The photo of Adele that stirred up the web, from the Cybex campaign (photo: screenshot, Facebook)
In the Cybex Israel poster in question, the network anchor and new mother Adele can be seen in a black bodysuit that reveals a perfect body and a well-kept crotch, with a baby carriage behind her and the title "Just Perfect".
Criticism of the ad claimed that it presents an excessively sexual image of postpartum women, and that it offends many mothers because it perpetuates the unrealistic and harmful idea that new mothers should immediately return to their pre-pregnancy figure and be sexually attractive.
In reality, it is argued, birth is a life-changing physical and emotional event that takes time to recover from.
Many mothers do not feel sexy or confident in their bodies after giving birth, which often leads to postpartum depression and in extreme cases to the alienation of the mother from the newborn.
Indeed, without implying anything, there is something that is very conspicuously missing in this picture, and that is of course the baby.
In fact, Cybex Israel not only failed to present the experiences of new mothers accurately, but also added to the social pressure they already face, to meet impossible beauty standards that push their real needs, at such a significant stage in their lives, to the margins.
The home of comments for the campaign
"I am very proud of Adele Bespalov, the new mother who looks stunning. But in the life of Cybex Israel, is this the example you are setting in 2023? Is this the advertisement? A little connection to reality (or a connection to the buyer's market/s). Where are the mothers who don't have a makeup, hair and production team? Where are the fathers?"
"Why turn a baby's stroller into something sexual? The stroller is intended for the baby and not to glorify and praise the mother. If you were to do a campaign for clothing or makeup or something else - that's the most legitimate because you (Adele) are beautiful. But I don't understand why to turn baby products For something sexual? Balenciaga also fell for it. Shocking."
"The criticism is not about Adele's appearance, or how women dress after giving birth (with or without a mini or with heels or not). The criticism is about the idea behind the advertising of a stroller and the way of marketing the product, which has lost it a little. There is no doubt that she will wear a garment A body sells the mother and not the pram. This is not jealousy, this is not eye trouble, this is simply reality."
"I am very proud of Adele Bespalov, the new mother who looks stunning. But in the life of Cybex Israel, is this the example you are setting in 2023? Is this the advertisement? A little connection to reality (or a connection to the buyer market/s). Where are the mothers who don't have a makeup, hair and production team? Where are the fathers?"
"What's all this frustration in the comments??? What's better - to see a neglected mother in a campaign with a skull and clothes with a baby's excrement? Wake up women, you can be a mother and look like a million dollars and that's how it should be. Great campaign, you're stunning and whoever can't look good take the herself in her hands, just don't bring down frustrations on women who take care of themselves and all the best."
Adele herself did not stay obliged and wrote in her story: "So much lack of support, so much trouble, how sad it is. I will never criticize any mother, nor her body, nor the way she looks and behaves. Anyone who simply does what is best for her. If there was I want to take a picture with a stroller and a bodysuit because I feel like the most bombshell in the world, so that's how it will be, and those who don't feel well are welcome to unfollow me. I'll live with it happily."
The protest campaign against Cybex
The really interesting thing happened when online content creators started replicating the Cybex campaign in their own way.
The full female version
The father's version in underwear
The drag version
Even in the "Main Store" they responded to the trend with a tear-jerking photo of Ramsey Abed Ramsey with a supermarket cart behind him. (Photo: Mench)
Provocation = exposure
In smart marketing, nothing is by chance.
Despite the negative reactions to the campaign, the results speak for themselves: hundreds of shares and heated discussion on the networks that the ad ignited created a wave of interest in the brand and also brought it to the consciousness of the general public who does not raise small children and has no need for a stroller.
The original ad, by the way, was quickly removed from the company's social pages.
And what about Adele?
Lost a few followers, gained a few new ones, and like she said, she's happily living with it.
It turns out that even in 2023, an advertiser who knows his job does not necessarily have to hit the target, the main thing is that he will be talked about on the network 24/7.
Marketing and digital
Content and creative
Tags
Adele Besplov
motherhood
birth
Pregnancy and Birth
Marketing
campaign
Cybex
