Taxi

Taxi Canada for Plan B.

What the french is this and why does the girl suddenly get so "sassy gangsta" when the guy says the condom broke? Whaattt?? Oh my lanta...this campaign is controversial in more ways than one. The spot shown above is a part of the interactive component of this campaign, and while it takes a soft-porn approach to advertising Plan B, the ambient disposable panties shown below take a more light-hearted approach to preventing an unwanted pregnancy.



Is this real life? When I initially saw this on Taxi's website, I chuckled once but then started to read the accompanying case study and wasn't so amused. In the text, Taxi discusses how their main insight was "discovering" that their target market (women in their early 20's) have grown up in a "hyper-sexualized society where sex is an accessible entertainment." Really? Really Taxi? This is a sweeping generalization that has become associated with younger generations of women, who are now being stereotyped into holding extremely casual views on sex and the ease of short-lived sexual encounters. However, this is a growing stereotype that should not be assumed, or encouraged, among women or men. I think the group of women that fall into this category are vastly overestimated and are now becoming over-represented in the media. Taxi makes no mention of focus groups, interviews, or any credible form of research that allowed them to make these judgments; the agency did, however, have data verifying the success of the campaign, with a 19% increase in sales. The increase in sales of a product like Plan B is somewhat of a catch 22 though; the client wants an increase in sales obviously, but what does that mean for our society if more and more women are using Plan B? Maybe you should calm down and keep your panties on...but that's what Taxi encouraged in this campaign; a key component to their strategy was to let consumers post their own "oops" stories about a time they should have kept their legs closed. Stories were shared via mobile text (dumbass. That has to be the easiest way for a company to track exactly who you are...you need to keep your panties on and your phone off) or on Post-it notes in fitting rooms in clothing stores. Yeah, it gets better though. Taxi also placed their message in the places women "meet and hook up: bars, clubs, college and university campuses, and music festivals." So now we're pouring gasoline on the fire because we are telling young women that you have an easy way out of pregnancy, while they are getting drunk and contemplating making some bad decisions. This campaign proves exactly why media messages and stereotyping can be so dangerous; these entities can give a false perception about what "everyone is doing" or how you are supposed to act according to race or gender roles. This is so ridiculous, and I don't have any issues with the product itself, or the brand's desire to increase awareness of the product, but don't do it at the cost of loving relationships!...This whole shenanigan with Taxi and Plan B totally makes sense when you remember that Taxi also does advertising for Viagara!!