Why are all the girls so fricking dumb on Honeyshed? It’s clear that a bunch of boys (we’re looking at you Smuggler), created content that echoes their “idea” of women rather than how women largely operate online and as consumers. The girls on Honeyshed are shadows of women, projecting an old idea of femininty against a back drop of sex. It’s as if we’ve stepped back in time to the Mad Men days when women subverted men with pouted lips and allusions to their sexuality. In truth, it makes me incredibly sad.
Girl one: “For all of you who don’t know what rugby is…”
Girl two: “Seriously. I don’t know what it is.”
And then, she goes on to explain what rugby is. In detail. Like she’s talking to infants. Forget stupidity. In other spots, Honeyshed goes so far as to reduce female concerns to how their boyfriends feel about what they may purchase. Products are funneled through this myopic lens depressingly and constantly.
If not stupidity and one-dimensional concerns about male approval, the selling tactic is sloppy sexual asides. In the lingerie episode, Honeyshed features a fully clothed solicitous guy standing beside three young ladies in their bra and panties. Need I point out the sexual dynamics going on here? The women then proceed to teach him and the male audience (despite this spot being for women) how to take a woman’s bra off. Jesus.
Honeyshed is not for women in any way shape or form. Perhaps, this entices thirteen year olds who are curious about their sexuality, but guess what? They don’t have the spending power to make Honeyshed a financial success.
Honeyshed is missing out on a few things: how women shop online; that the digital generation with the spending power to adore this site are older than 16; that if you treat women like Playboy bunnies or twits, you’ll never get them get back; that you need to have women deciding how women will be portrayed on the site; that if you’re going for the American Apparel, edgy sex sells thing – you are so far off the mark that I can’t be bothered to correct you.
Just get rid of the ladies channel. Like now. You’re embarrassing yourselves and proving the old adage true: advertising does not understand the needs, desires, thought processes or identities of women.