Like Her Butt? This Time It Is the Shoes, Baby!
1st November 2009
I don’t often get hit with persuasion inspiration while watching football, but just now during the Denver-Baltimore game, I just saw an ad that made me sit up in the recliner. Reebok offers the Easy Tone shoe which has been scientifically proven to exercise this, that, and the other muscle and with all things considered, deliver a better butt for women. Here’s the video ad. And here’s a print ad making the same claim.
A couple of persuasion observations.
1. This is a hot and complex ad that combines Arguments and Cues. Reebok goes out of its way to document the science behind the shoe. Thus, if the model in the ad actually wears the shoe, her rear end is a walking testimonial to the quality of the product. And, the ad runs that Argument repeatedly with a wandering eye moving from shoe to butt and back again. Reebok is also getting women writing about the shoes as strong Arguments for Great Butts.
Yet, clearly, this is all one gigantic Cue where Reebok associates an attractive body and effective camera work with their shoe. I’m sure a lot of men will Ding Dong on this in the store thinking they are buying a thoughtful gift for their wives and girlfriends. I’m also sure that some women will find the claims interesting, too, and might actually purchase the shoes as an easy way to do targeted fitness.
2. Get ready for a little gender warfare of this from the Usual Gang of Suspects. Just as all bad persuasion is sincere, so is all bad persuasion criticism. Critics should realize their button is getting pushed deliberately here. Reebok wants you to pile on. Please.
3. I cannot help but recall the famous and effective Nike ads with Michael Jordan and Spike Lee as Mars Blackmon. “It’s the shoes, baby. It’s the shoes!” Spike/Mars would shout as Jordan performed his aerial acrobatics on the court. Buy the shoes, get the performance was the obvious poetry of the ad.
Now, Reebok goes its rival one better. This time, baby, it is the shoes.
Remember the Rules.
Persuasion is strategic or it is not.