Need A Cheap Way To Bring In Business? Try Mannequin Breasts
An Ohio barbeque restaurant owner was having trouble getting drive-by customers to stop, so he decided to prop a mannequin in a bikini top outside (warning: video). He says that over the past three weeks she's been standing in front of his store, he's had over 70 new customers come in and buy food—a 30% increase in business. So far, he says, no complaints; apparently his "mail girl" even donated a different top and some Daisy Dukes that he's going to use on the dummy next week.
"Busty Mannequin Lures In BBQ Customers" (video) [WXII12.com] (Thanks to Mark!)
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Comments:
This seems like a Rack-eteering scam to me.
Could the newly nice weather also have something to do with a 30% increase in business at a barbecue joint?
@donjumpsuit:
You win an internet!
You mean breasts & thighs don't usually sell food?
Hooters must have missed the memo...
One of the few forms of advertising that would get no complaints from me.
Oh yay! Using women as sex objects to sell things! What a new concept!
And still gross.
Video seems to be getting slammed, couldn't really watch it here. I'd like to meet this fellow's mail girl.
A mannequin holding a sign seems fine to me, but a tanning salon near where I live has a figure cutout standing on the corner (half a block from their store) who is facing a crosswalk that crosses an on-ramp. Out of the corner of my eye, it looks like a person getting ready to cross the street, so I instinctively slow down, until I get a better look. I suspect that sooner or later I'll start blocking it out. But really, neither result is acceptable. Slowing down traffic at a busy intersection during morning traffic is not OK. Having my visual cortex trained to ignore cross walkers is even less OK.
@nakedscience: Uh, it's actually using an "object" as a sex object. Only in movies with Kim Cattrall does something with no soul or brain "come to life".
@nakedscience: to judge by the way women talk and act at school and at work (both places roughly 95% women) I'd say they are by far the guiltier party when it comes to sexual objectification.
@Shane Elliott: you're totally right. it's all their fault, because nothing anywhere in society encourages it in any way. not advertising, not entertainment...
@MercuryPDX: I don't even have words for this. I can't believe people get all worked up over a statue...
And still effective.
@Sabbadeus: I'm not from Jezebel. But I do know that using women as sex objects is still pretty disgusting. I don't care if it "works".
@Shane Elliott: Go look up the word "patriarchy" and get back to me.
@Kaellorian: The word "naked" does not objectify women, but nice try.
@Shane Elliott: You sound like those assholes who complain about not being able to use the n-word even though Black people say it. "Well they get to do it so that makes it OK if I do it."
Translation: No one has the right to objectify anyone else, regardless of that person's behavior. Also, you're just another ignorant Facebook commenter.
@nakedscience: Also; Patriarchy doesn't work, unless they're the rulers of the kitchen. Monarchy is where it's at.
(( Don't eat me Jezebel, I've been drinking at work today because it was a coworkers birthday and the snark just leaks out ))
@Shane Elliott: Are you one of those people who think it's the woman's fault if she gets raped or beaten?
Well, she shouldn't have been wearing a skirt or told her boyfriend she wouldn't pick him up from the airport...
@nakedscience: Stop standing up for women you boner-killing Feminazi. That mannequin deserves to be objectified because of the way she's dressed. She is clearly asking for it!
@nakedscience: I agree with you, at least partially...my problem with using the mannequin is that even though it's "just" a mannequin, is not the use of the mannequin, but of society's perception that boobs!sex!hotgirls! = all women must be objects. So it's because of society that this kind of tactic works, but I think the majority of people won't see it as "oh, this means that I can treat my girlfriend/wife like she's an object." I think it's the minority of people who interpret this as license to treat women like objects "because they are" or "because they are guilty" as the biggest problem.
And that's why I would avoid this tactic, because there's no sense in making the idiotic minority even worse and reinforcing their false perceptions.
@Sabbadeus I'm not Jezebel nor am I from Jezebel. Jezebel sucks.
@Squinko, since comments are acting up.
That was really pushing it mate, my comments may be snarky in halfway decent nature, but yours is just not acceptable.
@pecan 3.14159265 said it perfectly. I should just let pecan know how I feel first, and have him/her explain it, because she/he always does a far better job than I.
It's like Peta objectifying women to promote their campaigns. I don't care if it "works", it's still disgusting.
Naked women wouldn't sell so well if they weren't seen as objects.
@nakedscience: I'm a sheeee!! And I have significant thoughts here and there throughout my workday. I think it's because I have a steady supply of candy in the office.
@ pecan 3.14159265 I thought you were a she, but I did not want to bork it up haha.
@Sabbadeus Actually, Squinko was using sarcasm to mock YOU. Your snarky comments were nowhere near "decent".
What the owner has done is accurately, semiotically identify his customer base. They recognized the "sign" and flocked to the product.
(too much time working at universities will make you talk like this)
@pecan 3.14159265: I don't think you can turn off a man's hardwired objectification impulses. (Or a woman's? I know less about that version of the brain, obviously.) Better maybe to teach boys to have respect and empathy for others and not to lose that even when the lust reaction is triggered.
I have a feeling if we somehow wiped the slate clean on humanity, a business person would notice how quickly we pay attention to sexually attractive people and--bang!--we'd see sex used in marketing again almost instantly.
May I propose that other places have near-nekkid mannequins outside their establishments? Think about it....
Librarys - people would read more
Health Clubs - people would work out more
etc.
(P.S. - yes, I know I'm an idiot.)
I've never really understood how other guys can be so offended by quasi-nude women or even depictions of them.
If this guy is offended by a statute what is his spank-bank like?
Sad commentary on today's men if they're so desperate as to be swindled by a plastic doll.
@Chris Walters: "Better maybe to teach boys to have respect and empathy for others and not to lose that even when the lust reaction is triggered."
The problem is that you can't teach boys (and society as a whole) that by CONSTANTLY using women's bodies to sell stuff.
@Chris Walters: At what point can men throw up their hands and say, "I'm just made this way," and excuse their behavior? I'm not sure that lust is the same as thinking women are objects. Lust is desire, and the overwhelming feeling of it. But the emotion does not inherently lend itself to treating women like objects, or believing they are objects. I think the act of objectification comes when society makes it seem as if it is acceptable. You're right, there should be education about empathy, and treating people decently. But I don't think men are these beasts who can't control themselves. I give men more credit than that. Maybe I'm wrong here.
@tc4b: If women weren't seen as objects, it wouldn't be effective.
I said this elsewhere, but I'm just excited commenting works again. YAY.
@tmyprod: I bet he actually LIKES really horrible, objectifying porn. Those who usually get their hankles up over a statue (even *I* wouldn't!) tend to be hypocrites.
@Sabbadeus: Uh, just because I'm a feminist and object to using women as objects doesn't mean I hang out in Jezebel. I wouldn't last a day. They can't handle dissent, and most of the editors and commenters there are hypocrites anyway.
well, Breasts sell Breasts i suppose