In a stunning swap of industries, FortaCloud has switched to being a lingerie company! Or at least that’s what their latest Twitter Advert looks like….
50% off Mondays. Promo Code: 50OFFMONDAY. Limited to first 150 signups. #VPS #COUPON http://t.co/8i23C3VBPQpic.twitter.com/cdED6bhRqX
— FORTAcloud (@FortaCloud) May 18, 2015
Now…. as adverts go its not a bad attempt. It is eye-catching, makes good use of colour contrasts and encourages the person seeing it to keep looking. On every other standard though, this is god damn awful.
That’s right folks, when they got called out about the advert being…. well blatantly sexist. They defended it.
@RichardPrice Well, 99% of our customers are male between the ages of 18 and 42, similar to another industry. See https://t.co/KvuH8MlEWo.
— FORTAcloud (@FortaCloud) May 18, 2015
Well, that makes it ok then doesn’t it? Their customers are mainly male so they’re trying to appeal to men! Oh wait… no… Because men get pissed off at this stuff too.
FortaCloud also attempted to defend themselves by basically saying “GoDaddy did it too!!”. GoDaddy being totally awesome at making non-offensive adverts…. oh wait no. GoDaddyhase come under fire year after year about their adverts being sexist or just offensive, so maybe they’re not the right people to be copying?
While it can be said that in the world of advertising that “sex sells”, normally that sex is at least contextual. The sexy man in the Diet Coke adverts tended to be doing something like washing windows or gardening (something which made them sweaty enough to take off their tops and have a drink).
Ultimately, this is probably going to backfire on FortaCloud. People I’ve spoken to about the advert either automatically dismissed them as a lingerie company or were offended by the advert outright. The moral of the story? Don’t just post pictures of lingerie models as adverts unless you’re advertising lingerie. Also, that bra looks like a terrible fit on her.