Marriott’s new bed
Marriott is launching a new bed to catch up with Westin, etc. in the race for tired business travelers.
Naturally, they’re launching the campaign with tragically ineffective airport billboard advertising (does it ever work?) and a campaign that makes very little sense to me.
Instead of telling a story that the traveler wants to believe (that they will be filled with energety and ready to go after sleeping in the bed), the ads show model-perfect athletes… far too perfect to be believable.
But here’s the real question: why are the basketball player and the runner black, while the gymnast and the swimmer are white? See all four of them lined up at LaGuardia and it screams, "stereotype." We have a long way to go, and these ads are more evidence of same.