feedback for "The Babble List: The 15 Most Sexist Daytime Commercials"
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All failry scary - especially the Folgers one -- but what is more disturbing to me is the Rose Petal Cottage. Welcome to the 50s, circa 2007.
posted by : Fweetieb on 8/5/2008 at 11:51 AM Flag For Abuse
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There's a commercial from the last few months- I think it's for Degree deodorant for girls- that disturbs me. Apparently Degree is really useful for the OMG! moments when Daddy catches you doing something wrong.
posted by : me on 8/5/2008 at 2:37 PM Flag For Abuse
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Cole, this is a terrific piece, but in my opinion, you missed what I consider one of the most sexist ads I've ever seen in my life. It's the recent Heineken beer commercial, featuring some guy's idea of the perfect woman: a robot with several arms and a keg of beer in her gut, instead of bowels. Unfortunately, I don't know which ad agency created the ad; if I did, believe me, I would name them here. Beer run through entrails before being served sounds really appealing, doesn't it?
posted by : citnyltd on 8/5/2008 at 4:00 PM Flag For Abuse
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why is 10 banned?? its genius!
posted by : Maeby on 8/5/2008 at 4:03 PM Flag For Abuse
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i don't see how 10 is sexist. it's certainly what i'd call dark humor. the parent kind of had to be a dad because it is a condom ad. but that doesn't make the ad sexist. if it had been an ad for birth control pills it could have been a mom. and i've heard parents of both genders point to children and say things like "now there's a poster child for birth control".
dark humor? yes. sexist? i don't think so.
This whole excersize seems a little odd. Given that pretty much the culture we lived in is sexist to a degree and that sexism was much more overt in decades past, I'm not even sure it even makes much sense to call out particular commercials as "sexist" as they are just portraying gender stereotypes of the time. They were probably not any more "sexist" than other commercials of their time.
Maybe this should have just been called "interesting examples of gender stereotypes in old commercials".
Oh, but wait, that is not nearly sensational enough of a topic to pull people in.
You won this time, Babble.com. But next time I won't be so easily pulled in... :)
posted by : k1 on 8/5/2008 at 4:21 PM Flag For Abuse
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Thanks for posting this, but actually there are so many current commercials that still use this approach it's scary. Don't forget that "Mom" is the only one who can cure illnesses and "Dad" leaves an iron imprint on his shirt when she has the flu (Flo-Nase).
Check out the new Klondike ads... my favorite is the one where the guy is at an outdoor cafe with his wife when a babe walks by. "This guy kept looking at his wife! Give that man a Klondike bar..."
posted by : panthergirl on 8/5/2008 at 4:27 PM Flag For Abuse
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Dope. Peanut butter isn't a condiment. It's a protein rich entree or tasty snack.
posted by : gnahtanoj on 8/5/2008 at 7:59 PM Flag For Abuse
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Ditto on the Heineken ad, which I didn't even bother to label sexist. More like misogynistic. My EX-b.f. said a perfect woman was three feet tall with a square head. (So she can give oral sex while he rests a beer on her head/shelf.) Niiice.
posted by : Anon on 8/5/2008 at 9:37 PM Flag For Abuse
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One of the intriguing subtexts in the Pizza Hut ad comes when Mom whispers "I Love You" to pizza-orderin' dad. If she's so excited about having pizza for dinner, why couldn't she order it. "Damn you, Pizza Hut, for only takign calls from someone with testicles! Curses, I am doomed by my sex to forever prepare food for the family at home, for less money, with more nutritional value, and significantly less fat!"
posted by : jfruh on 8/6/2008 at 9:49 AM Flag For Abuse
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ooh...what about the i can't believe it's not butter *spray* ad? the one with fabio that implies that all women are just lonely dowdy housewives, who sit around dreaming of a 'perfect' man with flowing hair, rippling biceps, and--most importantly--armed with a reduced fat buttery spray.
because every woman fantasizes about butter alternatives...i mean, that's some hot stuff right there ;)
posted by : photolicious on 8/6/2008 at 10:36 AM Flag For Abuse
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the parent kind of had to be a dad because it is a condom ad.
Why does it “kind of” have to be a dad? If the point of the commercial is that condoms prevent pregnancy, then they work just as well for women as men.
The sexism comes from the stereotype that men never really want children and/or regret the ones they have (women, on the other hand, love having children and are the only ones capable of cleaning up their messes or feeding them peanut butter).
posted by : GGrace on 8/6/2008 at 10:46 AM Flag For Abuse
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Ditto to the person who mentioned those Klondike ads. Thoroughly disgusting.
posted by : stealyourself on 8/6/2008 at 11:24 AM Flag For Abuse
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The one I've noticed recently, although I'm not sure if it's still on, is the KFC "Mom's Night Off Meal", where KFC shows women throwing their pots/pans/kitchen utensils out the window. Yes, KFC has FINALLY given these hard working women a day off! I can't believe the meal is actually called that as well, good grief.
posted by : miktacular on 8/6/2008 at 12:35 PM Flag For Abuse
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There's also that awful "Where is your mother?" ad campaign from JC Penney a few years back. The men were at home, flustered (obvs) while watching the kids, as the mothers were shopping (as all women do, right?) at JC Penney's sale. I frickin' hated those ads and complained about it to the NY Times advertising columnist who said such stereotypes in ads are nothing new.
posted by : elizs on 8/6/2008 at 1:23 PM Flag For Abuse
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Thanks to the commenters who mentioned the Penny's and FloNaze ads -- two of the worst in recent years!
posted by : agreeed on 8/6/2008 at 2:30 PM Flag For Abuse
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Was it Sunny Delight that had a catchphrase like "Kids love it because it tastes great. Moms love it because it's high in Vitamin C."? As opposed to dads, who hate and fear anything that isn't Combos or pizza.
If that condom commercial discourages even one person from having kids, in my mind it was worth it. Can't stand those damn things, stereotypical male that I am.
posted by : rj on 8/6/2008 at 2:36 PM Flag For Abuse
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I think the one I've been subjected to and annoyed by most when I'm watching things on Hulu would HAVE to be the Hungry Man commercials where there's a few guys drinking smoothies and yogurt (woman food, of course) and one of them has to go to the bathroom so they all go to "keep him company". On the way out they encounter a man who is eating all by his lonesome who is eating Hungry Man meal who heckles: "Where are you ladies going?" Rather than giving him the finger, they throw out their perfectly good smoothies and yogurt, which, if I recall, were pink.
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaPcBwmCtiM&feature=related
Mostly I feel badly if men feel they can't enjoy a smoothie or yogurt, because that shit is good.
posted by : SCL on 8/6/2008 at 5:31 PM Flag For Abuse
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I'll cast my vote for the previously mentioned JC Penny's ad -- I was so offended I actually wrote to the company. (I never do that kind of thing either but this ad was ridiculous.) They sent me back a lame reply. One of the most offensive things about the ad was that the dad kept saying, in this aggrieved tone, "where IS your mother" every time he felt out of control -- as if only she is responsible for raising their children.
posted by : yosemitegirl on 8/6/2008 at 6:30 PM Flag For Abuse
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There's a series out now from a cell company with rollover minutes--in each the husband and two male sons sit at the table eating and reading the paper while the mother stands, too busy serving them from the kitchen and nagging them about wasting their rollover minutes. The husband, of course, is completely justified in insulting the haridan's sister in the latest edition of this ad series. It's bad enough that the sons laugh and this disrespect of their mother--but the mother essentially does the same. You sure zinged me, darling! Now I'll know better than to question anything you do. Plus, what am I worried about? It's not MY money paying for that cell-phone plan! I'm lucky to even have earned the right to make outside calls!
posted by : srdno on 8/7/2008 at 3:00 PM Flag For Abuse
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That's nothing--I live in Mississippi, where a public radio PSA for a local hospital chain says, "For the women in your life, make sure your health plan includes Baptist Hospitals."
Riiiight. Because only men work and have health insurance. Wimmin stay home with the younguns.
I called the Hospital and pointed this out to their PR flack--who was a woman, as were most of the community relations group--she said that wasn't the intended message. But I can't imagine what was. Why can't the women in your life take care of their own damn health care choices?!
posted by : MS on 8/8/2008 at 10:51 AM Flag For Abuse
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Excellent countdown! I have been running a sporadic series of sexist commercials on my blog here: http://scryberwitch.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/commercials-that-piss-me-off-pt-iv/
I would have to add the recent Taco Hell commercial starring Adam Corolla, claiming their "big box meal" is a "meal for a man."
posted by : scryberwitch on 8/10/2008 at 2:19 PM Flag For Abuse
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When the Flintstones originally aired, it was in prime time, and it was initially aimed at adults; hence the sponsorship from Winston. Once they realized the audience was skewing younger and younger, they went from Winston to Welch's grape juice.
Still, it's weird to see, having watched reruns of the show as a little kid and being born after the cigarette commercial ban.
posted by : CleverUserName on 8/12/2008 at 8:07 PM Flag For Abuse
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What about the "If...you're a Mitchum man" ads? The most disgusting one was a teenage boy taking photos/video of a teenage girl on his bed, getting her to strip.
It was a grainy video of the two of them, with text that said, "If you've convinced her that they're for your private photo collection..."
"You're a Mitchum man"
How macho!
That was the day I quit purchasing their product(s).
posted by : Bilou on 8/25/2008 at 12:32 AM Flag For Abuse
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Between commercials and television tripe of late, I've turned off the pixels. I am vaguely offended/irritated/annoyed that most commercials and Sitcoms show Dads and Husbands to be at large, a bunch of irrelevent boobs who do nothing but make Mom/Wife's life difficult. I guess that showing a more modern take on a non-dysfunctional family wouldn't make for good viewership, or be catchy enough for a commercial though.
posted by : eh on 5/26/2009 at 12:17 PM Flag For Abuse
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What about the Sunny D commercial about saving the labels to earn books for school? It sad "Kids and their moms everywhere are teaming up..." Ugh.
posted by : raecarrie on 9/6/2009 at 6:04 PM Flag For Abuse
