It’s 10pm at night, and I’m waiting for the Q12 towards Little Neck when I see next to me a brightly lit advertisement as well a square of text obscuring a woman’s face. It read “Another ugly bullsh*t ad” in all caps and large, bold Helvetica Neue typeface. The fellow clearly wasn’t much for pleasantries.
Yet it resurfaced some memory of an ad I was quite intrigued by on my way home from school. It was advertising a line of premium bedding and sheets from Brooklyn-based Brooklinen, a company successfully crowdfunded through a Kickstarter campaign with 1,733 backers pledging $236,888. That’s $186,888 past the funding goal! Mindless numbers aside, it’s clear that the company has a good product that a bunch of people want. And with the advertisement I saw (not shown because I didn’t take any pictures), it’s clear Brooklinen wants to appeal to as many potential customers as well as passing onlookers as possible — except your average white male.
Oddly enough, each panel of the ad featured a different couple. On the far left panel was a happy elderly couple having a pillow fight — presumably Brooklinen Plush Down Pillows, easier on impact. To its right was a gay couple cuddling, and to the right of that a shot of three pairs of feet under some soft Brooklinen sheets. Another panel to the right were two young women in bed with a dog, and finally a panel with a black family enjoying more Brooklinen products. It wasn’t long before I started asking myself “where’s the young, straight white couple?”
I’m a bit skeptic of the advertisement, but in the end it’s harmless. More sheets for everyone!