Offensive advertising not just aimed at women

I was checking my e-mail today and reading some dog news. I was absolutely shocked when I looked at this photo. Just when it seemed that offensive advertising was only seen degrading women, now it comes to shoes
and dogs. How does showing tying up a dog equate with their shoes other than possibly their tagline, "They'll find the way out." This ad was apparently shown three years ago for E(x)it shoes by Ogilvy advertising. Due to the amount of negative responses at the time, they pulled the ad and apologized.




Now, I do not know anything about this shoe company nor Ogilvy advertising. By doing a quick search of both, I found Ogilvy is a huge worldwide advertising company whose goal is to "build brands." They have some big clients like IBM, Dove, Mattel, Nestle, American Express and many others. I guess the idea with this ad was to also help build the E(x)it brand shoes. It just seems like a stretch to me, especially since this shoe company had shall I say some bizarre, equally offensive, sexualized ads for their other shoes.