• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, November 8, 2015

By now you've probably heard the story of model Heidi Yeh who appeared in a JWT-created Taiwanese plastic surgery ad in 2012 that has since gone viral causing the woman pain, heartache and the inability to get work. The attractive Yeh appeared in the ad with an equally attractive male actor and three children playing the part of the couple's children.

After the photoshoot each child was Photoshopped to look as though they really needed plastic surgery. The ad carried the tagline "The only thing you have to worry about after plastic surgery is the explaining you’ll have to do to your children.”

The ad went viral and was somehow attached to a 2004 hoax about a man suing his wife for hiding the fact she had had plastic surgery before they met. Naturally, the Internet thought this woman was Yeh.

By now, you've likely also seen the john st.-created video  that skewers the latest female empowerment -- or "femvertising" -- trend -- an improved version of the "men are stupid idiots" trend -- to which brands like Dove and Always have attached themselves. The agency has also skewered other advertising topics such as cat videos and real-time marketing or "reactvertising." 

All of which begs the question; why do women always find themselves in situations where they become slaves to preconceived social norms that, if veered from, almost always land them in a boiling pot of hot internet outrage?

If a woman wants to have plastic surgery, what's the big deal? I'll tell you what the big deal is. The fact that they feel they have to have the surgery in the first place as if they are some form of substandard human. Or that they have to shave every inch of their bodies (except for the head) because some ad told them they had to in order to be beautiful. 

It's really no surprise that we've seen such an outpouring of these female empowerment-style ads. Some say the trend is a good thing. Others say it just reinforces the notion that women are inferior and have to prove they are not. 

And closer to home, why does the advertising industry need a full-blown, two-day conference just to call attention to what any intelligent human being already knows: women are just as awesome as men and they should be treated just as fairly?

Yes, when something needs to change we need to call attention to that fact. And so femvertising in some respects plays a role as does an industry conference that champions women in creative industries.  

Maybe the fact that John st. went to the effort to create a parody that mocks the ad world's current obsession with female empowerment is a good thing in the sense that mocking something usually means it's been given a stamp of approval. And in this case, by stamp of approval, I mean we've arrived at a place where it's just silly for intelligent humans to apply some kind of pecking order to men and women.

Having said that there are certainly a lot of less-than-intelligent humans who need a good slap in the face on this topic. 

So until every human has arrived at a place where sex only matters when it comes to, ahem, sex, we're quite likely to see many more female empowerment ads -- and john st. parodies.