Give this ad the boot

On Saturday, March 8, women around the world marked International Women's Day. They called for an end to violence against women and for action to end the disproportionate suffering of women everywhere.

How did one glossy upmarket women's magazine pay its respects to women on this special day? With a murdered woman in the boot of a car of course.

Arriving on magazine stands just in time for this significant global event, Harper's Bazaar had a full-page colour advertisement which gives new meaning to violence in advertising.

The ad depicts the legs and one arm of a woman hanging lifeless from the boot of a Mercedes-Benz. Her fingers are stretched outwards, as though she'd tried to claw her way out.

She has been tied up with rope, complete with stylish bow (gift wrapping perhaps?). The company's name, Loula, appears in swirly lollypop pink.

What's the ad for?

"Women's footwear, bags and accessories".

Not only is Loula discounting its European designer range. It's also discounting the lives of women.

The babe-in-the-boot may have been brutally murdered but at least the hot lace-up boots survived the battering!

Perhaps Loula's executives were on a jaunt to Paris to stock up on stilettos in February 2005 and missed the story about Maria Korp. Remember the late Mrs Korp, who was strangled with a belt by her husband's lover at his urging?

For five days Maria Korp suffered in a way that doesn't bear thinking about in the boot of her Mazda 626. When police found her, she was dehydrated and brain damaged and later died.

I wonder what Maria Korp's family thinks of this ad?

The mother of the little Chinese girl, nicknamed Pumpkin, was also found murdered in the boot of a car. Her husband has been deported from the US to face murder charges.

There is a new trend in making violence against women sexy. We saw it with Vogue Italia's "terror-porn" fashion shoot in 2006, which showed women in various states of undress being terrorised by security guards and German Shepherd dogs.

Then there are the "Crime Scene" episodes of America's Next Top Model. Models had to pretend they'd been murdered - electrocuted, poisoned, stabbed, drowned and decapitated. The models who looked the "sexiest" in death, won.

Another shoe company uses images of murdered women in morgues in Guatemala to advertise its products.

Now it's Loula and Harper's Bazaar's turn.

Loula isn't just into trussed-up women in car boots. Its "Noir" campaign also included images of women digging their own graves and police-style chalk outlines of women's dead bodies.

Harper's offers us "the hottest trends you don't want to miss out on." Are full page ads featuring women as corpses part of some hot new trend?

It makes you wonder what part of "corporate social responsibility" they don't understand.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, at least one in 17 Australian women are victims of violence every year and at least two in five have experienced violence at least once since the age of 15. That's 3.1 million women.

Organisations working to combat violence against women joined forces to protest against the ad. They included: The Domestic Violence & Incest Resource Centre (DVIRC); Centre Against Sexual Assault (CASA House); the CASA Forum of Victoria; Women’s Forum Australia (WFA); the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia (CATWA); the Anti-Slavery Project; Project Respect; FINRRAGE; Enlighten Education; Kids Free 2b Kids; R♀AR Feminist Collective; the Sex Trade Opposition Project (STOP); WOMENS Healthworks; SHARE WA; and the Coalition for a Feminist Agenda.

Fiona McCormack, spokeswoman for Domestic Violence Victoria, the peak body for family violence services for women and children, described the ad as irresponsible and abhorrent.

“Violence is the most significant contributor to death, disability and ill health in Victorian women under the age of 45 and costs the Victorian economy $2 billion annually,” Ms McCormack said.

“The glamorisation of this issue, given the extent to which Australian women experience violence and the impact it has on their lives and our community, is irresponsible and abhorrent.

“It seems extraordinary that Harper's Bazaar and Loula would be willing to act so offensively and apathetically to the very target group to which they are marketing.”

As a result of the outcry, it seems the ad campaign will not continue. Harper's Bazaar spokeswoman, Hannah Devereux, said: "We will not be running the advertisement in subsequent issues."

But it's too late for the issue on stands, so thoughtfully timed for the signature event for women's advocates. Loula and Harper's Bazaar owes women an apology for treating them with contempt and making a mockery of national campaigns to stop the abuse of women.