Just about that Suitsupply campaign
A calls me. She is the mother of K, a boy who is in my daughter's class. I drive past her on a busy street in Amsterdam, so outside the Haarlem chicken coop. Since that is quite funny and coincidental, we chat for a moment. Now that she has me on the line, she needs to get something off her chest. A is a self-employed, extremely smart woman with a son. ‘That Suitsupply campaign, that can't be right?’ I realize that every time I passed a bus stop and saw two (or three or four) heavily kissing types in skin-colored outfits, I had raised an eyebrow but hadn't done anything about it. Because launching shocking campaigns, provoking, and poking is the hobby of Fokke de Jong, the founder of the successful suit brand.
Fokke de Jong is the embodiment of success. Businesses all over the world, an office in New York, a private jet, and of course, an honorary member of the Miles High Club. It's just that you don't get a medal for that; otherwise, he would have proudly worn it every day.
Back to my phone call. ‘What are those people doing on that poster, mom?’ A's son had asked. ’Just a bit of kissing and making out, I think,’ was her answer. She had taken a sip of her coffee to go and looked at the flowering blossoms on the other side of the street. ‘But mom,’ her son had bitten into the matter, ‘that lady doesn't think that's nice at all, does she?’ A had replied that it indeed didn't look like she was enjoying it. ‘Then why is that man doing that?’ She had shrugged and said she didn't know either. ‘And why does it say ‘New Normal’?’ She had looked proudly at her son. ‘This is not normal, is it?’ She had nodded and agreed with him, and they had walked on. ‘What is that poster actually for?’ She had explained that it was an advertisement for a brand that sells nice suits. ‘But then you show the suit, right? And not a lady in a panty who doesn't like what that man is doing?!’ She had put an arm around his shoulder and given him a kiss on the head and said that she didn't understand that either.
And now she was calling me. What were we supposed to do about this? How do you explain to a child in a time where #metoo seems to reign that campaigns like these are not normal? Not new normal, not old normal, just not normal. Not. ‘I am going to deliver a man to society, and I want to deliver a man who is kind to women and treats them with respect. How am I supposed to do that if he sees images like these around him?’
I didn't know the answer. I did know that I was glad that there are sons like K and mothers like A.
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