Why I Get Pissed When I See Certain TV Ads (Brief "Feminazi" Rant)

[Sparkly]

Ads are designed to sell products, of course. Perhaps in order to do that, they simply reflect what IS.

Does anyone else notice the constant stream of ads for cleaning products featuring women doing the cleaning, and never men? Or is it so taken for granted that it's beneath our radar of consciousness?

How about the ones where women are worried about whether their husbands or children enjoy what they've prepared, but they don't eat themselves? (In one I've come to abhor, some soup character comes along to persuade the man to eat the soup, while the woman looks on anxiously fascinated, her own bowl spotlessly empty.)

Imagine a MAN happily sweeping the duster around, dealing with "Ms. Mop" ringing his doorbell, getting carried away with spray polish at the furniture store.

Imagine these ads with any other visible characteristics plugged in: black people always serving white people (or vice-versa), fat people serving thin people (or vice-versa)...

I hope in future years (NEAR-future years), today's ads will be met with laughter and horror for what they reflect and reinforce, the way we now react to past examples of racial stereotyping.

It's incredible how far we haven't come, and what we just accept as "the way it is."

:rant:

[lame54]

1. What about the Brawny guy?

[Sparkly]

6. He and Mr. Clean

rescued women, they weren't "housekeepers" themselves.

[TahitiNut]

11. Don't forget the Tidy Bowl guy ... rowing his little boat in the toilet.

:puke:

[Buns_of_Fire]

69. Or Billy Mays!

The Ultimate American Male! (Or was that Thunderlips?)

[booley]

140. or that swiffer commercial

where the guy is dusting a crime scene and gets so into it he destroys evidence.

But frankly I don't think it's sexism. It's advertisers think that's who their target audience is.

This does not mean they are correct (Gods Know I do lots of cleaning) but that's what they think.

[Warren DeMontague]

137. That, and those chuck wagon ads fucked me up as a little kid.

"You mean there's a tiny horse & wagon in our cupboard and miniature yacht club in our toilet?!?!?! MOM!!!!!!!!!!"

[PerpetuallyDazed]

133. Mr. Clean and Brawny Guy = Gay stereotypes...

cleaning is still a feminized chore.

[booley]

141. yes clearly

Any hot looking guy is Gay.
No really! Smart, good looking..He's gay!

And everyone knows what "Bulk size" really means.

[ColbertWatcher]

144. You might be on to something ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4734022&mesg_id=4734022

http://flickr.com/photos/mamluke/sets/72057594057478404/

[NashVegas]

71. He's An Enabler

[lame54]

98. I thought he was latent

[FLAprogressive]

2. *shrug* goes both ways

How many "dumb dad" ads do you see on TV portraying men as idiots/etc.

both are wrong but I don't see anything changing anytime soon.

[Skittles]

3. yes

and in real life most of the men I know are perfectly capable of doing laundry or whipping up a meal

[Aristus]

27. Shoot! I'm better than my wife at BOTH!

Years of military self-reliance... B-)

[Skittles]

28. oh ALRIGHT then

every guy I've ever known was better at it than me - happy now???? :7

[Aristus]

31. How could that be? You're ex-military, too.

Besides, I'll bet all those guys you talk about just did all those things for you because they didn't want you to kick their asses! :D

[Skittles]

38. OMG YOU'RE MAKING ME CONFESS TO EVERYTHING

I just pretend to be inept because I'm lazy and like guys to do the cooking and cleaning!!!

[Aristus]

48. My kind of woman!

:-)

[Sparkly]

5. Yup -- part of the same thing.

You rarely see men doing housework in TV ads unless they're screwing it up. It's seen as a joke.

[Recursion]

67. It goes back at least to "Father Knows Best"

Somehow that gets remembered as some pro-patriarchy schlock, but if you watch it, the dad was a bumbling moron who had to be subtly manipulated by his wife and/or daughter to actually accomplish anything. TV has never really let go of that meme.

[JerseygirlCT]

74. Or, too often, caring for kids - again, as if a man can't do that...

it's insulting to everyone, really.

[TahitiNut]

86. There's a group pathology that chooses a "symptom bearer"

... and the inept, bumbling Dagwood Bumstead 'model' is long-established.

[trotsky]

117. Not to mention nearly every TV sitcom of the past 30 years.

The dad is an idiot, the mom is the smart one. Not excusing sexist commercials here, but it gets really annoying seeing the same formula repeated over and over.

[Merlot]

4. There is the one for I think it's swiffer that has both men and women

dancing with their swiffers.

My pet peeve on these commercials is how the women wear these 1950's style aprons. They do that a lot in sitcoms too.

Do you know anyone who wears those in real life, cuz I sure don't.

ps I don't think this qualifies as a "feminazi" in fact, I don't think anything any woman says qualifies as that. I hate that term. I prefer "bitching" becasue to bitch means to speak the truth that no one wants to hear.

[canetoad]

7. Sex sells, status sells

and most of all, guilt sells.

It stinks.

[lostnotforgotten]

8. Two Thoughts - I Have Been TV Free For 6 Years Now

And, I have been a bachelor for over twenty.

If I can cook, wash, clean, iron, vacuum, so can any other man.

[Statistical]

29. Hey is this you?

Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own A Television
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28694

[lostnotforgotten]

55. No - That's Not Me - Good To Know That I Am Not Alone - I Really Don't Miss The Beast

eom

[madrchsod]

9. i clean the house ,wash the clothes,iron,cook,and other stuff

i`ve been doing this for about 50 years now. it drove my wife crazy for years that i did "women`s work" but she finally figured out that well she did`t have to...

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

79. My grandfather (born in 1900 and died 1965) loved to clean, cook and iron. When I was a kid he lived

with us on and off for a few years and so I never had pre-judged views of what women and men were supposed to do. He was just like Uncle Charlie on My Three Sons. My own father worked retail (lots of hours) and when he retired helped my Mom with the cleaning and laundry. He couldn't touch my Mom's cooking.

My ex-husband, whom I still live with, doesn't cook (except for barbeque) but he does like to clean and do laundry to the point where it drove me crazy before I was emotionally able to detach. :)

My sons are getting into cooking big time which is very cool.

[lunatica]

10. Ads are why I have cable tv

Every once in a while I try the network channels but my hair starts to stand on end and I get this jittery tick and I clench my jaws and find that I stop breathing. If you haven't seen the ads for a while they're really intrusive. We aren't citizens anymore. We're consumers.

[Captain Hilts]

12. It's women wearing shrink wrap in ALL situations that bugs me the most.

But, yes, women have the soul responsibility for cleaning on television.

It sucks.

[TahitiNut]

13. Most worrisome is the fact that those ads work.

Since women also do most of the shopping, I can only worry about the insidiousness of that dreck.

For the record, I've done ALL the shopping, laundry, cooking, and housework for over 25 years.

[byrok]

14. "Feminazi" reeks

of Rush Limbaugh talk. Makes me vomit in my mouth.

[Sparkly]

15. That's why it's in quotes.

Like "Commie Pinko Radical" etc.

[Orrex]

18. Rush Limbaugh reeks

And the thought of him makes me vomit in my mouth.

[Orrex]

16. Here are a few minor but similar observations

An anonymous person featured on a cereal box will probably be a woman.
If you can see her whole body, she'll be thin and barefoot.

If one person is doing yoga (or tai chi) in a commercial, it'll be a woman (but see the * below)
If two people are doing yoga in a commercial, both will be women
If three people are doing yoga in a commercial, two will be women and one will be a bald man

* there's one commercial that shows a bald Asian man levitating while seated in the lotus position. He falls to the ground, startled, and exclaims to his wife that the house smells very clean. At that moment, she's mopping with PineSol, and she's barefoot. Then cut to the PineSol spokeswoman, also barefoot and seated in the lotus position.

If a man is shown painting a room in a commercial that isn't actually for paint, he'll have paint on his face.

A person shown in a print ad for a tech product will either be a generic white male with dark hair or a generic light-brown woman with glases.

Very few commercials feature men exclaiming orgasmically at the sight or use of the advertised product; any commercial in which a man does exclaim orgasmically is a direct spoof of a prior commercial for the same product, featuring a woman.


Similar stereotypes abound. Your observations are right on the money, and I'm also glad that someone in-thread noted the near-universal portrayal of fathers as dopes.

[Sparkly]

33. lol

I haven't seen the PineSol commercial, and your description cracked me up!

I will now watch for those commonalities you mentioned!

[ejpoeta]

17. i too have thought what you are thinking. but then when i do see an ad showing the guy doing

something, i don't believe it. yeah right. so perhaps that is why we see the women doing everything. because in most cases that is how it is. we are socially engineered from a young age with the barbie dolls, baby dolls, doll houses, easy bake oven etc. while the boys get cars and video games and such. at least that was how it was when i was a kid. i HATED barbie dolls. and i cut their hair off and gave them black eyes with pen because my brother got all the cool toys.

yes, it is so not fair to see the ads on tv. but tell me you would believe the ad showing the guy in that role.

[Sparkly]

19. I'd like to see the guy in that role on ads.

There are guys who do housework.

I played with those little "troll" dolls, and had two Barbie-type dolls that I turned into "teacher" characters -- they were mean and evil, but the trolls always got revenge. :rofl:

I remember a few tricycles in our kindergarten room, reserved for the boys only. The teacher told me to go "play house" because the boys needed to work out their energy.

[Orrex]

20. When I was 16 I worked at a Burger King

I once asked the owner of the store why the women never got stuck with the job of filtering the fryers--a somewhat dangerous and very dirty task.

"Women aren't mechanically inclined," he told me. "How many girls do you know who had Erector sets?"


What the hell could I say? I was a boy dealing with an asshole three times older than I was...


I blame all you women for your inherent lack of technical proficiency.

[Sparkly]

22. When I was 16, I worked at a "dairy" restaurant.

The boys could work the fryers and grills, but somehow were never able to scoop ice cream no matter how busy we were with that.

I blame all you men for your lack of mechanical skills with a scoop. :P

(In addition, I contend there's some connection between "Erector Sets" and Viagra sales, but I don't know what it is.)

[Orrex]

24. I never owned an Erector set.

I was a major LEGO fan, though, with which you can build as big as you need it to be.


At that same Burger King, I once complained that the fry-scooper was built for right-handed use. As a leftie, I half-seriously complained that this was discrimination.

"No it isn't," they answered. "There are more righties than lefties."
:wtf:
:banghead:

[undeterred]

23. My first job was at a Burger King

and I haven't eaten there since.

They gave the girls the choice between a dress uniform or a top and pants. I chose the latter, and I was assigned to melt cheese and put toppings on the whoppers or deep fry the fries. The girls in the dress uniforms got to be cashiers. At first I was jealous, but then I saw the girls in the dress uniforms down on their hands and knees scrubbing the floor in the young male manager's office.

That was my introduction to how girls and women are treated in the workplace. I blame you men for being exploitive horndogs.

[Orrex]

26. Well, if those young cashiers wouldn't parade around in those sexy uniforms...

Burger King in 1987 was definitely a weird environment. I can't speak for the chain as a whole, but the franchised store where I worked certainly demonstrated every form of prejudice known to white man.

[undeterred]

39. I also remember getting in trouble for bringing a chicken sandwich

from home to eat for lunch. The manager said it would look bad for employees not to be eating Burger King, so I would have to stand in the back by the sinks and eat my sandwich instead of sitting down in the restaurant. Geez, what horseshit.

[Orrex]

42. Wow--you just reminded me of something I'd totally forgotten

The store where I worked (and had since quit) had a policy of giving people de facto "on call" shifts, for which they were supposed to show up and remain in the lobby for an hour or so--off the clock--to give the shift managers time to determine if they were needed.

On one occasion my mother noticed this and asked one of the "on call" kids about it. Then she went up to the counter, asked to see the owner, and told him that this practice is illegal.

"Are you sure about that?" he smugged.

"Pretty sure," she said. "I've worked for the state Labor Department for 20 years."

The "on call" practice was stopped pretty soon thereafter.



Also, the store forbade us to enter the McDonalds across the street while wearing our uniforms...

[undeterred]

50. They would suck the life out of us.

I would get scheduled for four hours and then let go after 3:45 so they wouldn't have to pay for a break. Sometimes they would give you two 3:45 shifts on the same day so you would work 7.5 hours and take your break on your own time.

And I was expected to burn my fingers picking up the cheese whoppers. No gloves or tongs. Put the cheese on the burger and place it in the steamer to melt it. When it was done you were supposed to pick it up on the edges with your hands. I complained to the manager that it was too hot and I ws going to burn my fingers. His answer was "after a while you'll develop calluses and you won't even feel it".

That was the summer after high school. I haven't entered a Burger King since 1974. Really.

[Kalyke]

107. LOL - women aren't mechanically inclined.

I rebuilt a car with my Dad in my early 20s and I'm the one my husband comes to when his car is acting up.

That's too funny.

(I also work in the tech industry, all-be-it in marketing, but I have to understand the product and services to market them).

[LeftyMom]

35. Toys are still like that.

The Toys R Expensive near my house is neatly divided into a Boy wall and a Girl wall. Electronics are on the end of the Boy wall, bikes are where they come together. Nearly every package on the Girl wall is pink. Over half the products are dolls and doll accessories, with products for younger girls geared toward roleplaying baby care and with older girl stuff focused on fashion and shopping. There's also a row of hair doodads, fancy shampoos, etc. There is nothing in this section that will ever require breathing fast or breaking a sweat, almost nothing that requires much movement at all. Other than doll strollers to push around, play with most of these toys would not be significantly impeded if a girl were on bedrest. These toys send very clear messages about the roles of girls (and women) and encourage passivity, doting motherhood, and an obsession with appearances. Choice does not exist: there are many product lines but they all have about the same stuff, it doesn't really matter if you have a Little Mommy doll or a Baby Alive, and Bratz are just tarted up Barbies with big heads. Girls, apparently, must all have the same interests.

The boy section is not so monochromatic. Stuff is red, blue, orange, yellow, green, black... There are music toys, sporting goods, Nerf guns, toys that lead themselves to active play. You can get sports things or car things or action figures or a guitar or war toys or... Boys have choices. Their differing interests are honored to some degree. There is no focus on appearances, no shampoo giftsets, the clothing stuff is all with the clothes in another part of the store.

I feel like an alien everytime I go in there, because it just seems so obviously wrong to give our children this kind of unquestioned gender programming.

[pipi_k]

81. When I was a little girl I got the usual "girl" toys, but

I also really really wanted an electric train set like my two boy cousins had in their basement. I also wanted a chemistry set and building sets. Unlike most of the other girls in my classes, I loved Science...still do. And I've put together model ships and cars.

Fast forward to this past Christmas, when my daughter wanted to get her 4 1/2 year old son one of those little play kitchens and her husband basically pooh-poohed the idea, thinking it would somehow "sissify" him. I told her I thought it was a great idea... He likes to pretend to cook, and who knows...maybe he'll develop into a real chef someday. Nothing wrong with that. Anyway, he got it, and I told her that for his birthday in April, I'm probably going to get him some cool accessories to go with it.

My son's two daughters are "girly girls"...meaning that I can't do shopping for them in the Science stores where all the neat stuff is... There's so much cool stuff they could be discovering, but they're not interested, and it sort of makes me sad in a way that they're not connecting with their inner inventors/scientists/astronomers/ant farmers/model car builders/train conductors/etc. It actually gives me the willies to buy girly-girl stuff for them. It just seems...I dunno... sorta creepy....

[ejpoeta]

94. the thing is, my older daughter gravitated towards that. i mean, she LOVED barbie dolls

and pink. now it's make up. she's a girlie girl. and while i despise barbie dolls and have made sure she understood why women wear makeup, i let her be who she is. a girlie girl. making sure to tell her she can be ANYTHING she wants to be. she once said she wanted to be a paleontologist. i tell her she sure can. i make sure she knows she has no limits. my younger daughter likes cars. she LOVES cars. everytime we are at walmart she goes right for the car sitting by the bikes. she likes the toy cars. The girls have helped me with baking, but Emily, my almost 10 year old, is helping her dad with his truck project. she helped him with the deck. I think the key is to try to give the kids at least to experience things and then they can decide for themselves. i remember my nephew would want to play with dolls. he liked playing with dolls. with 'girl' stuff. oh man did that freak my brother out!! LOL! as if somehow that would make the boy gay. geesh! give me a break.

[ThomCat]

104. Toy stores make sexism so damned obvious

I am often amazed that everyone isn't aware of it, offended and up in arms.

Every time I go in a toy store I am stunned that there is any question, or any debate about whether or not sexism is alive and well. I can't believe we do this to our kids, and let corporations do this to our kids.

I wonder how parents with daughters stand it. :(

[Kalyke]

109. When I found out I was having a girl, I put a note on our registry

that I did not want ANY pink clothes. I HATE that flippin' color.

Granted, she still has some pink items (hand-me-downs and, frankly, it's hard to find some clothes not in that dreaded color), but she mostly wears red, black and green.

Her grandparents, my mother included, buy her far too many "girlie" things, so the husband and I always make sure she gets educational things. She also has an older brother who plays cars with her.

It was easier when my son was born - he gets all kinds of cool toys, but the upshot is that he can share and/or pass them down to her.

[seabeyond]

36. i gave hubby the whole downstairs for his "cave". basement is the gameroom

then a little apartment off laundry room. clever of me cause he also gets that whole area to clean too. left me the upstairs, halfing my work..... he works outside house. i stay home. it is my job. no bitch on my side. leaves both of us with free time

[Chulanowa]

125. I LOVED my EZ-Bake oven!

And my little sister and I had doll fights all the time. You haven't played barbie until you've arranged the whole backyard to be one big wire-fu cinema with Skipper emerging triumphant over the lego man hordes.

Man. I kinda miss being nine, now.

[LARED]

21. Women generally BUY the food and cleaning supplies

It makes no difference who cooks or clean, it depends on who buys the stuff being marketed. They are targeted in advertisements.

[Sparkly]

25. Shopping is another job in the "second shift."

I don't think the two are that separate. Men can (and do) shop, the same way they can (and do) perform other chores.

[LARED]

32. That is more and more true, but I guarantee if

men were making more of the buying decisions commercials would be targeting them not women.

I shop and I buy exactly what my wife tells me to buy. Otherwise I would buy whatever is closest and cheapest. Marketers know who makes the buying decisions, and commercials target them.

[waiting for hope]

40. I love that - "second shift" - I say that as I'm

leaving my 9-5 job. But I think the same could be said of all the guys with the tools and lawn mowers. The commercials I think are really poison are the Viagra type, which play all day so my kids get exposed to it. Really, are there that many (millions according to the ads) guys who can't perform? And how many people think it's sexy to take a bath (each one in their own bath) out in the great outdoors?

[Sparkly]

44. The one that makes me scream

is when they're all singing "Viva Viagra"...!!

[waiting for hope]

46. That one is just BAD!

:puke: - as well as "when the moment is right" ... geez, hate to think if the time ran out on your meds ..:crazy:

[Mojorabbit]

53. What bugs me

about those commercials is if there was something to help a womans experience in the bedroom people would howl if there were the same kind of commercials for it as there are for viagra for men.

[waiting for hope]

56. Heaven forbid if a woman

enjoys it! :smoke: We should just be grateful that he can ...:silly:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

146. Brought to you by "The Fix-A-Flat FIVE!!!""""

The band should be named that.

:evilgrin:

[treestar]

30. They don't even reflect reality

Men in the real world do more of this stuff

Advertisers just can't get themselves past it.

[bertman]

54. Men definitely do more of this stuff in the real world, but whenever I go to the grocery

store there are many, many more women with large carts of food and home supplies and very few men. Of course, there are some, but they are in a small minority. Maybe that's why they point the ads at women.

[treestar]

97. I had a secretary once who was so lucky - her husband liked to do the grocery

shopping - he made the list and everything. When you think of it, it's a supply job, like managing any business.

One of my dad's cousins had a husband, who, in the late fifties, suggested she go to school rather than have another baby - she'd wanted one because she was bored - she could clean their house and take care of the two children with too much time left. Since he did this in the late fifties, the middle of the baby boom, I consider him to be the Husband of the Century!

So there are good guys out there!

[Initech]

34. True, but there is a double standard here.

I'm a guy and I'm saying this - for every commercial like that, there's at least a dozen portraying men as idiots who lack taste / will to do things, and we are generally portrayed as idiots.

[Sparkly]

37. Yup...

Men simply CAN'T do housework -- that's part of the message.

[katandmoon]

57. Such as?

[Initech]

63. Ever see those Carl's Jr. commercials?

You know - the one where the guy is eating the shit that passes for steak at that restaurant and the tagline is "How guys do fancy"? :puke:

That's just one, I'm sure that I could find more if I did some research.

[katandmoon]

90. No Carl Jr's where I live. Thought you had just dozens of examples off the top of your head.

[Gwendolyn]

147. There are a few.

The vonage ad where the stupid male phone company rep gets hip checked off screen by the smarter vonage woman.

The Special K "gay" guy who goes orgasmic over his officer co-worker's amazing weight loss.

The McDonald's ad where the two new fathers commiserate and the one starts wailing like a newborn. (That one's freaky stupid)

The Fidelity Ads where the man is the stupid investor.

Any cold medicine ad. The men are always helpless, whiny, and on the verge of death. Women must save them. (Mind you, there is truth to this.)

[Control-Z]

120. Carl's Jr. has the most hateful ads.

Their latest ad has a guy talking about having three girlfriends. He says the worst thing about it (having three girlfriends) is how expensive it is when one girl finds out and tells the other two. They then show his car with "cheater", in giant letters, written across the side. But no worries, it's just expensive. He couldn't care less about the women. Fixing his car is what matters, and since he's got the bucks, even if it is expensive, he's cool, and proud. He pats himself on the back (verbally) for a job well done, and then he rewards himself for his behavior with a a big sloppy burger from Carl's Jr. It's what real men eat.

[Initech]

126. Yeah, I hate that one.

I have been under the impression that the commercial implied that the two girlfriends were the sandwiches because it is "2 for $3" and the announcer says "Sometimes you got to spend money on other things.". :wtf:

And if I want a steak, I sure as shit am not going to Carls' Jr. :puke:

[Control-Z]

129. I didn't really

think about it that deeply. The ad repulsed me so much, just on it's face, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if that was part of the message.

Their ads have been consistently misogynistic for a few years now. Remember the one about the pretty, sexy, school teacher? They zoomed in on her ass with middle school aged boys drooling about "buns"? The "don't bother me, I'm eating" ad, which is the first I remember in their women hating campaign, was offensive to me the moment I saw it, or heard it - the threat that was in the guys voice (to women) for interrupting "his" meal.

Each and every ad seems to be more offensive than the one prior. They are brainwashing society by slowly injecting more and more hate with each ad, and making it cool to be that kind of guy. Worse, is the threat to women who would even think to disagree. After a few more hate ads get in under the radar I won't be surprised to see them actually insinuate rape or other physical abuse to women.

It is scary. Not just their ads, but the way society is fooled into agreeing with them. It is like the frog that gets boiled to death because he starts out in a pot of comfortable water.

[Initech]

131. Yeah exactly.

Advertising is a form of propaganda. The more you repeat a particular word or phrase the more it becomes a part of every day culture. Like take Budweiser with their nauseating "drinkability" adverts. They know they make a shitty product (hell, its not even allowed to be sold as beer in some countries) so they instill this phrase and the more it gets repeated the more people are likely to buy it. Joesph Goebbles never thought of this shit, did he?

[TexasObserver]

41. Commercials are aimed at the people likely to respond favorably to them.

Commercials aimed at women are designed to appeal to women who are likely purchasers of the product. Men don't buy many dusters. If they did, there would be advertisements aimed at them.

Why are most anti depressants commercials featuring women? Because women are the primary consumers for the product, and respond most favorably to commercials such as those by Abilify.

Commercials are not aimed at shaping American culture, but at reflecting and taking advantage of it (although obviously they do shape some thinking).

Men are targeted for televisions, cars, trucks, and booze for the same reason.

You're asking advertisers why they aim their products at women, when it is women who buy their products, and who clearly respond favorably to such commercials. As a group, of course, not on an individual basis. I don't care for beer, truck or television commercials aimed at men, but I know they are based upon sound market research and focus groups.

[pipi_k]

84. This is what I tell myself when I get all pissed off

at the TV ads that blast horrible rock music about 10 times louder than the program they're interrupting. These ads are generally filled with lots of other loud noises, like one for Dodge Ram pickups...guys whooping and hollering...lots of boom, bam sound effects.

Honestly, it's almost like a physical assault, and I constantly have to use the "mute" button because they're so loud.

Well, the target audience for these trucks is probably NOT 50-something year old females. It's for young people...probably mostly guys, although there might be some younger women who are into ads like that...oh, and maybe some older guys trying to re-live their youth.

So if I, a 50-something female, were to write to these people and tell them I think their ads suck, they'd read the first sentence and throw my letter in the trash because I'm not their target audience.

I actually feel like I'm in some Ad Limbo....too old for the loud ads, too young for the Jitterbug-type ads.

:cry:

[TexasObserver]

116. Commercials are not designed to appeal to thinking individuals.

So consider yourself too smart to be led around by silly marketing slogans.

[bushmeister0]

118. God, those ads are horrific.

Ever notice the team shirts the guys are wearing?

One says "fireman" the other one says "military."

What kind of BushCo propaganda is that?

We're kind of over all those macho Bush shit, now, aren't we?

And who the hell is going to drive one of these things threw a fire or an explosion. I guess they're great for avoiding IEDs in Iraq, but I don;t see the use of them on the streets of Philly, for example.

If you need a refresher on these ads turn on the Raven/Pittsburgh game. They're playing them during every commercial break,

Disgusting.

[Kalyke]

112. Maybe women are the primary users of anti-depressants because

they have to work outside the home and then come home and use dusters at night.

:hi:

[Kalyke]

113. Dupe

[Warpy]

43. Yeah, that stuff always pushes my buttons

and it's probably why I use Mexican detergent instead of the crap that only women ever use on TV and Dr. Bronner's for everything else. I refuse to support anything that portrays us as natural slaves, the obvious choice to be the unpaid servant in any house.

I've hated cleaning commercials ever since the days of "ring around the collar," when I used to shout "WASH YOUR FUCKING NECK!" at the guy giving some woman the hairy eyeball because his collar wasn't pristine. That woman was a WIMP and I'm delighted to say I've never met her in real life.

Sheesh! And you thought you were being militant!

[Sparkly]

45. "Wash your neck!" -- I said the same thing!!

Didn't you hate that LOOK he always gave her when somebody noticed his collar was dirty?!?

That was classic.

[Kitty Herder]

47. You would think we were past those kinds of stereotypes.

I always think the same thing when I see the "soap" commercials.

At least there has been progress in the home improvement store commercials. They seem to show as many women as men doing the building work. But here's a thought. These commercials seem to be reflecting a new reality where women are expected to do it all--the traditionally male jobs and all the cleaning and housekeeping, too. Hardly fair and more reason for men to be featured mopping floors and cleaning windows. I would think it would serve the advertisers well, too, because it would hold strong emotional appeal for us women to see a man doing his share, and women still do most of the grocery shopping.

[Irishonly]

49. They were just as bad when the feminist movement started

There was one commercial for Enjolie (probably not spelled right) A woman would start out in a suit singing

I can bring home the bacon
Fry it up in a pan
And never ever let you forget
You are a man.

By the time the you are a man was on she was in a sexy little black dress.

[Sparkly]

51. I remember that one! I still sing that (just as a joke)!

I always wondered why he had a problem "forgetting he's a man," you know?

[Irishonly]

52. So do I LOL

Probably felt inferior to her :evilgrin:

Edited because I can't type

[Raineyb]

87. Alzheimer's? n/t

[Adsos Letter]

58. I remember that ditty also.

[Lorien]

154. Yep, that one was hard to forget

She'll work an eight hour shift, come home and be your maid and cook, then she'll be your whore. What a deal!

That's what it seems like most men are looking for these days. :-(

[Liberal_in_LA]

59. Now that you mention it, I've never seen an ad with a man doing the 'swiffering'

[leftstreet]

60. Men don't Swiffer, they SHAMWOW!

That guy is SO annoying!

[Liberal_in_LA]

61. lol.

[Buns_of_Fire]

68. "...'cause we can't do this all day..."

Thank God.

[Marr]

83. I heard someone the other day talking about him...

I think it was on the radio, but I could be mistaken.

Anyway, they said he has the kind of voice that makes you think he's going to end every sentence with, "YA STUPID DOUCHE!". That just killed me because it's so true.

[hfojvt]

150. the funniest thing about him

is that to me, he just screams "you cannot trust me". His look, his posture, his delivery. The only thing missing is a t-shirt that says "scam" on it.

[Lorien]

155. The OxyClean guy is the only one who ever cleans anything. nt

[Bonobo]

62. Kinda like movies that show how dumb dads are.

Mr. Mom, Daddy Daycare, etc.

Oh boy, men are just so lame at child-rearing!

[alcibiades_mystery]

75. But that's part of the same ideological construction

It's a misogynist trope, because it reinforces precisely that point AND its supposed converse: that the labor of the household should be left to women. The "dumb husband" trope is not really an insult to men. It is part of the same structure that enforces patriarchy by tying women to the labor of the household. That this is all unremunerated social labor should be obvious enough. Note that the "dumb husband" trope is one of the most powerful cliches in modern television as well, from Homer Simpson to the King of Queens.

[Marr]

82. I don't buy that at all.

The "dumb husband" routine is a fairly new advertising convention, and it came along with women being the major purchasers of more and more items. When everything was marketed to men, women were portrayed as stupid and helpless. Now, it's often reversed.

It's not as if the dumb dad is limited to household cleaning commercials. You can find him in commercials centered in the office, in the car, in restaurants, on vacation, etc.

[LisaL]

64. The commercials are there to sell the product.

I doubt the message being send is the main consideration.

[Sanctified]

65. Well maybe they want to sell their stuff...

I have no problem cleaning my whole house with bleach while my wife prefers something a little less harsh. They probably have done a little market research and have found sales go up when marketing to women while sales decline when marketing to men.

[muriel_volestrangler]

66. Your ad creatives just need to be a touch more creative, that's all

I can think of British ads that include a man who obsesses about toilet cleaning products, and treats them all as if he's a hard-nosed cop wiping out germs/criminals (they;re the regular sponsor of a cop series); an ad for cleaning products where the father teaches his son how to do the cleaning quickly using the marvellous product the ad is for, all during half-time of the football on TV - when his wife comes back, he looks as if he's been hard at work all the time; and more along those lines. There are more stereotypes in there as well, of course, but there's a bit of humour in there too, acknowledging the stereotypes.

[Vinca]

70. I'm just trying to figure out how a couple in 2 separate bathtubs is sexy. nt

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

77. lol! I'm not the only one having a problem with understanding that?

[Liberal_in_LA]

93. The 'ED' commercial? They can reach out and hold hands!

[nini]

95. we decided that's supposed to be symbolic of

the man inside the woman.. but who the hell knows. Those commercials are so freaking annoying it's ridiculous.

[JerseygirlCT]

72. Oh, I'm with you!

And have you noticed how the "husband" in these commercials is older and less attractive, and he's always got this young, gorgeous babe of a wife? Or if he is doing something around the house, he's sort of bumbling around, screwing up, and Mrs. Mom comes in to be the grown-up.

These are all just overblown male fantasies - so why are they being used to sell to women in large part? THAT'S the part that I find sort of fascinating and revolting all at once. Are we women participating in our own problem with this?

[Alcibiades]

139. That's also the case in diamond commercials

Big rock means ugly old man can get cute young woman.

"Tell her you love her with two months' salary spent on a ring" = buy her a diamond NOW or she'll sleep with her boss!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

145. Diamonds are a scam perpetrated by the DeBeers cartel.

They control the diamond supply out of South Africa. Diamonds are not that wonderful, and not that rare. DeBeers artificially props up the price.

And in my GIA Diamond Grading class, we called the junk they sell at the mall "Fish Gravel" :D

Cubic carbon that looks like lumps of coal (seriously, crummy diamonds have carbon spots in them where the crystal was not completely metamorphosed).

[hfojvt]

151. I wonder how much ads accomplish

At least for me, I see ads for all kinds of things that I never buy - beer and cars for example, and I never will buy them. Viagra and girls gone wild videos, and ads for TV shows that I am never gonna watch, like 24 or survivor or the amazing race or American idol, and on and on. At least 90% of the ads seem to have no effect on me, any more than the pop-up ads I see on the web or the junk email I get.

[sendero]

73. How about the plethora of ads..

... that portray the wife as the practical, sensible master of the house and the husband as a bumbling moron? Of ads that even include a husband, he's rarely more than the butt of jokes.

I could care less but just pointing out that it cuts both ways.

[alcibiades_mystery]

78. No, that is part of the same message

Because it retains the notion that the household labor is the province of the woman. The "dumb husband" trope is one of the most common anti-feminist cliches in contemporary culture. Any feminist worth his or her salt knows exactly what is going on when the husband is supposedly "incapable" of accomplishing any of the traditionally feminized labor, from handling the small children to ironing the clothes. It's not an "insult" to the "dumb husband," but a naturalization of the division of household labor. We should also note that the labor of the household that IS relegated to the husband all becomes a "HOBBY" rather than a set of chores , from fixing the cars to various do-it-yourself building projects. (With one or two minor exceptions, but even the woman with the help of the kids take out the garbage in today's commercials). The "dumb husband" trope is not an example of anything "cutting both ways," except in the most superficial reading. That is part and parcel of the same patriarchal division of labor.

[sendero]

127. Whatever you say..

... what does a yogurt commercial have to do with housework?

I feel sorry for sad sad people who cannot get on with their lives.

[cobalt1999]

76. I did work in a major marketing firm for a couple of year.

Something like 95% of household cleaning supplies are bought by women.

Marketing folks don't give a damn about anything but sales. If men bought it, the ads would be marketed to men.

What they should do is show ads with men cleaning and targeted to women saying "if you women buy this product, even the guys will use it"

[dysfunctional press]

114. i'm in the other 5%...i do the shopping and the laundry,

as well as most of the cleaning and most of the cooking.

[leftchick]

80. fuck that!

I hate the "female odor/itch" commercials more than anything. For god's sakes, I bet men have more issues down there than women do.

:eyes:

[distantearlywarning]

138. What bugs me about "vaginal itch & odor" commercials

The thing is, healthy women don't have problems like that. If you do have a problem like that, you should get yourself down to a doctor post haste so they can help you take care of your yeast infection or your STD or whatever bad thing you have. The LAST thing a woman should do in that situation is buy some kind of OTC deodorant to just cover it up, for chrissakes!

So basically these stupid feminine itch/odor commercials are encouraging women to make very poor decisions about their health, all for the purpose of selling more pointless crap to people who don't need it. And the only reason they can get away with that is because there's this stigma about "female parts" being gross or smelly or dirty or whatever.

Can you imagine if they did that for other kinds of health conditions?

"Found a lump in your breast and now you feel malformed and unsightly? Well, just cover it right up with our 'breast bandaid' and nobody will know you're lumpy underneath your shirt!"

"Feel gross because you're coughing up blood? Use TB-Be-Gone tissues and your co-workers will have no idea that you're spewing out contagious flem!"

[deaniac21]

85. I long for the Virginia Slims commercials to come back.

[fascisthunter]

88. ha... I mentioned the same to my Girlfriend

"Imagine a MAN happily sweeping the duster around..."

Well, something close enough anyways.

Ads play on ignorance to sell...

[Vickers]

89. You missed a spot.

:P

[Atman]

91. A marketing truism...

You can sell women's stuff to women. You can sell men's stuff to women. But you can't sell women's stuff to men.

Now, I'm not saying that cleaning is "women's work." Far from it. But I will say that women actually CARE, and men don't. So there is no point in marketing this stuff to them. They'll use whatever is in the house, and if that's just a spray bottle of Armor All, so be it. They'll rejoice in the newfound ability to slide across the entire house in stocking feet, and consider it a time-saving triumph. Women actually want stuff clean, so it makes more sense to advertise to them. Besides, if the hubby winds up thinking the Swiffer is just awesome for cleaning the hull of the boat, everyone wins, right?

.

[lib2DaBone]

92. My favorite new abusive Ad is Chevy Trucks with Blowhard Howie Long

Madison ave insults EVERYONE.. not just females. They are equal opportunity offenders.

I must admit..the swifter mop commercial with the mop that rings the door bell and wants back in to his ladies house... now that is pretty disgusting.

But my new favorite new abusive ad is with Football NFL Blowhard spokesman Howie Long



In the ad Howie berates the men for driving a "girly-man" pickup like the F-150, instead of the manly Chevy Silverado. LOL

The Rolling Stones had a song one time that said: "I can't get no satisfaction..he can't be a man because he doesn't smoke, the same cigarettes as me."

[distantearlywarning]

135. I HATE these ads!

About 10 of them came on last night during the play-off game, and after about the third one I started yelling at the TV:

"Who gives a flying fuck if he has a manicure????? Quit being an arrogant dick-swinging asshole and leave other people alone, you moronic neanderthal!"

Ugh ugh ugh. I LOATHE crap like that. That just encourages the worst sort of behaviors in men.

[Bonobo]

96. I'd like an explanation for personal vibrator commercials...

https://www.vibratingtouch.com/?cid=466858

http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=Trojan+fingertip+vibrator&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#

------------------------

A personal vibrator for women. How can there be commercials for this on TV? It is SO weird to see them in the middle of commercials for car insurance, soap, etc.

What kind of a phenomena is it? Does it represent empowerment for women or more enslavement?

[Stinky The Clown]

99. The NutriSystem ads prey on the same sterotypes.

They're after the low information voter types.

The women are all overly made up in a low rent sort of way. Tank tops and big dangly earrings and big hair. All concerned with holding on to their men and looking good. No appeal on a health basis.

The men are all the jocks favored by the male low information voters.

[Sparkly]

102. "MAN food!!"

:rofl:

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

100. It's Called Marketing, And There's Nothing Wrong With It.

Ever hear of a concept called 'target market'? Yeah, that kind of means something. And until you show me proof of otherwise, women make up a much larger share of the cleaning products target market than men do. So having marketing 'aimed' at them is a no brainer, and there's not a thing wrong with it.

[Sparkly]

101. Read what I wrote.

:eyes:

[ThomCat]

105. The fact that ads are targetted is entirely separate from

whether or not they contains stereotypes. I would think that was obvious. :shrug:

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

106. The Stereotypes Are Mere Coincidence.

The women are in the ads not due to stereotype, but due to target marketing. The fact that 'women cleaning' is also a stereotype, is merely circumstantial.

[ThomCat]

108. Of course it's not coincidental.

Sexism pushes cleaning as women's work, so most cleaning will be done by women. Sexism also pushes household buying as women's work, so it will also be done by women. That's not coincidence.

If you're going to sell a cleaning product, and the thanks to sexism most of your customers are women, you're going to take advantage of that sexism. You won't oppose the sexism. You won't ignore the sexism. You use it any way you can. Nothing in advertising is accidental.

Having worked in an Ad agency and read the musings of ad executives I can tell you that they'll take advantage of any cultural trend. If that trend is sexist, so be it. They won't care.

So there is nothing coincidental at all.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

119. Nothing Sexist About It.

It's target marketing; nothing more.

Read the marketing data. Analyze it. What you'll find is that the majority of cleaning items are bought by women around the age you see in the commercials. That's the data, so that's what they target. That's neither sexist nor stereotyping. It's merely factual data, so they market based on it. Not a thing wrong with that either.

[Sparkly]

123. If you read what I wrote...

I didn't blame that ads -- I said they reflect what IS. (Although I personally hate the ads, as do many enlightened people.)

They may also reinforce what IS, but obviously their motives are about money, not social progress.

It pisses me off that this is still what IS, and that the ads serve to reinforce that (whether or not that is their purpose).

"That's neither sexist nor stereotyping" -- I beg to differ. It's BOTH. It perpetuates "the data." It keeps the second shift "normal." It appeals to the Ozzie and Harriet happy ideal.

I think it's good to step back now and then, take a look at where we are, and say, "This is way fucked up, and we're so used to it that it escapes notice."

Notice it! That's all. It matters.

[barbtries]

103. for decades now,

i've boycotted whisk detergent because of their "ring around the collar" ads. remember the guilty woman whose husband was a sweaty slob? for almost as long i refuse to buy charmin toilet paper because of the "please don't squeezed the charmin" ads which showed a bunch of brain dead housewives oohing and ahhing over toilet paper for chrissake.

my little stand. :)

[Arugula Latte]

110. There're also weird things like animals, animated objects, food & mops linked romantically to women

A mop tries to woo back a woman while "Baby Come Back" plays in the background, but she's gone over to Swiffer.

A woman rejects a hamburger who is holding up a boom box a la "Say Anything," but she's rejecting him because she's turning to Weight Watchers or some lose-weight product.

You hardly ever see human men linked to anything other than human women.

[dysfunctional press]

111. maybe they should use guys to sell feminine hygene products as well...?

"hey bob- does your wife or teenage daughter ever get that 'not so fresh feeling'...?"

nah...i don't think that's going to fly.

[Sparkly]

121. Here's the difference: Men have FLOORS.

[dysfunctional press]

122. they have wives too, don't they?

[Sparkly]

124. I don't understand your point.

Feminine hygiene products are advertised to women because we're the ones who have the parts to which they apply.

Floor cleaning products should, ideally, be advertised to men and women, because we all have the parts to which they apply: floors.

Edit: And no, they don't all have wives.

[dysfunctional press]

130. but it's not about who HAS the floors- it's about who buys the cleaning products for the floors...

and in the vast VAST majority of non-professional cases- that would be women.

what's YOUR point? :shrug:

[femrap]

115. DEJA VU....

We noticed this back in the 1960's and it changed for awhile. We even had TV shows like 'Designing Women' and 'Murphy Brown.'

But that's over now. The MSM is controlled by neocon asshole rich white boys with lots of insecurities and no way are they gonna have strong women around making them feel even smaller.

Turn off TV...and start educating young women to stop thinking that being eye candy is their number one goal in life.

[KoKo]

128. I dunno...I just see Viagra, Asbestos lung disease, diabetes, asthma, COPD and "heavy leg syndrome"

ads. I guess we watch different shows. But, I get your point. :eyes: It's all crap by the drug companies to scare us to death and ask our doctors to test us and prescribe. It needs to be regulated. This crap selling stuff by Big Pharma wasn't on the airwaves until Chimperor deregulated everything. We need to get rid of this stuff. It's terra/fear tactics.

[jazzjunkysue]

132. Even worse are the Cialis and Flomax commercials.

I've learned way more about male genitalia than I care to. Just imagine if there were ads with four women glad handing each oter, hugs and back slaps, talking about better orgasms.

The conditioning continues. Men are sacred, women, servile.

At least the cialis commercials include women who are the same age as the men, and not perfect models. That's something. And there is one commercial about sex enhancements that has the husband and wife portrayed the same way.

[no limit]

136. have you seen the trojan "vibrating touch" commercials?

I guess not ;)

[jazzjunkysue]

148. Hell, no.

[no limit]

134. I don't know a whole lot about marketing but I would assume they go after their target

in the case of cleaning supplies that would be women. I don't think they are trying to send any kind off message, they are simply going of what their marketing research has shown.

[LWolf]

142. True story:

Just happened last Friday.

One woman I know professionally said to another:

"It's women like you that spoiled everything for the rest of us. You just HAD to be SMART. Then the rest of us had to go to work."

I was more than shocked. Later, the woman the comment was directed at explained to me that several local churches blame, from the pulpit, the entrance of women into the workforce, and the subsequent leaving behind of "homemakers" on women reaching above their station, trying to be "smarter than they are," and "too smart for their own good."

Apparently, this is a common topic for sermons in some congregations.

Not an advertisement, but certainly another facet of propaganda used to "keep women in their place."

:puke:

[ismnotwasm]

143. Yeah, it's bullshit

So is orgasm causing shampoo.


And I'm waiting (so to speak) for the ad makers to stop using blue colored fluid when demonstrated how absorbent their "sanitary napkins" or tampons are. It's BLOOD and blood is red dumbasses.

The other thing some of those ads do is create the impression that women need to be germophobes, and men are slobs who think turning their underwear inside out constitutes a clean new pair.

Anyway, Common sense measures, such a little bleach and water mix, can clean a lot of stuff. You don't need expensive products all the time.

I can deal with a bit of dust, and the world evolved around early types of bacteria.
Keeping the levels down is OK. Living in a germ free world ain't gonna happen.

[Stinky The Clown]

149. Turning one skivvies inside out is not a clean new pair?????????????

Spaaaaaarkleeeeee ............ !!!!!!

What were you tellin' me ........... ???

[alfredo]

152. This one will make your head explode.

A protection from radiation poisoning?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q1gksqqhLU&feature=related

[Lorien]

153. I totally agree-and I always notice it

I have a male friend who comes to stay with me while he's in town for business. I always try to be a good hostess and cook plenty of meals for him. EVERY TIME he comes in to watch me cook he just stands there and talks-he never, ever, in 15 years has offered to help-hell, now he even leaves the dishes for me to clean up. Last time he was here I finally did ask him to do the dishes. I'm sick to death of guys just sitting back and expecting us to serve their lazy butts!