Twyla Launches The Most Offensive Art Ad on the Internet

by Paddy Johnson on October 13, 2016 Off Our Chest

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The new art editions company Twyla is certainly making a splash. Last week they announced they raised 19 million in venture capital funds while boasting such innovations as being able to search by color, size and theme. This week, they’ve embarked on an ad campaign so offensive, it’s been papering my feminist Facebook forums. Behold the ad above, which encourages collectors to “get some” while picturing a young woman taking off her shirt. A caption overlaid reads, “Recently Single? Buy Art”.

Is Twyla asking people to buy art or a woman’s body? This ad intentionally obscures that question, presumably because someone, somewhere at Twyla heard the old adage “sex sells”. This is a problem for many reasons. One, it promotes the idea that a woman’s body, like art, is ready for purchase. The election cycle with Donald Trump is doing enough damage as it is. Nobody needs this. Two, it assumes a customer base made up entirely of straight men. This isn’t just stupid, it’s bad for business. Why limit your buyers to one buying group when others exist?

The whole thing calls into question why the company received 19 million dollars in the first place. It’s a lot of money for a start up that doesn’t boast a single recognizable artist in their roster, and can’t seem to place a facebook ad without offending more than half their potential customers. Frankly, after these ads, 19 million is an investment I’d like to see sunk. So, let’s speed this process up. If you see this ad, comment on how inappropriate it is and demand they take it down. If you’re thinking of buying editioned art, make sure you get it somewhere else. There are plenty of companies and artists in this field who stand to benefit from this boycott, and none of them are placing offensive ads on facebook.

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