Just for her

"Faced with a two-year slump in sales, Cuban cigar makers have unveiled a new weapon in the hunt for consumers: Julieta, a slim smoke made just for her."
~~ Shasta Darlington, CNN.com

Can we please stop making things "just for her"?  I don't need your hands-on-knees marketing brilliance, thanks.  My 8-inch hand span can hold a cigar as easily as this guy, and I imagine he didn't even pay for his.

I have a friend, very small in stature, who has commented that she never uses the circuit machines in the gym because they can not adjust to her size.  This does not mean she wants one in purple glitter that says "Li'l Lifter" on it, any more than a man who is 5 ' 1" does. 

Empowering?  Is it?  It doesn't remind you of your training bra?  Or that Fisher-Price Lawn Mower with the popcorn balls inside?

The other message of "Just for Her" is the suggestion that men might snap them right up if we didn't make it clear it was just for her .  Most men won't touch anything that even remotely suggests a woman's interest -- because it makes you homosexual, of course.  Not that it indicates you are gay; it literally makes you homosexual.  So lets make these things VERY clear.

We have "just for men" products so they don't have to buy hair color with a ladies picture on the box.  And just offer a guy a Luna bar.
It's hilarious.

Shasta Darlington may be more to the point when she identifies the drop in the international cigar market.  Pressed for a market, manufacturers and marketers are pleased to come courtin' on the segment they historically froze out.  It certainly worked before.  

I think there's a demographic out there that's interested in smoking cigars, particularly women," [Jemma Freeman, of the UK-based Hunters and Frankau distributors] added as she lit up. 

("out there" is marketing speak for "we did no usability study.") 

Remarked Cigar Aficiando's hiliariously named editor James Suckling, "It's a bit of a girly cigar."  Is that an endorsement?  Or an insult?  And to whom -- the cigar, or women?

Sort of a moot point for us American Girls -- the Julieta is a Cuban, so we can't buy it anyway.  I have never smoked a cigar, and not because I have not come a long way, but because they stink.  While visiting Canada,  Dr A and I considered it, but just as quickly admitted....  you know, they are kind of gross.

Get This:  I was searching on the phrase "just for her" and encountered Just for Her Sports, which is a website that claims to support female athletes "with all the sports equipment they need to be the best..."   
Get a load at the graphic they have on their landing page. 

Empowering, no?