Bad Ads and the Media's Portrayal of Women

WindSock

Been meaning to start a thread here on this for a while, just got reminded of it from the soup thread. What ads annoy you the most for their portrayal of women? For me, I hate this cereal one. It is condescending about it being 'sexist' as it says, showing women, then flashes to a few men too...to even out the score, titter. Shame it didn't show the same proportion of flesh and crotch shots then :rolleyes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kyIRIDQbug

Not to mention, still just about every household cleaning item has a woman in it and baby products.

And the first person with the epiphany who says 'well you're talking about it, it's what the advertisers want....etc' will get the wrath of a thousand rolleyes.

reallyrose

WindSock wrote: »

And the first person with the epiphany who says 'well you're talking about it, it's what the advertisers want....etc' will get the wrath of a thousand rolleyes.

I always wonder about this one. There are many products that I don't buy because the ad annoys me.
I've gone out of my way to select alternative products at times!

WesternNight

There's the one that has the mother of the family cooking three different meals for her family with everything ready for them the second they come through the door. Can't even remember what the ad is for.

And there's another one where the (male) voice-over says something to the effect of "It's Jane's job to do x, y and z" where the x, y and z are things like taking the kids to school, cooking dinner etc etc. Can't remember what that one was for either.

The one I really can't stand though, and this isn't sexist as such it's just stupid and presumptive, but the Clear Blue ad. All pregnancy test ads, actually. There's the automatic presumption that using this test will be so exciting and happy and all the rest of it. Which is annoying because if I had to use one of those in the near future I'd be sh*tting bricks, and wouldn't appreciate some woman going "oooh and now you can use this to see you far along you are! *squeeeee*" or similar. /rant

jill_valentine

I don't think it's fair to pick on the Alpen ad. There's a mild note of satire to it, it's relying on the audience's familiarity with established tropes, rather than the tropes themselves.

Kooli

WindSock wrote: »

Not to mention, still just about every household cleaning item has a woman in it and baby products.

Do you know what? I think I could just about handle that if that were the only problem, because let's face it, cleaning products ARE marketed at women, and the majority of people who do the cleaning in the home ARE women. So it would make no sense (from a marketing sense) to portray the target consumer audience as male.

But what bothers me is that a lot of those ads that portray women as the cleaners have an 'expert' who is either voiced/portrayed/caricatured as a man. So the poor woman who spends all her time cleaning either gets some words of wisdom from Barry Scott, or calls for help from Mr. Muscle, or gets the 'experts' in from that dishwasher company (all men in white coats). It is so ubiquitous we don't even notice anymore.

Not since the days of Nanette Newman has a famous and well-known ad portrayed a woman as the expert in the field of household cleaning.

So we're good enough to be the skivvy who cleans the kitchen, but not good enough to know how to do it properly.

amacachi

Kooli wrote: »

Do you know what? I think I could just about handle that if that were the only problem, because let's face it, cleaning products ARE marketed at women, and the majority of people who do the cleaning in the home ARE women. So it would make no sense (from a marketing sense) to portray the target consumer audience as male.

But what bothers me is that a lot of those ads that portray women as the cleaners have an 'expert' who is either voiced/portrayed/caricatured as a man. So the poor woman who spends all her time cleaning either gets some words of wisdom from Barry Scott, or calls for help from Mr. Muscle, or gets the 'experts' in from that dishwasher company (all men in white coats). It is so ubiquitous we don't even notice anymore.

Not since the days of Nanette Newman has a famous and well-known ad portrayed a woman as the expert in the field of household cleaning.

So we're good enough to be the skivvy who cleans the kitchen, but not good enough to know how to do it properly.

The other ads like that also remind everyone that other than these experts there is no man in the world capable of doing housework and to ask them is pointless. :pac:

I remember in Spain you'd see ads of men doing the household stuff, not so much here. It is a little annoying how many ads still stick to the old routine of mammy at home making the dinner while the kids and husband come home later on. I mean not just for women, but I imagine any stay at home guys out there must be feeling pretty marginalised. And all the kids' nutrition ads are for the mothers as well. Hey mothers, feed your kids sugary crap in the morning!!
Definitely annoying

Faith

I was going to agree about that Alpen ad, but then the guy with the beard winked at me, my insides zinged and I forget everything except how attractive he is :pac:. I think I might go buy some Alpen.

WesternNight wrote: »

The one I really can't stand though, and this isn't sexist as such it's just stupid and presumptive, but the Clear Blue ad. All pregnancy test ads, actually. There's the automatic presumption that using this test will be so exciting and happy and all the rest of it. Which is annoying because if I had to use one of those in the near future I'd be sh*tting bricks, and wouldn't appreciate some woman going "oooh and now you can use this to see you far along you are! *squeeeee*" or similar. /rant

I hate that too. Pregnancy tests exist to tell me whether the worst thing I can imagine has happened, not for me to go "Yay! I'm 7 weeks pregnant!". If I'm buying them, it's because I'm crapping myself that I've accidentally gotten knocked up.

I can't think of any ads off the top of my head that fit with the premise of this thread right now though.

WesternNight

WesternNight wrote: »

The one I really can't stand though, and this isn't sexist as such it's just stupid and presumptive, but the Clear Blue ad. All pregnancy test ads, actually. There's the automatic presumption that using this test will be so exciting and happy and all the rest of it. Which is annoying because if I had to use one of those in the near future I'd be sh*tting bricks, and wouldn't appreciate some woman going "oooh and now you can use this to see you far along you are! *squeeeee*" or similar. /rant

The original version of that ad was absolutely hilarious. They had a line at the end where she said "the only thing it can't tell you..." - pause - "...is if it's a boy or girl!"
Myself and every single person who happened to see the ad exclaimed "who the father is!" during the pause They finally got rid of that line

Ophiopogon

An ad from a while ago, I think it was for northern Ireland milk, really made me angry. It was a cartoon showing a 'busy mum' in a supermarket and the voice over saying 'Get the milk in mum'. Its was basically saying that only one parent is in charge of a childs nutritional needs :mad:

I can't stand the domestic ads being directed at women, i think its lazy marketing. I understand that people will say that the its a higher % of women doing the shopping but I really don't think that is entirely true. I think products that are not use by just one sex (tampons, etc) should never be marketed as single sex.

Truley

Come on guys - it's marketing! It's there to make you buy things and make money for companies, not spearhead radical social change :P

I don't watch ads full stop, this is why I don't even have a TV.

LenaClaire

There was a radio ad about these two women who lose their cars or get them stolen (I think one left the keys in the car and the other did something equally stupid) - but it is all okay because McDonald's has Bagels now!

They sounded like the stupidest, ditziest women who could barely remember to breath. It was like these were regular occasions for these idiot women. Thank god the people at McDonald's have something to appease their poor, scattered, female brains.

It used to make my eye twitch every time it came on the radio.

krudler

Its stereotyping, but theres some element of truth in every stereotype.
Irish people aer stereotyped as a nation of drinkers, go into any town centre on a Satruday night to see that in full effect, does it mean every single person who's Irish is a massive pisshead? nope. but theres truth in it.
Same with marketing things that are primarily bought by women to women. Of course there are single fathers who make sure their kids are eating healthy, but they're in a minority, and marketing isnt there to appeal to minorites, its business not a social commentary. go into Dunnes and Tesco any day of the week and the majority of the time it'd be a woman doing shopping with her kids in tow, you'll see dads or both parents doing it too, but just not as many. Is it lazy advertising? sure, is it effective, yes.

I hate those Boots ads, the "here come the girls" campaign, its so bloody patronising for both women and men, apparently all women who shop at Boots are a gang of cackling mischievous girlie girls at office parties who only buy pink hair straighteners and poke fun at how useless men are at buying presents. stupid adverts.

Chuck Stone

What about the 'bad mother, bad mother, bad mother, bad mother *introduce product* good mother, good mother, good mother' ads. They particularly piss me off.

They suggest that a mother is literally endangering her child if she doesn't have the product.




are men allowed in here?

krudler

Chuck Stone wrote: »

What about the 'bad mother, bad mother, bad mother, bad mother *introduce product* good mother, good mother, good mother' ads. They particularly piss me off.

They suggest that a mother is literally endangering her child if she doesn't have the product.

But dont you know without using a particular brand of disenfectant wipes you're putting you and everyone in the house in mortal danger?

I hate how we're being told we're a planet of wusses these days, did our parents use antibacterial wipes every time they touched something? nope. did we as kids? nope. yet apparently the current generation is going to drop dead at the first sight of a germ. We get bombarded with germs and bacteria everywhere, every day for our entire lives.

"your child ate a sweet that was on the kitchen counter, now its dead"

pfft, we had the "if it falls on the ground, pick it up and blow on it, if it was there less than 3 seconds you'll be grand" rule.

I love not having tv channels anymore, no more bombarded with stupid ads and being treated like a moron.

Ophiopogon

krudler wrote: »

Its stereotyping, but theres some element of truth in every stereotype.
Irish people aer stereotyped as a nation of drinkers, go into any town centre on a Satruday night to see that in full effect, does it mean every single person who's Irish is a massive pisshead? nope. but theres truth in it.
Same with marketing things that are primarily bought by women to women. Of course there are single fathers who make sure their kids are eating healthy, but they're in a minority, and marketing isnt there to appeal to minorites, its business not a social commentary. go into Dunnes and Tesco any day of the week and the majority of the time it'd be a woman doing shopping with her kids in tow, you'll see dads or both parents doing it too, but just not as many. Is it lazy advertising? sure, is it effective, yes.

I hate those Boots ads, the "here come the girls" campaign, its so bloody patronising for both women and men, apparently all women who shop at Boots are a gang of cackling mischievous girlie girls at office parties who only buy pink hair straighteners and poke fun at how useless men are at buying presents. stupid adverts.

Yeah I do agree and I know its idealistic to say that they could ignore the fact the its an effective marketing strategy and try something different but thats what annoys me is it's laziness.

I feel that about of a lot of ads that don't seem to have been given much thought other than 'it worked before so just copy the format'. Marketing can be fun and interesting but mostly it just seem to boring and repetitive.

mike65

Could be worse, could be ads showing women as child beaters, wreckless drivers or unable to function with a slight cold.

krudler

^ might be worth discussing in TGC too for a male perspective instead of turning both threads into a gender war, I agree though, men do get bad portrayals in advertising a lot, apparently none of us know how to work a washing machine, must be someone else washing my clothes for me so :pac:

Links234

Mitchell and Webb lampooned the advertising quite well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85HT4Om6JT4

mike65

krudler

Fair enough (maybe we need a LL/TGC merged sub forum!)

panda100

The ad that is pissing me of at the mo is the 'Proud sponsers of mums' adverts. Its so patronising saying mums are at the heart of everything the company does, when you know there probably isn't one mother on their corporate board.

ladypip

The always ad with the tagline "have a happy period" Seriously who came up with that idea!! it makes my eye twitch when i see it!!

diddlybit

Faith wrote: »

I hate that too. Pregnancy tests exist to tell me whether the worst thing I can imagine has happened, not for me to go "Yay! I'm 7 weeks pregnant!". If I'm buying them, it's because I'm crapping myself that I've accidentally gotten knocked up.

That's what I want to see, a pregnancy test ad that involves celebrations when it's negative. It would sell millions I reckon. Or a tampon ad that doesn't involve soft lightly and overwhelmingly chripy women dancing along a promenade holding hands.

There is this though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpypeLL1dAs&feature=player_embedded

What I really hate about cleaning advertising that feature men is that it's either one of two things.

a) men in drag. (I have no idea why this is considered a marketing tool.)
b) a man that despite his reluctence to clean up does so and finds a secret trick so that his life is so much easier than his wife's. What springs to mind is the Flash ads, when that little smarmy guy discovers Flash and his dope of a wife has beens crubbing away at the bathroom for aeons. Does he share the secret? Nah, why would he?

krudler

ladypip wrote: »

The always ad with the tagline "have a happy period" Seriously who came up with that idea!! it makes my eye twitch when i see it!!

and why's the liquid always blue?

Its like advert executive have a template that they just wont break? so according to marketing people:

Women are all either:
housewives
mothers to useless husbands and boyfriends
expert gift buyers
supermums
go rollerblading on their periods
sole purchasers of weekly shop

Men are all either:
rubbish dads who cant feed their kids properly
dangerous drivers
useless at buying gifts/forgetting anniversaries
can't work household appliances
can't do household chores properly (unless in drag)

Satan, thy name is marketers.

goose2005

What I really dislike in disinfectant ads is that it seems to imply that a table covered in bleach is safer than one that just has a bit of dirt on it!

diddlybit

krudler wrote: »

Satan, thy name is marketers.

None of it's very original is it?

I find marketing food products towards women follows three predictable lines.

1) It's an occassional treat becuase it's fattening. In these instances chocolate is a product akin to a masrubatory aid, you do it on your own and enjoy it on your own. Your also hide it like you would hide a sex toy. The ads are softly lit and sexualised, think Flake or Galaxy.

2) Treats that are permissable to eat, dietary foods or chocolate that isn't "bad" for you. Special K and Maltesers are the ones that spring to mind. Cue lots of sharing of this new found magic product and female bonding over the common shared interest, diets. Becuase what else could women bond over aside diets.

If there isn't female bonding the effects of dietry product also usuallly calculated through appreciation from a husband, boyfriend, man on street. No fear of dieting for yourself or to be more healthy, no it's for a man.

3) Marketing food towards mothers. As someone rightly pointed out it's a guilt strategy of bad mother metmorphosing into good mother. On occassion, to the criticism of her family which is pretty replusive. What is very strange about these ads is that the woman is always the last person to eat, and will not eat until she witnesses her family tucking in.

Social entertaining is usually cooked by men. I have no idea why.

krudler

diddlybit wrote: »

None of it's very original is it?

I find marketing food products towards women follows three predictable lines.

1) It's an occassional treat becuase it's fattening. In these instances chocolate is a product akin to a masrubatory aid, you do it on your own and enjoy it on your own. Your also hide it like you would hide a sex toy. The ads are softly lit and sexualised, think Flake or Galaxy.

I'd love a realistic version of that ad, with the woman trying to climb into the bath without breaking the Flake bar into pieces, have you ever tried to open a Flake? messiest chocolate bar there is, and this girl manages to get one, in whole form, unwrapped, into a bath with her? shenanigans!

Faith

I've thought of one (two) that really annoy me. Diet Coke and Coke Zero.

Diet Coke ad, aimed at women :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cNgwoAl2SM

The implication being that female bosses are bitches, and females in general can't handle a big work load and have to get the support of dozens of colleagues to cope.

Now an ad for Coke Zero, aimed at men:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7LMZJ_Fb1g

Men are superheroes who can achieve impossible tasks before breakfast. :rolleyes:

panda100

That butter ad with the Irish girls having a night out singing 'Kids in America' is the worst. They are all really annoying!

Blowfish

diddlybit wrote: »

2) Treats that are permissable to eat, dietary foods or chocolate that isn't "bad" for you. Special K and Maltesers are the ones that spring to mind. Cue lots of sharing of this new found magic product and female bonding over the common shared interest, diets. Becuase what else could women bond over aside diets.

Of course, the irony of these is that the likes of Special K really aren't actually good for you either.

Chuck Stone

And the Pizza Hut ad.

Each family member is doing their own thing in their own room. A fractured individualised family that rarely act like a real family should.

How is this solved..? How can mum bring the family together? Easy, she turns of the electricity at the mains and shouts 'Hut'.

Yay! In an instant the whole family are together as a happy fully functional unit down at Pizza Hut and not a scrap of of extra body fat to be seen on any one of those chirpy bastards.

:rolleyes:

I like this game.

krudler

Chuck Stone wrote: »

And the Pizza Hut ad.

Each family member is doing their own thing in their own room. A fractured individualised family that rarely act like a real family should.

How is this solved..? How can mum bring the family together? Easy, she turns of the electricity at the mains and shouts 'Hut'.

Yay! In an instant the whole family are together as a happy fully functional unit down at Pizza Hut and not a scrap of of extra body fat to be seen on any one of those chirpy bastards.

:rolleyes:

I like this game.

thats how my family was, me in my room, parents in sitting room, sister doing something until dinner then we'd gather in kitchen, we didnt sit around watching tv together most of the time so thats not too unrealistic

Little Acorn

WesternNight wrote: »

There's the one that has the mother of the family cooking three different meals for her family with everything ready for them the second they come through the door. Can't even remember what the ad is for.

And there's another one where the (male) voice-over says something to the effect of "It's Jane's job to do x, y and z" where the x, y and z are things like taking the kids to school, cooking dinner etc etc. Can't remember what that one was for either.

The one I really can't stand though, and this isn't sexist as such it's just stupid and presumptive, but the Clear Blue ad. All pregnancy test ads, actually. There's the automatic presumption that using this test will be so exciting and happy and all the rest of it. Which is annoying because if I had to use one of those in the near future I'd be sh*tting bricks, and wouldn't appreciate some woman going "oooh and now you can use this to see you far along you are! *squeeeee*" or similar. /rant

Is that this Moy Park chicken one with what sounds like a racing commentator?
It plays automatically on the bottom left of the screen.
http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.moypark.ie%2F&ei=RaXOTferHtGyhAfe1oT3DA&usg=AFQjCNFmHJGlrHg81cmpLszmHDxWOOZx_g

This ad wins triple stereotype points, mammy serving all her family, a special separate meal for each, whilst she doesn't have any meal for herself,a fussy teenage girl "little miss choosy", and a silly man who trips and falls over and gets given a "your so silly" look from his loving wife, who then at the very end smiles brightly at him as she's handing him his food, beaming at him so brightly as though she is handing him a plate of feckin gold or something.
Don't think it's really the stereotypes that bother me, just that it's so bloody cheesy and fake.

Oh yeah, meant to add the mother is called Juggling Jen! :-)

Morag

There was a really good series on this done by Sarah Haskins called Target Women.
http://current.com/shows/infomania/89113716_sarah-haskins-in-target-women-feeding-your-f-ing-family.htm

WesternNight

Little Acorn wrote: »

Is that this Moy Park chicken one with what sounds like a racing commentator?

That's the one!

Be||e

Faith wrote: »

Now an ad for Coke Zero, aimed at men:

Men are superheroes who can achieve impossible tasks before breakfast. :rolleyes:

Yeah, and he's so not going to call her either! :pac:

Logical Fallacy

reallyrose wrote: »

I always wonder about this one. There are many products that I don't buy because the ad annoys me.
I've gone out of my way to select alternative products at times!

To be honest, you would be a very much a rarity, not because you choose not to buy based on an ad that annoys you, but normally because ads are formulated based off all kinds of info about consumer turn offs etc etc.

The fact that you see an add and decide not to buy doesn't matter, because 80,000 people have seen the add and have purchased.

Faith wrote: »

Men are superheroes who can achieve impossible tasks before breakfast. :rolleyes:

But only if we are lucky enough that the girl who pulled us the night before happens to have some Coke Zero (which tastes like ass) in her fridge. Without that, the man was screwed, it was only the drinking of the Ambrosia like liquid that saved him.

And this is largely the central theme of all advertising, without the product on display you are flawed, incomplete and definitely not living up to your true potential. There is something missing , that you have been too stupid to even see yourself, but by purchasing this product you can buy a little bit of the success on display.

That's probably my least favourite kind of advertising, when it portrays a product as anything other than what it is...consumer trash.

There has been, i think, a good shift in the portrayal of women in advertising...but the simple fact of the matter is that if you are the target of advertising in any specific sense then it is not going to go well for you. It used to be a case of "Buy Daz to get your whites white"...now it's a case of "Buy X,Y,Z or you won't get that promotion".

It's just shifted the weight differently so that some people will end up thinking they have embraced a more progressive vision of female consumers. Now it's a case of needing to have 1000eu handbags and 50,000 euro cars, an important job in a geographically ambiguous City with lots of ready cash to spend on bull**** products. If you haven't got all that, you are NOT a modern women...shame on you.

The basic tenant of advertising is to establish and portray an ideal that cannot be acheived, because if the view can achieve it, then they do not need to the product and if the advertisement cannot generate need then it has failed.

I have to say, one of the funniest things in recent times has been the success of the show Mad Men, it's embrace by the public and the apparently beatification of it's characters. It's basically an advertisement for the advertising industry, portraying it as sexy, clever, witty, cut throat...exciting.

Personally, i am hugely interested in the media's affect on society, especially advertising as i spent so long working in a goddamn Marketing department (for my sins) but i really have to take my hat off to that show...it's managed to go from a TV show to having a quasi religious following of people who honestly, genuinely seem to believe that the people behind the ads are deep, intuitive philosophers of the human condition.

In reality advertising is, in the main, a case of waking up, remember what made your brother/wife/husband/kids etc feel bad and playing on that, while hiding that fact.

Be||e wrote: »

Yeah, and he's so not going to call her either! :pac:

Not sure if i would call a girl if i had blown up her apartment building. "Hey, last night was awesome, sorry about killing your parents!"

TaraFoxglove

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

I have to say, one of the funniest things in recent times has been the success of the show Mad Men, it's embrace by the public and the apparently beatification of it's characters. It's basically an advertisement for the advertising industry, portraying it as sexy, clever, witty, cut throat...exciting.

Personally, i am hugely interested in the media's affect on society, especially advertising as i spent so long working in a goddamn Marketing department (for my sins) but i really have to take my hat off to that show...it's managed to go from a TV show to having a quasi religious following of people who honestly, genuinely seem to believe that the people behind the ads are deep, intuitive philosophers of the human condition.

A neat hypothesis but the advertising industry is NOT portrayed wholly positively in that show, it depicts the seamier side of it too and often the characters are NOT portrayed sympathetically. Beatification of the characters? Really? Do you even watch the show? Kinda seems like you've decided that that is how the show is received by people rather than that actually being the case.

Now, many of the characters in the show believe themselves to be deep, intuitive philosophers, mainly because they are people of a creative bent who are products of their time and socio-economic class and so have to channel that creativity in a respectable job. So they have beatificated themselves in their own minds, but the reality, which we the viewer see, is different and sometimes a lot less flattering. That is where the intrigue of the show is, for me at least.

Logical Fallacy

TaraFoxglove wrote: »

A neat hypothesis but the advertising industry is NOT portrayed wholly positively in that show, it depicts the seamier side of it too and often the characters are NOT portrayed sympathetically. Beatification of the characters? Really? Do you even watch the show? Kinda seems like you've decided that that is how the show is received by people rather than that actually being the case.

I didn't talk about the characters within the shows structure, i talked about how people seem to react to them ( and yes i watch the show, it's why i have such a difficult time with the ebb of Draper worship when i see him as an amoral coward )....and i am talking about the reception to the show of people that i know, or the way i have seen people express it online.

So yes, off the evidence i have seen it is how i have decided the show has been received by people...not too much of a shock there i think?

Anyway, i'd suggest we not derail the thread into a Mad Men discussion, i was simply using it as an example of the interesting portrayal of fiction over fact...which is largely what advertising itself tried to do. Hell, i only even went there as it's supposed to be about advertising so had a loose tie in.

TaraFoxglove

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

I didn't talk about the characters within the shows structure, i talked about how people seem to react to them ( and yes i watch the show, it's why i have such a difficult time with the ebb of Draper worship when i see him as an amoral coward )....and i am talking about the reception to the show of people that i know, or the way i have seen people express it online.

So yes, off the evidence i have seen it is how i have decided the show has been received by people...not too much of a shock there i think?

Anyway, i'd suggest we not derail the thread into a Mad Men discussion, i was simply using it as an example of the interesting portrayal of fiction over fact...which is largely what advertising itself tried to do. Hell, i only even went there as it's supposed to be about advertising so had a loose tie in.

I added some stuff onto my post there.

Thing is, with any show some people are going to view the character differently to how the creators intended. Like people thinking Tony Soprano is da man (David Chase despaired at this, which was why he made Tony degenerate as a human being as the show wore on).

I'm with you, I don't get how people think Don Draper is suave, I find him spineless, amoral and, well, a little bit joyless and dull.

krudler

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

I didn't talk about the characters within the shows structure, i talked about how people seem to react to them ( and yes i watch the show, it's why i have such a difficult time with the ebb of Draper worship when i see him as an amoral coward )....and i am talking about the reception to the show of people that i know, or the way i have seen people express it online.

same reason people think Tony Soprano is cool when they'd think the real life version of him is an unsympathetic scumbag, its a tv show. Draper is a deeply flawed character, thats what makes him so interesting. anyway Roger Sterling is the cool one in that show The show is constantly showing how ridiculous the marketing people are , and the very idea of marketing, its not all pro capitalism and media based, it basically pulls down the curtain and shows these people arent always the creative geniuses they protray themselves to be, but they do have flashes of brilliance. like this scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suRDUFpsHus

kerash

panda100 wrote: »

The ad that is pissing me of at the mo is the 'Proud sponsers of mums' adverts. Its so patronising saying mums are at the heart of everything the company does, when you know there probably isn't one mother on their corporate board.

+1
And it's offensive to Men imo - who says men can't take care of the family also. These ads make me not buy that product/service. It's the only pro-active way to deal with these issues.

Those ads continue to be broadcast because the majority of the public sit back and lap it up.

Giselle

kerash wrote: »

+1
And it's offensive to Men imo - who says men can't take care of the family also. These ads make me not buy that product/service. It's the only pro-active way to deal with these issues.

Those ads continue to be broadcast because the majority of the public sit back and lap it up.

I think thats overstating it. I think the vast majority of the public are completely indifferent, especially to ads that are so uninspired they barely register, like the P&G one you mention.

They continue to broadcast them because nobody is interested enough to give negative feedback, not because they lap them up.

kerash

Giselle wrote: »

I think thats overstating it. I think the vast majority of the public are completely indifferent, especially to ads that are so uninspired they barely register, like the P&G one you mention.

They continue to broadcast them because nobody is interested enough to give negative feedback, not because they lap them up.

Good point.

I think these ads are aimed at the vast majority who already buy the product, keeping them involved, ensuring they continue to buy.
Apathy feeds the cycle. Apathetic customers will still buy the product therefore they are lapping up what is presented to them.

WindSock

reallyrose wrote: »

I always wonder about this one. There are many products that I don't buy because the ad annoys me.
I've gone out of my way to select alternative products at times!

Yeah I actively avoid some products if the ads annoy me. And if I can find an alternative...

jill_valentine wrote: »

I don't think it's fair to pick on the Alpen ad. There's a mild note of satire to it, it's relying on the audience's familiarity with established tropes, rather than the tropes themselves.

They still play into the trope by focussing mostly on the women as it is, just because they call it doesn't mean they are not guilty of it themselves.

Kooli wrote: »

Do you know what? I think I could just about handle that if that were the only problem, because let's face it, cleaning products ARE marketed at women, and the majority of people who do the cleaning in the home ARE women. So it would make no sense (from a marketing sense) to portray the target consumer audience as male.

But what bothers me is that a lot of those ads that portray women as the cleaners have an 'expert' who is either voiced/portrayed/caricatured as a man. So the poor woman who spends all her time cleaning either gets some words of wisdom from Barry Scott, or calls for help from Mr. Muscle, or gets the 'experts' in from that dishwasher company (all men in white coats). It is so ubiquitous we don't even notice anymore.

Not since the days of Nanette Newman has a famous and well-known ad portrayed a woman as the expert in the field of household cleaning.

So we're good enough to be the skivvy who cleans the kitchen, but not good enough to know how to do it properly.

I agree that in most cases the cleaners at home are women, but that is a problem in itself. I think these ads only go to reinforce this idea, but I know plenty of men who are no strangers to mucking in around the gaf and just as many women who are house work shy.

I really dislike the smugness that is portrayed by the women in the ads though, and the matter of factly voice used.

I hear guys complain that they are portrayed as the silly ones and the women as the clever ones. But the way I see it, it's like the guys have more fun and little responsibility and the women are the sensible boring mammy figure, tut tutting and eye rolling at his antics.

Maple

Not only do the cleaning products ads give me gyp, but anything hygiene product related drive me bananas.

The latest one to irritate depicts a pond full of sanitory towels that are in the shape of water-lillies.

Because that's exactly what a period/wearing a hygiene product feels like, floating on a pond full of sodding flowers.

boomkatalog

This is going to sound really silly but the new M & M's ad drives me demented! One female M and M and what's her line? "Boys, it's all about workin' the polls!" I hate this, the ads are aimed at kids, such blatant innuendo is hardly appropriate :rolleyes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zl18dLml-0

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

... what makes you think those ads are aimed at children?

iguana

Faith wrote: »

I've thought of one (two) that really annoy me. Diet Coke and Coke Zero.

Diet Coke ad, aimed at women :

The implication being that female bosses are bitches, and females in general can't handle a big work load and have to get the support of dozens of colleagues to cope.

Now an ad for Coke Zero, aimed at men:

Men are superheroes who can achieve impossible tasks before breakfast. :rolleyes:

Tbf to Coke their ads are almost benign when compared to the Pepsi Max "rape-y" ads. Like the one where a guy really likes a girl who he knows wouldn't give him the time of day so he and his friends stage a fake end of the world scenario so she (being a complete idiot) will shag him before they all die. And then he and his buddies all dance about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc0Cpp4Lz5A

jill_valentine

I was trying to remember what was the last ad to actually make me stand up and yell at the television, and there it is. Goddamn, that f*cking ad.

Nead21

Period product ads..they are ridiculous, like someone said earlier.."have a happy period" GRRR

my favourite hate that ad for Tampax Pearl...something about cheating mother nature, and the implication that you can't do your job properly until you've disguised the fact that you're a woman :mad: