That SUV commercial where the men are setting up camp, hear “Dueling Banjos” coming out of the woods, and then leave in a “Let’s get outta here before we get buttfucked” frenzy.
Ha Ha Ha, rape terror as a mirthful tool for automobile advertising.
How funny would an ad be with four women packing up in a panic when they hear the strains of… of…
Well, crap, I can’t think of any song that tags a memorable movie where a woman is raped, so here’s where my rant kinda falls flat.
Since I’m sitting here using up bandwidth anyway, how about if I log in a pre-emptive rant about some outrage not yet committed, like the re-make of “To Kill A Mockingbird,” but with Scout, Jem, Atticus and all the other white characters now as talking apes while Calpurnia & Tom Robinson stay as humans; or “The Death Of Bob Crane: The Musical?”
It bugs me when people refer to a less common ‘ism’ and call it ‘reverse’something’ism’
there is no such thing as reverse-sexism, what you refer to is normal sexism, it’s just directed towards men rather than as is more common - towards women.
However I agree with the point of the thread. I don’t like the fact that ad agencies can get away with obvious sexism towards men, but can’t get away with sexism towards women.
The majority of ads in my country seem to make men out to be stupid.
I’m with Lamia on this one. It’s like people in the studios making these things, Californians mostly I bet, think that it’s so clever to refer to the situation from that movie all the time. If actual hillbillies had TVs, I’m sure they’d be outraged to find that people think they’re all butt rapists.
And I don’t need a remake of To Kill a Mockingbird to inspire my ire. I hated that book, there’s no possible way to make it worse. What trash. I’d rather spend the day looking at Georgia O’Keefe paintings, or maybe have my balls thrown through the RonCo juicer, than to read that book or watch any movie based on it.
Uh, Can’t really say if its wrong or right. I did however laugh my ass off when I fist saw that commercial. :shrugs shoulders: And I’m a guy too (from the south) if that means anything.
I haven’t seen it but I’ve laughed at similiar jokes. I suppose what irks some people is that male on male rape is sometimes seen as a joking matter. How many times have you heard prison rape jokes on television or movies?
I agree with Lobsang. I try not to make a hobbyhorse out of it, but I’ve long thought that the middle-aged white American male (which would be me, folks) is the last safe target for intolerant “humor” in our society.
Who is the one who looks foolish? The white guy.
Who is the one who suggests the bad solution or screws up? The white guy.
Who can’t watch the children for five minutes without them tying him up in clothesline and trashing the house? The white guy.
Who can’t so much as fry an egg without turning the kitchen into something resembling Bhopal? The white guy.
Who turns the laundry into Barbie doll-sized miniatures? The white guy.
I understand that humor has to have a butt of the joke, and that stereotypes and “instant recognizability” are important in a 60-second ad. But it seems to me that whenever there’s a mixed-gender group, and there needs to be an incompetent, the vast majority of the time it’s a middle-aged white guy (who also seems to be overweight, rumpled, and balding, as opposed to the “hero”, who is younger, slimmer, better groomed).
Again, I don’t particularly find this offensive to the point of making my blood boil, but it really, really irks me.
Would it make you white guys feel any better to know that there is a commerical upsurge in stupid black men being put in their place by their superior wives, and in commericials featuring racially diverse groups of men whose collectives iqs do not exceed that of your typical houseplant?
Complain to the advertisers Lobsang, refuse to buy the products whose ads you don’t like and tell them why. You don’t need to turn into a fanatic about it, but little by little they may get the message. It’s not just you.
Everyone likes to make their group “the last safe target”. Fat people. Ugly people. Crazy people. Hillbillies. And now middle-aged white males. So which is it? Not everyone can be the last safe target.
As far as your rant goes, I don’t buy it. White guys are laughed at, but they also make up the majority of all ads that you see on television. Who’s more likely to be driving the fancy sports car? A white guy. Who’s more likely drooling over the gadgets at Circuit City? A white guy. Who’s more likely pontificating on one of the negative campaign ads? A white guy. Who’s more likely building a phat tree house for his son? A white guy.
As soon as you turn on the television you see a white guy. Nine times out of ten, that white guy is NOT being laughed at. So what the hell are you talking about, DAVEWOO71.
I for one would like to see ads where gender roles are bucked. Why must women always be shown doing the laundry? Why must women always be shown making Hamburger Helper, with the happy husband gobbling it up. Why must men always be shown building stuff from Home Depot? Why do they always get to have the laughs while women are always shown as serious, no-senses-of-humor-having bitches (in every commercial featuring a guy goofing up, you’ll find a women shaking her head at him)? Ads really haven’t changed as much as we think they have. I haven’t see the commercial described in the OP, but it doesn’t surprise me.
We don’t get the commercial mentioned in the OP over here, but one of the ones that annoyed me most was for a washing powder in which a puny wimp of a guy arrives home to find his wife and a (female) neighbour sitting in the kitchen. His clothes were dirty and they amused themselves forcing him to strip off at the doorway so his clothes could get washed before he was allowed in. Apart from the fact that there’s no way you could show a woman being humiliated like that, the underlying message was that it’s still the woman who does the clothes washing, only now it’s seen as a kind of ‘empowerment’. Bullshit.
Women are constantly shown taking a dour, disparaging attitude to men in ads here. Practically the only way women in ad-land can enjoy themselves is at the expense of men, otherwise they never laugh.
Otherwise there are plenty of ads here in which traditional gender roles are reversed, it’s just that most of them show women to be effective and skillful (no bad thing of course), much less often to they show men in any kind of favourable light.
Maybe it’s telling that I can’t remember the product, but there was an ad a little while ago in which they shot two versions and showed them alternately. It featured the same family, but the husband and wife switched lines/actions.
Yeah, I’ve always been a little bit annoyed by the fact that the “dumbo” is always a guy.
But I’m not complaining too loudly because at the right times, on the right channels you see lots of commercials (and other programming) with hot babes in revealing clothing and that rocks.
It’s not just the ads, you’ve got a whole show based on that!
My local PBS station insists on playing reruns of Last of the Summer Wine every weeknight. Man oh man, do I hate that fucking piece of garbage.
Every woman in it, with the exception of the blonde bimbo, is shown as a sour unattractive old churchlady biddy who’s thinks men are shit. The looks they give could shatter warm butter at a dozen paces. And like the ads you speak of, the only joy in their humorless, fascist lives is at the expense of men.
And the men, of course, are bumbling dolts set to stereotype- an ugly dirty lecher, an egotistical old military man, a gentle lovelorn man domineered by his bitchy old hag of a wife, etc., etc.
I tried to watch it because it’s set in the beautiful countryside of Yorkshire- but gag not even the sight of those gently rolling hills is enough to enable me to stomach it.
So yeah, I wonder how people get that point of view?
Rest assured that LotSW (decomposing turd as it is) is an aberration even on our TV - I assume the typical audience profile consists of people old enough to appear in it. The rolling hills of Yorkshire are best viewed in person, btw.
That’s my point. Whenever the guy is left to his own devices in the home, he screws up. And more often than not, the woman shakes her head at him, or smiles knowingly, as if this isn’t the first time he’s shown he can’t find his own butt with both hands and a flashlight.
Demographically, it’s probably true that the target audience for certain items (cars and home center items, e.g.) are white guys. I would contend that even in ads targeted for that group, the men in the ads are shown exhibiting “typical male behavior.”
In the commercials where the guy is driving a really neat sports car, or building that phat tree house, there is no “negative” in the ad. In other words, it’s that bizarre utopian television society in which all’s right with the world. I’m talking about the “humor” ads in which someone has to be the butt of the joke. In those instances, women and minorities are less likely to be the fools.
Oddly enough, in the interest of equality, there do seem to be some Asians and African-Americans depicted as buffoons, but here again, they are usually male.
To be fair, I suppose the depiction of sourpuss women who disparage their husbands is just as prevalent, and I haven’t noticed, as it hits less close to home. Still, I stick by my contention that in most cases, the women wind up looking smarter, rather than bitchy.