Racy ad campaign 'goes a cigar too far'
By Simon Canning
25Sep03
THE Australian Jockey Club has been accused of bad taste with a television commercial featuring women toying suggestively with a cigar and caressing each other in a manner critics claim denigrates women.
The advertisement promoting the AJC's Spring Carnival at Randwick racecourse in Sydney's eastern suburbs has been designed to attract more women aged 18-35 to the races.
AJC marketing director Steve Reid says the adverts feature "frolicking ladies being viewed by well-dressed men, surging racehorses and romantic music".
But marketing experts have attacked the campaign. Amanda Stevens, managing director of SplashGroup, which specialises in analysing marketing to women, said the campaign undid the good work of previous successful advertising campaigns. "This ad is denigrating to women," Ms Stevens said.
She said the use of a cigar in the commer cial was reminiscent of a Monica Lewinsky-style act, while the image of two women on the grass touching each other had lesbian overtones. "Women just don't behave like that at the races. This is a male fantasy."
Jane Caro, an Advertising Federation of Australia's ethics committee member, said the advert was deplorable. "I don't see what such images have to do with going to the races," Ms Caro said. "It's lazy, insulting and offensive."
Mr Reid defended the ad, saying the scenes featuring women caressing each other and a woman playing suggestively with a cigar were only minor elements. "I think it is really a tribute to women and the way modern woman is living out her role in society," Mr Reid says.
"There is a lot of seduction and romance in the images portrayed. We do like to push it."
World bankers hoe into the caviar
September 25, 2003
After long days sorting out Argentina's debt default and Iraq's economy, bankers in Dubai for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings are spending their nights exploring other aspects of global trade: caviar, foie gras, lobster and belly-dancing.
It's on the sidelines, at once-a-year parties, where the bankers have a chance to meet clients, competitors and colleagues all in one place.
"I'm seeing 60 clients in three days," said Jacob Frenkel, chairman of Merrill Lynch International and former head of the Bank of Israel, declining to name them. "The name of the game is networking."
The Dubai meetings also offered a rare chance for Israeli and Arab officials to socialise in a Gulf country, with Bank of Israel governor David Klein attending. While the United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, has no diplomatic relations with Israel, Israelis entered the country on special IMF visas.
At the party thrown by Arab Banking Corp on Sunday night at the Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club, the Libyan-Kuwaiti bank erected two air-conditioned tents and set up "caviar stations" with beluga and sevruga varieties. Two other tables held freshly sauteed foie gras, while others had lobster, prawns, hummus and stuffed grape leaves.
Docked on the waterway outside the tents was a cigar-bar dhow stocked with Cuban Montecristos. A quartet of a harp and three violins serenaded the crowd with such tunes as the love theme from the film Titanic, "My Heart Will Go On".
By Simon Canning
25Sep03
THE Australian Jockey Club has been accused of bad taste with a television commercial featuring women toying suggestively with a cigar and caressing each other in a manner critics claim denigrates women.
The advertisement promoting the AJC's Spring Carnival at Randwick racecourse in Sydney's eastern suburbs has been designed to attract more women aged 18-35 to the races.
AJC marketing director Steve Reid says the adverts feature "frolicking ladies being viewed by well-dressed men, surging racehorses and romantic music".
But marketing experts have attacked the campaign. Amanda Stevens, managing director of SplashGroup, which specialises in analysing marketing to women, said the campaign undid the good work of previous successful advertising campaigns. "This ad is denigrating to women," Ms Stevens said.
She said the use of a cigar in the commer cial was reminiscent of a Monica Lewinsky-style act, while the image of two women on the grass touching each other had lesbian overtones. "Women just don't behave like that at the races. This is a male fantasy."
Jane Caro, an Advertising Federation of Australia's ethics committee member, said the advert was deplorable. "I don't see what such images have to do with going to the races," Ms Caro said. "It's lazy, insulting and offensive."
Mr Reid defended the ad, saying the scenes featuring women caressing each other and a woman playing suggestively with a cigar were only minor elements. "I think it is really a tribute to women and the way modern woman is living out her role in society," Mr Reid says.
"There is a lot of seduction and romance in the images portrayed. We do like to push it."
World bankers hoe into the caviar
September 25, 2003
After long days sorting out Argentina's debt default and Iraq's economy, bankers in Dubai for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings are spending their nights exploring other aspects of global trade: caviar, foie gras, lobster and belly-dancing.
It's on the sidelines, at once-a-year parties, where the bankers have a chance to meet clients, competitors and colleagues all in one place.
"I'm seeing 60 clients in three days," said Jacob Frenkel, chairman of Merrill Lynch International and former head of the Bank of Israel, declining to name them. "The name of the game is networking."
The Dubai meetings also offered a rare chance for Israeli and Arab officials to socialise in a Gulf country, with Bank of Israel governor David Klein attending. While the United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, has no diplomatic relations with Israel, Israelis entered the country on special IMF visas.
At the party thrown by Arab Banking Corp on Sunday night at the Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club, the Libyan-Kuwaiti bank erected two air-conditioned tents and set up "caviar stations" with beluga and sevruga varieties. Two other tables held freshly sauteed foie gras, while others had lobster, prawns, hummus and stuffed grape leaves.
Docked on the waterway outside the tents was a cigar-bar dhow stocked with Cuban Montecristos. A quartet of a harp and three violins serenaded the crowd with such tunes as the love theme from the film Titanic, "My Heart Will Go On".