I hate this advert...I hate it was a passion........would it be at all permissible in today's advertising world, to have a man in a position of power, undressing a women who resides in a more a subservient role in order to test a cosmetic out on her?
.......with the risk of being a little sexist myself..and..I can hear a whole host of knickers being twisted here....I think NOT!...so why is it acceptable for a man to be potentially humiliated in this way?.....The answer to this is hidden by the subtle insertion of sex......the bellhop seems to actually enjoy being on the receiving end of this behaviour, a fact that angers me just a little more!
So many adverts now seem to be making men either the butt of a woman's joke, her power , or else seems to be emasculating them in some way..and to me it is just not acceptable...not in this day and age.
I thought we were perhaps past all this........
I guess I was wrong
Haven't seen the commercial (hope it doesn't make it over to our side of the Atlantic), but from your description it's abhorrent.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about the Abercrombie and Fitch stores we have here in North America. The entrance ways are filled with gigantic photos of barely clad half boys-half men. It all smacks so loud of barely-legal child pornography, I can't bring myself to enter the stores.
We can vote with our dollars/pounds. Don't buy any of the manufacturer's products. (if you tell me the company...I'll join you in the ban.)
I have not seen this advert John but I agree with what you say. So often we hear of discrimation against women but rarely against men and really it does exisit. I agree also with Jacqueline that the answer in this case is not to buy the product but it is only a small gesture.
ReplyDeleteI agree - seems the guys are now made to be looking like 'immature jerks'. What gives with that? Many 'new' TV programs show men at their least impressive. Poor language, poor dental care, poor hygiene, eternal swearing and "Mygod" "xissed off".
ReplyDeleteTo put the other side of the coin, I haven't seen the ad, but it sounds a little too tame for me. I'd like her to undress me, spray me with the chemical crap, and then ride me around the lawn of the hotel while burning my buttocks with tapers and digging spurs deep into my unworthy flesh.
ReplyDeleteI do object ... to deodorant! The bird in the dress can have her wicked way with me (as long as she lets me manure the beds).
LOL
ReplyDeletevery funnY!
I suspect that if you were younger, you would wear LYNX
They don't have that here, John, but I have to agree with you.
ReplyDeleteI can't count the number of times I tell my hubby I hate this commercial or that because they have made men weak or stupid or both!
I told my hubby I thought it was part of making Americans dumber, so they could be controlled easier, but it seems like it may be a world wide phenomenon.
Sad state of affairs.
There are many shows I won't watch for the same reason. :/
I am with you John....It is not just the woman/man thing but the subserviant person being ridiculed. Would they do that ad with a woman making a colleague do that....likely not. Even if a bell hop got a thrill from his interaction with a beautiful woman (or man), it would be counteracted by the demaning act of forcing him to something beneath him and perceived to be beneath the perpetrator.
ReplyDeleteSex sells! No matter who is on the 'receiving end'. Money is the bottom line and whatever is in 'vogue' at the time, seems dominant women are in this one, goes.
ReplyDeleteI thinks sexism works both ways and one isn't any better than the other. And by using one over the other doesn't make either correct.
Maybe the bell-boy should have just laid her out with one punch? That's what happened to me last time I tried to undress one.
ReplyDeleteInteresting comments thus far...the women are so earnest about the whole thing while the men are totally outrageous. Really Tom..."the last time I tried to undress one"? I'll be chuckling the rest of the day.
ReplyDeleteYears ago, my daughter started coming home from Girl Scout meetings telling jokes she learned from the feminist leader. They were all demeaning to men and we had to sit down and have a chat about how those kinds of jokes were no more acceptable aimed at men than they were when aimed at women. It was actually a great opportunity for us to explore how the intentional diminishing of another human being is always unacceptable.
Great post John.
Dia xxx
Just wish for her that a Halifax "radio" works do is being held there too.
ReplyDeleteOn the plus side - the Chocolate weetabix ad. First time I saw it I laughed so much I had a asthma attack.
I'm with you...hate those kinds of commercials no matter who is selling what.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree, John. I despair for the state of femalehood nowadays, and think that women have absolutely lost their way, and adverts such as these do not help. I could go on about this for hours, so had better sign off before I go into a long spiel!
ReplyDeleteNot utterly outraged about it; the Star, Sun and other red tops still give us a topless model every weekday. And the porn industry is far more expoitative of women than men. As is the whole sex trade. In a very, very small proportion of the world women are allowed the upper hand in a few adverts? Not such a biggy for me when FGM and honour killings are going on and in a large proprtion of Asia, the Middle East and Africa women have little say over their own lives.
ReplyDeleteproportion!
ReplyDeleteI love Toms response. x
ReplyDeleteMost TV ads irritate the hell out of me. I haven't seen this one. I expect my fifteen tear old son would say " she's hot" my 18 year old daughter might think " he's hot " but they have raging hormones. Women have been portrayed as Bimbos for so long I suppose the tide has turned. It doesn't make either way right. I hope he got paid well.
ReplyDeleteSpot on. That ad's been running a long time and it perfectly demonstrates the gender imbalance in advertising in the UK.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of ads like that, where if the gender roles were reversed they would be banned.
Perhaps we ought to start complaining to the ASA.
It's not acceptable to me either, I dislike commercials in general and this type in particular, no matter who's in power. This is one of the many reasons I no longer watch TV.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it's because being gay, I root for the underdog... but the underdog that I root for here is the woman. Good for her for being in a position of power, considering that women make so much less than men do. The real idiot is the man...obviously he enjoyed it, but if he sat there and took it, then he's the stupid one. Women standing up for themselves over the years is what got them the percentage of respect that they do have. Let the guy walk out flipping her the bird... that'll show her and give him the respect... sadly, the only bird that was flipping though was his tallywhacker. Lesson lost.
ReplyDeleteThere is a reason I no longer have television service. We buy or rent the DVD's of the various TV series' that we enjoy, or we watch them through Netflix.
ReplyDeleteI think the whole advertising thing is the pendulum swinging too far in the other direction.