full of feminist comments and a reasonable amount of support from other Twitter users saying people just need to lighten up.
In an official statement to ELLE, they have underlined that fact once again.
“Rest assured, as a company run entirely by women, working with almost a female only team of beauticians and therapists and serving a predominantly female clientele, we very much understand the needs of modern women,” they told the magazine.
“The campaign draws on funny anecdotal experiences of our own lives as strong independent business leaders, wives, partners and girlfriends. We stand by our advert whole heartedly and we're busy planning our next set of campaigns.”
USPAAH added: “Just because it is 2017 does not mean couples don't argue and as far as we are aware it's still OK to receive a gift as part of an apology... as a company, we are incredibly sensitive to what matters, and mean no offence by our tongue-in-cheek adverts.
“For all the negativity we've also received tonnes of positive and supportive messages from many people on how difficult it is to not offend someone in 2017.”
USPAAH probably had the best intentions, but it does kind of seem that at a time when women’s rights are at the forefront of people’s minds, like this ad says: #SaveYourself and your gender stereotypes.
