Women's Wear Daily posted this article on a new campaign from compression athletic gear manufacturer CW-X, known to date in the sports bra world for their print campaigns which display cringe-inducing images, (such a female torso clad in multiple sports bras and duct tape) to represent all that well-endowed women go through to get proper support when they run. Their newest viral campaign, which ran online in May, "The Apology Letter" takes a humorous shot at minimizing the lechery factor of inadequately supported breasts by featuring a young woman reading an apology letter to all the men (and one woman) who gawk at her on her running route who will no longer have the opportunity now that she is well supported by her CW-X bra.
When you've only got a few seconds to get someone's attention, humor can be a hugely effective tool. It's interesting that in many years of working in women's sports apparel, gawking wasn't an issue customers tended to bring up about sports bras. Mostly they referenced the need for comfort as the bounce factor is just plain painful. Although I do have a DD friend who needed new running shoes and didn't feel comfortable running on the store treadmill to be evaluated because she didn't have the right bra on and was embarrassed to bounce even though it was just she and the saleswoman in the store - not a gawker in sight.
The most effective thing about the ad is that the woman runs in place and you can see first-hand that her breasts stay put. However, she is of average size and it would be interesting to see the company extend the campaign with women of a range of sizes. Seeing a D or above woman pass the bounce test - now that'd sell a ton of bras. A last thought on the creative - including male runners in the gawker category, which was peopled with the "hot dog vendor," "construction worker" high school students waiting for a bus and other over-the-top stereotypes seemed to take a little of the joke edge off and push it into the "all guys are sexist jerks" category and the whole girls-against-the-boys thing in sports is kind of tired at this point.
It was a bit of a challenge to find, but you can check out the ad here. Note to CW-X: just because the ad buy is over, doesn't mean you should bury it on your website, where I would have sent this traffic had I been able to easily locate it...
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