There has been an unfortunate trend in commercials recently where the castrating bitch stereotype as is shown as a good thing and I’m not sure why. I don’t like castrating bitches. Most women I know (and the vast majority of women I don’t know) aren’t castrating bitches. The few castrating bitches I knew, I avoided. Thus if your product is advertised by a castrating bitch, I’ll avoid your product.
Cases in point (details may be misremembered)
First example: Some commercial (I don’t remember the product) has a guy in front of a tv getting magic wishes. His last wish is for a date with some woman with the unlikely name “Carmen Electra”. She appears on his TV and when he asks her for a date, she says words to the effect of “Me? Go out with you?” in a “it is to laugh” tone of voice. The character this woman is playing is simply an unlikable bitch and the message is that you, the potential consumer are such scum that even with the (unremembered) product and magic wishes, you’re still not good enough to get a skinny castrating bitch (why would anyone want one anyway?).
Another example is that invisible braces commercial where a guy and a girl are set up on a blind date. The girl sees an unshaven hunk at an outdoor cafe. They chat and they agree that they are both shallow and vapid because they have invisible braces. The woman says “I’m glad Suzie set us up, Jeff!”
The hunk replies “Who’s Suzie. And my name is Fabio.”
Then a person who is clearly a worthless loser (because he is wearing visible braces). He says “Hi! I’m Jeff. You must be Flavia. Suzie said to meet you here.”
The castrating bitch, with a wink of her eye to the stud says “I don’t know anyone named Suzie.”
She and the hunk leave, and the visible braces guy is left alone, stood up on a blind date. (My personal ending to the commercial is that the hunk is actually a serial killer and Flavia gets exactly the sort of evening she deserves…:D)
A final example: Geeky guy (he’s got that anti-sunburn goop on his nose, thus: a geek) is on a cruise with mega-babe. Apparently no one else is on the ship. She’s trying to contract skin cancer by the pool. The guy starts chatting with her and suggests she try his juice product. She does. It’s amazingly fantastic. He comments that the drink product is “refreshingly different”.
In a normal commercial, she would say “You’re refreshingly different too” and take him back to her cabin for implied hot weasel sex, thus associating the idea that “refreshingly different” is good
In this commercial, she says nothing, there’s an uncomfortable pause and he says “I’m refreshingly different too.”
She says something contemptuous and dismissive, laughs and walks off with his drink, thus teaching us that anything “refreshingly different” will lead to loneliness, hurt feelings, and castrating bitches who steal your juice product.
Why in the world does any ad agency think that I’d be interested in buying a product that’s trying to appeal to the castrating bitch (and the men who love them) market?
C’mon. Yes, it’s just a commercial. Yes, I realize they’re actors, not people and no one’s feelings were hurt in the filming of those commercials. That said, I don’t see why you’d want to associate your product with cruelty and mean-spiritedness.
They certainly didn’t work for me, as I refuse to buy whatever products they were advertizing.
Fenris
