First off I want to say that fab Agent, Elaine answered some questions posted in the comments of this week's Ask The Agent. So please check here and go to the comments section to see if your question was answered. Thanks Elaine!
I was checking out Marianne Mancusi's blog and she had an interesting topic about these Gossip Girl ads.
First let me say I watch and like Gossip Girl and I've let my own DD read the books. Now to the ads... as a mother and as a writer I'm torn over them. Sure they're provocative and will do the trick to get viewers to tune in to watch what I think is one hot show. But do the ads go to far? In my opinion they do. Ugh! I just gagged a bit over how old I sound.
I'd really be fine with them if they were portraying characters that were over eighteen, but the fact that they are portraying characters that are still in high school doesn't sit right with me. Today sex is more casual then ever which just makes me sad. When I hear about freshmen girls having sex with their senior "boyfriends" of course I know what the senior boys are using the poor girls for and what the next year's round of boys will use the same girls for and so on and so on and so on...
I know that sex always has and always will go on in high school but does it need to be even more highly promoted?
I'll admit when writing my YA's to having some trouble with putting the mom aside. I was writing from the sixteen year old perspective, but I have to admit, although it pains me to do, I'm not sixteen anymore. Thank God.
ads courtesy of Gawker
Oh and did you hear that 90210 is coming back. I wonder how they will up the ante to compete with GG?
I could go on and on with this, but I won't. I'd rather hear what you think of the ads.
Best,
Kwana
Posts
13 comments:
I wouldn't watch the show regardless. I thought the books were too much.
holy crap do you remember 90210 when they did so much making out in that show? see i was in highschool and i was surprised at how much i didn't have a boyfriend attached to my mouth! so i guess GG is just this generation's high school drama. we're shocked more easily just bec we know better. the show's fantastic tho w all the drama of highschool!
sigh. I didn't like the books. But I love the show.
And I'll be honest, I love the ads. Frankly, I love the HONESTY of the ads. They're not masking what the show is about. Which, as a parent, I completely appreciate. It'd be different if the ads were portraying the show as a Holly Hobby meets the Smurfs...holy cow would you be in for a shock when you watched the show!
The ads are sexy and provocative just like the show is. And it is very much like 90210 was for us--drugs, sex, rock-n-roll. The difference between the two shows being (besides the location) 90210 ads were never really very honest.
Thanks Kristen.If you're still on what did you think was too much about the books?
I hear you Mommy the Robot. I don't know if we're shocked more easily or not. I have to think about that. Who knows maybe I am.
Thanks for your honestly, Mel. You are right they are telling you exactly what the show is about. Teens having lots of sex on the show.
I actually only watched the first 3 episodes, but somehow fell off. I hope to catch up online. Anyway, I was totally put off by the OMFG ad. To me a swear word and the word "God" shouldn't go side by side. It just seems utterly inappropriate and disrespectful. The show is good, but do they really need to go to these lengths for attention? I guess so.
Ya know in Europe, the ads are so much more nude and they seem all the more nonchalant. As a parent of
teenagers, I want them to respect the body for being beautiful. ( I loved those Calvin Klein underwear ads when I was growing up, remember Brooke Shields and the snake!)
I actually kind of can't wait for the new 90210. I never managed to watch a single episode of the first version other than the "Donna Martin graduates!" one, which I unfairly saw multiple times.
The GG ads are brilliant. Maybe immoral, maybe contributing to the downfall of modern civilization, maybe setting feminism back about fifty years--but in terms of marketing? Pure evil genius.
I hear you BG. I thing the the f word and god should not go together on a billboard but am a getting into censorship now? Yes and that's not cool either. Sigh. I really am old.
I hear you too Patricia and I do remember the Calvin ads but this is very different, yes? That was more art right. But then he went too far and did the weird basement porno looking things.
I know 90210 was supposed to be scandalous but there was some innocence to the show. This may be evil genius, Louisa it's surely evil something. A true money maker.
I never read the books, but I did get hooked by the show. I dunno what I'd think if I were a mom... I think I'd make sure my kids saw the downside to the life those kids lead.
I'm from the Dawson's Creek generation and remember the furor about that (OMG! a coed sleepover where the opposite sex BFFs talk about sex! And with big words!), but IMO, GG is just--to be blunt--crass. I read the first three or four books when they were first released and found them to star a bunch of shallow, vain, cynical folks. Plus, I'd already had my share of PWWP (reference, DC, Felicity, etc).
Oddly enough, I'm not too far removed from the target audience for GG and all the other melodramatic, oversexed teen shows of today, but it makes me sad that sex has become even more salacious than when I was in HS. I feel old for saying this, but I don't understand todays teenagers at all.
Thanks Maureen. Believe me as a Mom of teen I talk A LOT! I just hope they hear me.
Thanks La Belle Americaine for your honestly. I think a lot has changed and very quickly. You;re so right. Well said.
OMgoodness, I am torn. I love this show....I mean LOVE. But my kid isn't being marketed to with these ads. If s/he were, it would be a whole different kettle of fish. These kids are supposed to be juniors in high school, making them 16, 17 tops. They drink, they do the nasty nasty, and they are just plain naughty, with very few repercussions. Fine for me, not fine for my kids.
I forgot to add that what kills me about the show is that the characters are having sex like grown people! People complain about romance novels and unrealistic expectations about sex, but GG is marketed to teens! I'd rather see a movie or TV show about Judy Blume's 100% more realistic Forever than Gossip Girl.
Post a Comment