princessleia2: QSOL breaks their tasteless advertising promise

Elizabeth Bevilacqua (

princessleia2) wrote,
@ 2007-07-13 08:01:00

QSOL breaks their tasteless advertising promise

My employer recently footed the bill for a subscription to Linux Journal for me (how cool is that?). I received my first issue this week, dove into it, and was floored by the 5th page.

No, not by some fantastic article, not by the ToC, by an advertisement. An advertisement by QSOL.com Server Appliances. WARNING, implied sexual content: see it here.

I sighed and figured this was going to be par for the course for a tech magazine. I mentioned it to the LinuxChix and that’s when someone said “Isn’t that ad really old?” Nope, August 2007 LinuxJournal! But then this link was produced: AllBusiness.com: Nerd Humor:

With geek chic no longer as alluring as it once was, one company has reverted to slamming nerds in its advertising but in the process has invoked the ire of a women’s tech group in Silicon Valley.

An ad touting Qsol’s computer hardware products that ran in November’s Linux Journal features a photograph of a heavily lipsticked woman next to the headline “Don’t feel bad. Our servers won’t go down on you either.” Small print goes on to suggest, “If your server isn’t giving you what you want, call Qsol.”

Yikes! That’s almost the SAME advertisement! When is this article from? Monday, December 11 2000

2000?!

The article goes on to say:

Joe Safai, Qsol’s president, says the ad boosted sales significantly, but he has issued an apology and promises not to run it again. “Obviously it pissed off a lot of people. We’re not into that,” he says.

So has the desire to boost sales again with the same advertisement they got into trouble with in 2000 caused them to intentionally break this promise and not care if they piss off a lot of people AGAIN? Or a case of “any press is good press” (to which I’d be playing into)? Or did someone in marketing just find it in an old file and think it was clever? Whatever the case, it’s time for me to write a couple angry letters.

(Post a new comment)

	secretsoflife 2007-07-13 12:52 pm UTC (link)
	wow, that ad is so unclassy. wrote them a Strongly Worded Email. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	I wrote to QSOL angrykeyboarder 2007-07-16 12:23 am UTC (link)
	They convenitly list the email address for thier sales and marketing person right on thir home page. http://qosl.com/ Oh and in case they decide to take it down later, here's the contact information: James Bromley jbromley@qosl.co.uk Tel +44 780 294 7200 (Reply to this)(Parent)

mattcaron
2007-07-13 01:14 pm UTC (link)

I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there.... yeeeaaaahhhh..

I remember that ad from 2000. Absolutely loved it. Worried that it was offensive, so I sent to a discussion list. It was universally loved by everyone on the list, including the women. Caveat: These were the people who hosted and/or attended the wonderful porn parties and most of the ladies were bi. So, it's possible it's merely a question of decency.

Just to give you an idea, one of them works here (NSFW!!!).

(Reply to this)(Thread)

princessleia2
2007-07-13 02:11 pm UTC (link)

I don't understand what you disagree about.

You disagree that they broke their promise? (It seems to me that they clearly did)

You disagree that people were offended? (A lot of people said they were, I sure was)

You disagree that the advertisement is sexual in nature? (I think it is)

You disagree that it is an example of continued objectifying of women in IT and thus continuing to push the stereotype that IT is for men? (I didn't say this, but you might have extrapolated this)

Just because you know some women who enjoyed it doesn't mean it's OK.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

mattcaron
2007-07-13 02:58 pm UTC (link)

I apologize for my lack of clarity, I should have drank coffee first.

My disagreement was with the idea that it was offensive. Based on a random sampling of people I polled at the time when it came out, it is "amusing", not "offensive". (Inasmuch as my friends constitute a "random sampling").

7 years later, I still don't find it offensive.

I agree that they broke their promise, I realize that people were offended (which is silly), I agree that it is sexual in nature, and I extrapolated nothing, so therefore was not disagreeing that it is an example of objectifying of women, because it never entered my mind.

Now that it has, I suppose it is objectifying women, but in roughly the same fashion as various items marketed to women objectify men ("buy our product and you will get the hunky ken doll") or items marketed to both sexes objectify everyone ("buy our product and you can party with the pretty people"). Furthermore, I'd argue that this only objectifies women in the sense that they would be objectified towards people who find women sexually attractive, which is not only men.

Just because you know some women who enjoyed it doesn't mean it's OK.

And just because you know some women who found it offensive doesn't mean it wasn't okay.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

searchingbuddha
2007-07-13 03:32 pm UTC (link)

The problem with the ad isn't the sexual content, really.

The problem with the ad is that it makes it very clear that their customer base is presumed to be heterosexual males.

As a woman who has worked in technology for the last decade...I'm really, really sick of seeing ads that make it really obvious that I'm not even considered a consumer. (And yes, I used to think that things like that were "funny"...but then I got hired into a company that wasn't incredibly sexist in its hiring practices and my perspective changed quite a bit.)

The ad's quite effective. As someone with millions of dollars in her annual budget, I certain will not be spending any of it with them because I refuse to support companies that marginalize people.

	caereala 2007-07-13 03:37 pm UTC (link)
	Now that it has, I suppose it is objectifying women, but in roughly the same fashion as various items marketed to women objectify men.... Historically, men have not faced the same types of societal oppression women have so it is really not quite the same thing. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	gentlemoose 2007-07-13 10:00 pm UTC (link)
	I took my own non-random sampling by way of forwarding that ad to my team at work. All ten of them (four women, six men, myself included, all in the IT field) were horrified by it, and six of them used the word "offen*" in their initial responses to it. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	(Anonymous) 2007-08-02 04:55 pm UTC (link)
	People tend to hang out with people who agree with them. That people you hang out with agree with you on this issue is not surprising. However, you don't hang out with most people, so generalizing your small, self-selected sample to the rest of the world is a logical fallcay. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	angrykeyboarder 2007-07-16 12:14 am UTC (link)
	Perhaps the ad was meant for Hustler? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	mattricker 2007-07-16 01:58 am UTC (link)
	That begs an interesting question: How big of a cross-section of Hustler "readers" are responsible for purchasing servers for their company. Probably a bunch. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: I know someone at Linux Journal princessleia2 2007-07-14 10:40 am UTC (link)
	Thank you! I was only able to dig up a few email addresses from their website and ended up sending to a woman in sales and another in marketing. Better contact with folks at LinuxJournal would be good :) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	I had to say it again.. angrykeyboarder 2007-07-16 12:12 am UTC (link)
	I just posted this on your blog: I’m no prude and I enjoy sex and sexual humor. But that ad was beyond sexist. It was totally inappropriate [for a tech magazine. It belongs in Hustler, if anywhere]. If that’s what they have to do to get a sale, then perhaps they should re-think thier product. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	Re: I had to say it again.. princessleia2 2007-07-16 01:59 am UTC (link)
	I really appreciate your support. Thanks for commenting in both places :) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	Speaking of Linux Journal. angrykeyboarder 2007-07-16 12:28 am UTC (link)
	I actually prefer Linux Magazine or Linux Format (although the latter is rather expensive as it's a U.K. publication). They tend to be more "user oriented". (Reply to this)(Thread)

	Actually ...I did feel better after reading it. (Anonymous) 2007-09-12 08:19 pm UTC (link)
	Guess it's been a while since my last hummer... alas. (Reply to this)

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