A statuesque Afro-haired model, in a shimmering, low cut, fuschia pink jump suit, straddles an enormous phallus, legs akimbo. With a complicit, sly smile, she rises elegantly to her full height, towering, head and shoulders above the high rise building on a shimmeringly familiar city skyline. Cut to a titian-haired temptress, supine in a diaphanous gown, gazing up, directly into the camera as she seductively raises one knee and the gown slowly starts to fall open.
Do I have your attention yet? Just click here for a glimpse of the clip I describe above – although perhaps you should be warned? It won’t actually take you straight to a wicked website, devoted to the singular charms of gigantic women and their puny male prey – although there are plenty of those out there – as ever, I’ve researched this post thoroughly, on your behalf, of course.
It is not a slice of slick macrophiliac porn. It is, in fact, the latest television advert for good old Clarks shoes – founded 1825 by brothers James and Cyrus Clark, in the tiny town of Street in Somerset, southwest England. And, it seems, still going strong.
The clip was directed by Scott Lyon for agency AMV BBDO and was first aired in the UK at the end of September. Obviously, it grabbed my attention as the super-size models are seen stalking around the Central business district of my native Hong Kong and I am thrilled to wallow in nostalgic recognition any time the ad airs.
Yet, once I had successfully identified every street and every skyscraper, the ad began to trouble me. Why would such a staid old shoe company be so overtly referencing such a controversial artistic trope to push its new Autumn/Winter range of boots and shoes? It is not, of course, the first time that Clarks have pushed the envelope with its advertising. Remember the jaunty “Act your shoe size, not your age” campaigns, orchestrated by iconic agency St Luke’s in the late 1990s?
Neither is it the first appearance of giant women in an advertising campaign. Lee Jeans and Burger King are just two companies who have recently used huge women or tiny little men to push their products. Right now, on London Underground, the lengthy, fish-netted legs of the stars of musical Chicago are wrapped around a selection of city landmarks such as London Bridge.
The forbidding figure of the Amazon or Giantess recurs in Greek, Roman and Norse mythology and has been around in both fine and popular art and literature for centuries. In one classic children’s book, even Lewis Carroll had poor Alice temporarily take on enormous proportions, while the giantess in popular culture may well have reached her apotheosis in 1958’s schlock-horror classic “Attack of the 50 foot woman”.
Super-sized females remain a potent theme in much contemporary art. Among my personal favourites is the German-born British artist Julia Fullerton-Batten, most notably in her sensitive and thought-provoking “Teenage Stories” series. Check out “Milk Bottle”, “Chewing Gum” “Airport” and “Red Dress in City".
Nevertheless, any internet search on this subject throws up an extraordinary number of borderline pornographic sites for enthusiasts. Macrophilia is, of course, a paraphilia; one closely related to podophilia or foot fetishism. All of which lends the Clarks advert an even edgier undertone, making me wonder quite what kind of message the company – or rather, the agency – is trying to convey?
Perhaps I had better rush out and buy myself a pair of those black suede boots, last seen striding across Queen’s Road Central, behind the Star Ferry and stepping onto Hong Kong’s old colonial City Hall? (Model name: Loch Erin £120.00 online).
I’ll let you know how I get on...
