I hate commercials. I'm sure I'm not saying anything revolutionary here. Recently, as has been hi-lighted here, the UK has voted to discourage sexism in advertising, which is encouraging but needs to be adopted more globally. I'd like to travel deep into the catacombs of advertising and uncover some of the most rotten ads I can find for your viewing displeasure. (Warning: some may not be particularly work-safe)
Exhibit A: A woman visits her presumed boy-friend/date's home, finds a fireman-pole, and, of course as all women would do (instead of asking what the hell was a fire pole doing in the dude's house) starts dancing seductively around it. She's rewarded by getting squashed by one of the bro's, because HAHA, jokes on you lady, the pole is actually used to get downstairs quickly to drink bud-lite! Nothing against anyone who likes to pole dance, but this seems to be more dude-centric, assuming that all women really want to dance seductively for their boyfriends.
Exhibit B: My brother actually pointed this one out to me. Since the husband kept his eyes on his wife instead of checking out the hot babe, he deserves a klondike bar! This is demeaning in two (count 'em, two!) ways: One, that women should reward men for not acting like pigs, and two, that all men are pigs deep down. Wait, actually we should thank this ad, because it demonstrates so well how sexism can simultaneously affect both genders! Woohoo! Moving on…
Exhibit C: Incorporates basic theory of Exhibit B. Another two fer!
Exhibit D: "Hey young impressionable girls! Be who you wanna be! Which is a model! What's that? You want to be a chemist? No you don't, YOU WANT TO BE A MODEL!!!"
And in conclusion *adjusts monocle* Exhibit E, and Exhibit F, neither of which needs any explanation.
If that left a bad taste in your mouth, go watch Sarah Haskins again! ;)
And I'd really appreciate any comments :D
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I HATE those Klondike commercials. I find them insanely insulting to men. I think they show men sort of on par with dogs. You've taught your man a new trick like bringing a class to the dishwasher, so you'd better reward him with a treat!
I have not come across any of those commercials while watching tv an I am completely shocked. They are so degrading I wonder what the conversations were like when they were thinking up these concepts.
Thank you thank you. Here are some other classy ones by Carls Jr. All seem to suggest that men are part of a sexually uncontrollable, dirty, yet exclusive club and that burgers are like women. Also that women don't eat hamburgers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rHuhl6ou7s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuNCMYKViN4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKr_bvd8h2I&feature=related
I couldn't find the original Carls Jr ad that includes Hugh hefner, But I have a good link I think you should see:
http://www.junkfoodnews.net/Carls-playboypromotion.htm
"Who better to deliver the message of variety than Hugh Hefner?" posed Andy Puzder, president and CEO of CKE Restaurants, Inc. "We're appealing to an audience of young, hungry guys who expect a quality product but want to HAVE SOMETHING DIFFERENT from time to time. As a pop-icon, Hefner appeals to our target audience and credibly communicates our message of VARIETY."
YES! The Klondike bar ads are the worst on sooo many levels!
What's also really insulting are the ads for I think it's Wendy's "Baconator" (which as a vegitarian really freaks me out in the first place). It's a woman sitting with her man, she's eating a salad and offers him some. He's responds "I'm a meat-atarian. It's a lifestyle choice" insinuating that vegitarianism, or salads or healthy foods other than manly meat are feminine and therefore wimpy and emasculating in some kind of way. This has been discussed on feministing before I think, the meat/veggie man/woman conflict. If you look closely, there's a lot of commercials that make that reference. And hence, another way of making women seem like second-class citizens.
Your final exhibit really pisses me off. So... women are weak, can't use power tools and should not operate heavy machinery including vehicles.
After she ruins the wall with the power tool
"Mercator all-risks car insurance. Because your wife uses the car too." classy.
Do women ever get to use power tools and be competent in commercials? Or is it like men not being able to clean in commercials?
my 2cents?
if you recognise the name you HATE me already :)
so, in order
video a - i challenge you to find a woman that loves her boyfriend that would NOT dance on a pole for him if asked. Yes, some of you will say "no way" but i'd bet dollard to dougnuts all your male signifigant others (was that line sexist?) would LOVE for you to do so.
Video b - I agree to a degree (hey that rhymes). It implys that men will look at any "attractive" woman...
Video C - NO! It follows the idea that men do not clean up after themselves expecting others, not just women to do so...
Video D - Barbie is not the problem...parents insisting that girls play with dolls and boys play with trucks is the REAL issue. This "toy" is a product of that thinking.
Video E - PLEASE explain to me HOW that is sexist in any way.
Video F - I was thinking for the first 20 or so seconds that you are too sensitive! It does not say all women are bad with powertools...
then the line "because your wife uses the car too". That is SO BAD I cannot even find words...just ....awful.
Hey guys thanks for the comments :) Yea I usually laugh at the commercials that say "MEAT = MANLY" and "Salad = giiiiirlly." It's so silly and baseless that I find the whole concept hilarious (in a sad sort of way).
On to your comment, j316. Most of the girls I know would be freaked out if they found a stripper pole in their boyfriend's apartment, and wouldn't want to dance in that way for their boyfriends. It's extremely presumptuous to assume that all/most women would like to do so, as your comment seems to suggest. And when you say that "male significant others" would love for their girlfriends to do so, I see this as more proof that the commercial is centered around the male fantasy, rather than the woman's volition.
In terms of video's B&C, I already mentioned that I think they're dually sexist, reinforcing negative stereotypes about both men and women (that men don't clean up, are drooling pigs, and that women are the ones who clean up, who have to shepherd their husbands in).
With video D, I'm not against just any barbie, I dislike the words of the song, "Be who you wanna be! B-a-r-b-i-e. Wanna be a teen top model!" Saying that you (little girl target audience) want to BE barbie, you want to BE a model (which also sexualizes young girls…a whole other topic). But I do agree that parents also shouldn't reinforce stereotypical gender constructs via toys.
Video E is saying "hot babe = beer." And the dude gets to control the woman by moving the beer around. Basically the pure essence of objectification.
Hope that helps.
littlepunk,
THANK YOU! you rock. In retrospect i TOTALLY agree. If my wife came home and I had installed a "stripper pole" she would raise an eyebrow and then say "fine, now YOU dance for me". I do take issue with your words "the male fantasy". I am worried as to what you precieve that to be. Do we, as men, want to live in a handmaids tale? I know i don't.
Video D is such thin ice. the "be who you wanna be = model"...if you want to be a model, it is not a bad choice, and you are in no way hindering or bathing women in a negative light. YOU are making YOUR own choice. which, is that not the basis for these discussions and this site? It would be bad if the commercial stated: you are too stupid to be a lawyer, so walk a catwalk in underwear and lose 10 pounds. I guess my issue with that is that some believ the commercial is saying/hinting to that.
And the last vid - the thing is, the video is not saying beer controls women or anything of the sort. I see it as the woman is in control and just toying with the primitive man. If HE was in control, she would have removed the bikini....but she did not, and just laughed at his stupidity. But again, that is a stretch.
j316, I think you're on the right track, but you're missing important elements.
The beer commercial is an objectification of women in the most literal sense. Women are like beer bottles, inanimate objects. You're right that she had a brain and didn't remove the bikini, but it's still objectification because of the way the man perceives the woman. "Buy our product, because it speaks to your manhood, just as much as a sexy woman in a bikini does. This woman in a bikini is on a parallel with our inanimate beer, in your manly eyes."
The Barbie commercial isn't necessarily the most overtly sexist, but it has the most potential for damage. You're right that at least they're implying little girls can make choices, but they are dictating what those choices are. And sure, it's true that parents decide what to buy their kids, but it's not parents that are pushing the girls-play-with-dolls-boys-play-with-trucks dochotomy. It's marketing. Commercials are incredibly powerful forces for young children. And it is problematic to assert that what a little girl should "want to be" is a walking clothes hanger. And that is, 100%, what the commercial is saying/hinting. That girls want to devote their lives to being looked at.
And my biggest problem with the stripper pole vid is that it seemed to be a first date. You are right, j316, that if a woman wants to sexy-dance for her boyfriend, that is perfectly fine. But it was clearly her first time in the apartment. She didn't know what the purpose of the pole was. So it's saying that women all want to dance for guys they barely know. And, not to mention, it's also sexist towards men: Guys are so blindly obsessed with beer that they'll perform major renovations to their home to get to the beer like 2 seconds faster when they sniff out an open Bud in the air, and they'll do it without consideration for the people below them.
NO NO NO NO NO.
i do NOT agree that the commercial states: Women are like beer bottles, inanimate object. NO! And to think that, i hate to say it, it just silly. I cannot accept that. your whole first paragraph is, well, offensive. There is no way it says that. I call a do over. Even for pure argumets sake. just....no. The man ASSUMING the bottle controls the woman only to be PROVEN he is dead wrong....
paragraph 2 - no argument there. Well a little one, there is nothing wrong with a girl wnting to be a model, but there is a problem with a little girl thinking the ONLY thing she can be is a model. (i am SO waiting for someone in the modeling world to come chew me out for assuming models are dumb...)
I am glad it sterotypes both. As long as commercials do that, i have no problem. Because if we cannot laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at?
j316, I'll remind you that in another post you congratulated me for stating an opinion "without venom," and I'll ask you to exercise the same tact with me.
Any feminist theorist will tell you that the woman in the beer commercial was definitely being objectified. Can I ask what I said that offended you and I'll try to clarify? Because the problem with that commercial was that the woman in a bikini was essentially personifying the beer. She was to be enjoyed by the man the same way that he is to enjoy his beer, on a purely superficial level. That is objectification.
"I am glad it sterotypes both. As long as commercials do that, i have no problem. Because if we cannot laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at?"
This is the part where men should realize that they can GAIN something from feminism. They don't have to be portrayed as sloppy, unkind, unfeeling and domineering. That is a good thing. You're right that we should all laugh at ourselves. And it's even true that there are small, insignificant differences that can be laughed at. But not if the context of this laughter is laced with blatant sexism. Then, it is no longer acceptable.