Sex sells, so they say. And even if they didn’t say, the proof is in the pudding – ads for things as mundane as coffee and cleaning products generally have a writhing, pouting princess or macho man somewhere in the ad campaign, and even newsreaders are starting to look like glamour models.
Everything needs to be sexed up. I know this, but I am sadly behind in the sexing up my business stakes.
My work is internet-based, I type a lot, hunched over the computer – until I remember, then I straighten up for 10 minutes or so, until I forget again and hunch once more. I work with money, people, words, advertisers. I do accounts, make scary decisions.
On top of this, I have a family. I cook (sort of), clean (occasionally), and do enjoy the odd few hours enjoying the people with whom I share a home. I don’t really have time to be vamping about, or thinking up raunchy ad campaigns to sell my work.
But a recent jaunt to an office made me see how crucial it is that I do.
I made extra effort with the hair and make-up and forced my feet into high heels, I felt pretty sure of myself when I headed through the office doors.
However.
Those people were fashionable: from the web people to the marketing people, to the admin people and the accounts people, they were all just stunning: great bodies, decked in slick outfits, perfect hair. The girls had perfect make-up, the guys showed off designer watches.
I felt old, frumpy, large and very out of it. I am not that old (early 40’s), not really frumpy, not that large, but boy, it’s true that I am out of it. Was it really not so long ago I felt like a young and funky type of person? Do they even say funky these days? Doubt it.
I returned to the sanctuary of my home office, and my beautiful family, who accept me a bit threadbare, who love me for my frizzy hair and unfashionable ways, and immediately decided that my business, unsexy though it is, can remain that way for now.
In the meantime, I will be responding only to those ads urging me to buy things by using normal looking people in normal looking clothes, doing normal looking things.
If nothing else, it will save me a fortune.
Leah Gibbs is the Founder and Business Manager of Lifestyle Careers.
Lifestyle Careers is an online recruitment job board. Our niche and specific focus is the advertising of flexible employment and work at home positions. It is designed for professionals wanting to balance their work and personal life.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }