Although Bloomingdale’s did not mean to make their advertisement seem like spiking drinks was okay, this is clearly the message that is being portrayed. When you first see this ad what do you think of? For me, I know it is certainly not clothes. If I go out and see this ad randomly I would not know what they were advertising.
Although it is the holidays and they were trying to make a light-hearted joke, the media took this as anything but a joke. There was plenty of backlash for this advertisement.
This whole advertisement just makes no sense. The first thing I noticed is that they have opposite colors on. While the lady has on a bright color with a dark scarf, the man has on a dark coat which represents that he has bad intentions. If they were trying to make this a jolly holiday commercial I don’t think they should have put them in such bland clothes. I personally do not shop at Bloomingdale’s, but I do know what holiday spirit looks like and this is not it.
Next, is just the wording in general. I have no clue what spiking someone’s eggnog has to do with a clothing line. Even just some green and red attire from the clothing line would have set the tone for this ad. We would know that they are talking about the holidays besides making a reference to eggnog.
A girl that is having a good time and not knowing what is being put into her drink is showing anything but holiday spirit. On top of that, why are the words “best friend” in bold and bigger than the rest? It has zero relevance to the picture and to the ad in general.
Although there are many horrible ads out there, this one seems to top the cake. This ad tells you everything NOT to put in an ad. A clothing advertisement at that. The bland clothing, the malice you can see in the man’s eyes as he wears his dark clothing, the message that is trying to get across, everything is just wrong.