looking for an ad for clinique happy featuring a football player and a skinny woman with a cake.

September 8, 2009 6:37 PM

I'm looking for a print advertisement for Clinique Happy perfume from the (I think) late 90s. It features a beefy football player and an extraordinarily thin woman holding a cake. Can you direct me to a copy?

I'm looking for the print ad described above for a lecture I'm giving on how advertising functions in American society. This particular ad is one that sticks out in my memory, but I have absolutely no idea how to find a copy. If someone could direct me to a link online (I have searched high and low, to no avail), or if you have a copy you could scan and post somewhere (or e-mail to me), i would be incredibly grateful.

Also, if anyone has a favorite blog or website (or whatever) that posts incendiary ads (anything dealing with race, class, gender, sexism, homophobia, etc. in a manner that reifies these things), i'd love to know about it! Thanks!

posted by binocularfight to media & arts (8 comments total)

This?

Found searching google images for "clinique happy advert." Not a great size but there are plenty of details attached.
posted by fire&wings at 6:59 PM on September 8

According to this book, the ad came out in 1999. Here's a crappy version of it. Slighty better version but different, cake girl, no football guy. Ah here we go.
posted by jessamyn at 7:07 PM on September 8

Regarding the second half of your question, Sociological Images is a great place to find analysis-worthy advertisements. The authors' analysis is often a bit too simplistic for my tastes, but the artifacts themselves are frequently fascinating and great for teaching.
posted by pluckemin at 8:25 PM on September 8

for starters, thank you both! we're definitely getting closer, here. i also saw the googlebooks link jessamyn posted, and that book perfectly describes what i'm looking for. the images both of you have provided have the elements of that ad - the football player and the woman with cake - but the ad i'm specifically looking for is the one described in the book: just the football player and the woman with the cake with the text "clinique happy. now for men." either way, i'm very grateful for your help and for the images you've sent - they'll certainly be of use if i can't find the more simplistic ad i'm looking for. thanks again!
posted by binocularfight at 8:30 PM on September 8

Also, if anyone has a favorite blog or website (or whatever) that posts incendiary ads (anything dealing with race, class, gender, sexism, homophobia, etc. in a manner that reifies these things), i'd love to know about it!

Jezebel.
posted by trotter at 10:24 PM on September 8

I searched for the male model mentioned on that page and found this. Is that it?

A search for the birthday cake girl turned up this thread and a larger version of the image, but with the "now for men" tag in French.
posted by fire&wings at 6:40 AM on September 9 [1 favorite]

Try Sociological Images: http://contexts.org/socimages/ , which is run by a journal of sociology . For a less academic take, I prefer Racialicious (http://www.racialicious.com/) to Jezebel, which often celebrates what it purports to protest (lots of images of pretty, thin starlets in its Snap Judgment feature).
posted by dhn at 4:40 PM on September 9

thank you guys so much! yes, fire&wings, that's totally the ad. i'm cool with the text being in french. and thanks for the suggestions for other websites to check out, too, dhn and trotter! i heart metafilter...
posted by binocularfight at 2:22 PM on September 10