Class, Gender, Race, etc. in Commercials

[LoneHaranguer]

On 1/29/2018 at 5:08 PM, Kromm said:

I sat down watching the news and noticed 3 commercials in a row with this, although to be accurate one commercial didn't feature a wife at all and had a white guy with a mixed race daughter.

Children can be adopted, so you can't infer anything about the guy's wife.

[Jamoche]

2 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Wouldn't it be great if we didn't even *notice* the mixed race families?  That they're just families.  I notice them, too, but think if, perhaps, we were more evolved, we wouldn't notice.  <sigh> The human race still has so far to go...

The last time the composition of the people in an ad just jumped out at me was a Hidden Valley Ranch with a couple of dozen people at a picnic, every one of them white as snow.

[Gurkel]

2 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Wouldn't it be great if we didn't even *notice* the mixed race families?  That they're just families.  I notice them, too, but think if, perhaps, we were more evolved, we wouldn't notice.  <sigh> The human race still has so far to go...

I agree. Eveytime I see an interracial or gay couple, I think, ‘Oh, that’s nice.’ I’ll be happy when I no longer do that. 

[Silver Raven]

Heineken has pulled an ad showing a bartender sliding a bottle of Heineken down the length of the bar past several black people to a white woman at the end of the bar, with the tag line, "Sometimes, lighter is better."

Chance the Rapper called them out for it and wondered if companies purposely create racist ads to draw attention.

[mojoween]

When these ads come out I often find it hard to believe that people wrote them, someone else read them, then they put out an actors call for them, then filmed them, then watched them back and NO ONE realizes how shitty it looks?

[Haleth]

17 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

Heineken has pulled an ad showing a bartender sliding a bottle of Heineken down the length of the bar past several black people to a white woman at the end of the bar, with the tag line, "Sometimes, lighter is better."

Chance the Rapper called them out for it and wondered if companies purposely create racist ads to draw attention.

Without seeing the commercial I thought it was kind of nitpick.  Then I saw the commercial.  Yeah, not cool.

[proserpina65]

On ‎01‎/‎31‎/‎2018 at 11:46 AM, LoneHaranguer said:

Children can be adopted, so you can't infer anything about the guy's wife.

I think it's part of a series of commercials for irritable bowel syndrome medication - in at least one of the others, you see the wife, who is black.

On ‎01‎/‎31‎/‎2018 at 12:24 PM, Jamoche said:

The last time the composition of the people in an ad just jumped out at me was a Hidden Valley Ranch with a couple of dozen people at a picnic, every one of them white as snow.

Maybe black people have better taste in salad dressing?  (Just kidding.)

On ‎03‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 2:27 PM, Silver Raven said:

Heineken has pulled an ad showing a bartender sliding a bottle of Heineken down the length of the bar past several black people to a white woman at the end of the bar, with the tag line, "Sometimes, lighter is better."

Chance the Rapper called them out for it and wondered if companies purposely create racist ads to draw attention.

I think the woman at the end of the bar is a light-skinned black/mixed race woman, not white, which makes it only incrementally less awful.  Somebody needs to start firing their advertising agencies.

[Julzygirl]

On 7/5/2014 at 6:58 PM, Bastet said:

"Down there"?  "V"? 

 

Christ, advertising execs; it's bad enough you market useless products designed to convince women their vaginas are dirty netherworlds in need of special, industrial-level cleaning, but it's made even more annoying by the fact you feel compelled to resort to these ridiculous euphemisms.  It's a body part, not Beetlejuice; it won't come to life and torment you if you say its name.

Ya totally!!! Ridiculous!!! You're right. I've not seen any commercials about men with sweaty, stinky nut sacks or swamp ass. Seriously!!! 

[Silver Raven]

22 hours ago, Julzygirl said:

Ya totally!!! Ridiculous!!! You're right. I've not seen any commercials about men with sweaty, stinky nut sacks or swamp ass. Seriously!!! 

[funky-rat]

On ‎3‎/‎31‎/‎2018 at 6:54 PM, Julzygirl said:

Ya totally!!! Ridiculous!!! You're right. I've not seen any commercials about men with sweaty, stinky nut sacks or swamp ass. Seriously!!! 

Duluth Trading Company underwear ads.  They make me chuckle, even if they are kind-of gross.

[Jacqs]

(bringing this to the right thread)

Here's a couple of commercials that rely on the prescense of a little girl to evoke feelings in the audience:

[Cobalt Stargazer]

On 1/31/2018 at 12:26 PM, Gurkel said:

I agree. Eveytime I see an interracial or gay couple, I think, ‘Oh, that’s nice.’ I’ll be happy when I no longer do that. 

Couple of months late, but I don't get this. Not entirely, anyway. Isn't a positive reaction a good thing? Or has society evolved to the point that even noticing is a form of prejudice?

[cynicat]

1 hour ago, Cobalt Stargazer said:

Couple of months late, but I don't get this. Not entirely, anyway. Isn't a positive reaction a good thing? Or has society evolved to the point that even noticing is a form of prejudice?

I took it to mean the bolded part, which surprisingly makes me smile.  While there's a ways to go, from what I've seen over the course of my lifetime this is amazing progress. I don't think we're far from not noticing at all.

[janie jones]

4 hours ago, Cobalt Stargazer said:

Couple of months late, but I don't get this. Not entirely, anyway. Isn't a positive reaction a good thing? Or has society evolved to the point that even noticing is a form of prejudice?

Not that noticing is prejudiced, but that the fact that something is even noteworthy means that it hasn't been normalized.  Like, people don't "notice" when women are doctors because it's completely commonplace these days, and everyone accepts that women can be doctors.  It will be nice when gay and interracial couples get to where we are now with lady doctors.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

4 hours ago, cynicat said:

I took it to mean the bolded part, which surprisingly makes me smile.  While there's a ways to go, from what I've seen over the course of my lifetime this is amazing progress. I don't think we're far from not noticing at all.

Huh. I should ;pose this question on my FB feed. I can't recall actively noticing in the past,  but I'm old and not as attuned to today's standards of what's appropriate.

[kokapetl]

14 hours ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

(bringing this to the right thread)

Here's a couple of commercials that rely on the prescense of a little girl to evoke feelings in the audience:

 

I guarantee that Woolworths (a supermarket) ad was designed by cynical ad men treating women as purely emotional creatures. What the fuck is “official reindeer carrot supplier to Santa”? Commercial Australian media is dominated by incredibly conservative and chauvinistic attiudes.

[proserpina65]

On ‎04‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 2:31 PM, Kokapetl said:

What the fuck is “official reindeer carrot supplier to Santa”? 

Official supplier of carrots to Santa's reindeer

[stillhere1900]

5 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

Official supplier of carrots to Santa's reindeer

Self explanatory

[proserpina65]

14 hours ago, stillhere1900 said:

Self explanatory

Yeah, I thought so, too.  I probably missed the intent of the original poster's question.

[funky-rat]

2 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

Yeah, I thought so, too.  I probably missed the intent of the original poster's question.

Maybe they're unaware that some people leave carrots for reindeer in addition to cookies for Santa.  I didn't know of it until a few years ago.

[Silver Raven]

Dior is being criticized for their new fashion collection inspired by Mexican female horse riders, because the ad was shot in California, not Mexico, and features Jennifer Lawrence, and not a Mexican model/actress.

[Ashforth]

On 11/21/2018 at 11:54 AM, Silver Raven said:

Dior is being criticized for their new fashion collection inspired by Mexican female horse riders, because the ad was shot in California, not Mexico, and features Jennifer Lawrence, and not a Mexican model/actress.

 

well deserved criticism.

[Silver Raven]

AT&T has a new ad out with a gay couple, and the comments on the YouTube page are predictably disgusting.

[LoneHaranguer]

18 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

AT&T has a new ad out with a gay couple, and the comments on the YouTube page are predictably disgusting.

Are they a gay couple, or two single fathers sharing living quarters? I presume AT&T made this hoping folks who want to see more gay people on TV will see that, but there's nothing in the ad to indicate which. Or am I missing something?

[Prevailing Wind]

I agree - for all we know it could be "My Two Dads" all over again. Not bloody likely, but it *could* be.

[BigBingerBro]

The annoying and inept babysitter in the "Gay Dads" AT&T commercial almost completely distracts the viewer from the fact the guys are a couple.  Also, it's pretty devoid of any gay stereotyping.  Had I not read about it here first, I would have been rather confused as to exactly what's going on there.

[LoneHaranguer]

5 hours ago, BigBingerBro said:

Had I not read about it here first, I would have been rather confused as to exactly what's going on there.

They're being deliberately unclear to cover themselves. For example, if the guy had said "our kid", you'd have known the guys were a couple, so they had him say "our kids", so you don't know if it's two dads, each with one kid, or a couple with two.

[janie jones]

It's all well and good that the wifi password is the names of "our kids," but even if I know what the kids' names are, I don't know what order they are in the password, or whether anything is capitalized.

Edited January 13, 2019 by janie jones

[Silver Raven]

Gillette has released a new ad calling on men to end bullying and treat men and women better than they're being treated.  And, as in the case of everything good, there is a backlash and a call for a boycott.

[Bastet]

5 minutes ago, Silver Raven said:

Gillette has released a new ad calling on men to end bullying and treat men and women better than they're being treated.  And, as in the case of everything good, there is a backlash and a call for a boycott.

My razor is a Gillette; I suddenly feel the need to go buy a ton of refill blades.  (And it's a men's razor, because women's razors are just razors with a gender surcharge.)

The only way someone is threatened or insulted by that commercial is if they are part of the problem.  (Which is why there are so damn many freaking out over it.)

Edited January 15, 2019 by Bastet

[Annber03]

1 hour ago, Silver Raven said:

Gillette has released a new ad calling on men to end bullying and treat men and women better than they're being treated.  And, as in the case of everything good, there is a backlash and a call for a boycott.

Case in point, the comment section in the TV Line article regarding this ad:

https://tvline.com/2019/01/15/gillette-tv-commercial-targets-toxic-masculinity-controversy/#comment-list-wrapper

There's quite a few good comments, mind, but then there's some that are just...yeow. I don't know if it's just people being obnoxious trolls or if they're serious, but it's annoying either way. In short, some people are clearly just plain dumb, and it's truly amazing how such a simple message can go so far over their heads. 

[peacheslatour]

2 hours ago, Bastet said:

My razor is a Gillette; I suddenly feel the need to go buy a ton of refill blades.  (And it's a men's razor, because women's razors are just razors with a gender surcharge.)

The only way someone is threatened or insulted by that commercial is if they are part of the problem.  (Which is why there are so damn many freaking out over it.)

My son uses Gillette Mach Three, just went to Amazon and ordered a ton of 'em.

[LoneHaranguer]

1 hour ago, Annber03 said:

In short, some people are clearly just plain dumb, and it's truly amazing how such a simple message can go so far over their heads. 

It didn't, but they're also seeing the political bias associated with some extremism. It shouldn't be difficult to clean up the ad so that it only contains the intended message.

[peacheslatour]

14 minutes ago, LoneHaranguer said:

It didn't, but they're also seeing the political bias associated with some extremism. It shouldn't be difficult to clean up the ad so that it only contains the intended message.

I didn't see any political bias. Would you like to elaborate? I mean the #MeToo movement has outed people on both sides of the aisle.

[friendperidot]

Very few commercials outside of some old Hallmark and some Christmas ads make me tear up, but that one did. I hadn't seen it before, I guess I don't watch enough sports. (disclosure, then only sports I watch are Olympics)

[peacheslatour]

4 minutes ago, friendperidot said:

Very few commercials outside of some old Hallmark and some Christmas ads make me tear up, but that one did. I hadn't seen it before, I guess I don't watch enough sports. (disclosure, then only sports I watch are Olympics)

I had heard a lot of people were butt hurt about it but that was the first time I'd seen it and I too teared up.

[LoneHaranguer]

18 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

I didn't see any political bias. Would you like to elaborate?

I don't think I can make the case as well as some folks on TV have, but it's just that it goes overboard at a couple of points in a way consistent with certain extreme political groups. What's wrong with a guy wanting to go talk to a woman?

[peacheslatour]

45 minutes ago, LoneHaranguer said:

I don't think I can make the case as well as some folks on TV have, but it's just that it goes overboard at a couple of points in a way consistent with certain extreme political groups. What's wrong with a guy wanting to go talk to a woman?

A stranger on the street coming after me is not my idea of flirting.

[Jacqs]

5 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

A stranger on the street coming after me is not my idea of flirting.

of course if the genders were reversed a lot of people wouldn't be troubled. Stalking Is Funny If It's Female After Male is a trope for a reason.

[LoneHaranguer]

14 hours ago, Jacqs said:

of course if the genders were reversed a lot of people wouldn't be troubled. Stalking Is Funny If It's Female After Male is a trope for a reason.

Who says the guy's going to be doing any stalking? Coming up next to someone at the nearest corner and striking up a conversation is generally considered acceptable. It's not in the guy's interest to do anything offensive, so he'd be foolish to follow her into a building or past an uncooperative traffic signal, but that's not what the ad portrays. Suggesting that there's something wrong with even leaving where he's standing is an anti-male message.

[Haleth]

21 hours ago, LoneHaranguer said:

Coming up next to someone at the nearest corner and striking up a conversation is generally considered acceptable.

I think it's creepy.

[Jacqs]

46 minutes ago, Haleth said:

I think it's creepy.

again if the genders were reversed, most women wouldn't see a problem. Again, that's the reason Stalking Is Funny When It's Female After Male, and Domestic Abuse Is OK When It's Female Upon Male are such widely used tropes.

[janie jones]

On 1/17/2019 at 8:16 AM, LoneHaranguer said:

 It's not in the guy's interest to do anything offensive,

Yet women receive offensive treatment on a regular basis.

With regard to the ad, I think you guys are talking about the woman walking down the street and the white guy turns to go after her and then a black guy stops him?  If I were that woman, here is what I would find scary:  1) That guy was about to follow her down the street.  It's not like they happened to be at the corner waiting for the signal to change and he struck up a conversation.  He was planning to follow her.  That would make me feel like prey.  2)  The look on his damn face.  He looked at her the way I look at my favorite dessert.  (I'm not saying people can't check each other out.  But you don't have to go full on humina-humina boi-oi-oi-oing with the eyes.)

[Prevailing Wind]

3 hours ago, janie jones said:

But you don't have to go full on humina-humina boi-oi-oi-oing with the eyes

Best post of the month.

[friendperidot]

two people that just happen to be standing at a corner waiting for a light to change, some silly conversation, "wow! that wind is strong! About to blow me over!" "Phew this rain, will it ever stop?" "Hot enough for you?" That's casual, nothing conversation, sometimes something added because of passing motorists or something going on in the tableau before them, no one cares, who starts it, what it's about, if the 2 people take a good look at each other and then decide to walk together for a block and continue the silly conversation or if then it changes to something more interesting, that's ok. But if one person signals that the conversation is over and they are not wanting more, move on, no matter how attractive you think they are. They are not interested, move on, if not, that's harassment. And leaving your group of friends to stalk someone that passes you on the street? Creepy. Catcalling, telling a woman to "smile, pretty lady" is effing annoying, stop it. No one wants it, it's not going to be a "meet cute", following her at that point is stalking.

[LoneHaranguer]

19 hours ago, janie jones said:

It's not like they happened to be at the corner waiting for the signal to change and he struck up a conversation.  He was planning to follow her. 

To the corner, not far away since it's an urban area? In discussions elsewhere I've seen women say that they'd feel flattered, and that's based on what they imagine would have otherwise happened. The ad writers had a more pessimistic outlook that the more polite male members of society see as an insult. I'm sure where someone lives is a big factor here. 

[peacheslatour]

It would make me extremely uneasy and I would probably dive into the nearest shop where there are a lot of people around. It's one thing to chat up a stranger in a bar or at a party, it's quite another to follow a woman who does not know you on the street. 

[Browncoat]

1 minute ago, peacheslatour said:

It would make me extremely uneasy and I would probably dive into the nearest shop where there are a lot of people around. It's one thing to chat up a stranger in a bar or at a party, it's quite another to follow a woman who does not know you on the street. 

That's exactly what I did when I was followed like that on my vacay a couple of years ago.  I did not want a stranger knowing where I was staying, particularly since I was travelling alone. 

[janie jones]

1 hour ago, LoneHaranguer said:

To the corner, not far away since it's an urban area? 

Yes.

[Ashforth]

1 hour ago, LoneHaranguer said:

To the corner, not far away since it's an urban area? In discussions elsewhere I've seen women say that they'd feel flattered, and that's based on what they imagine would have otherwise happened. The ad writers had a more pessimistic outlook that the more polite male members of society see as an insult. I'm sure where someone lives is a big factor here. 

Polite men are smart enough not to be insulted when impolite (to put it mildly in this scenario) men are taken to task; to the contrary, it reinforces that the civility and respect they practice are ever more important in our society today.

@LONEHARANGUER, I don't know what forums you frequent, but I'll wager that the average woman is not flattered to be followed down the street by a strange man. It can actually be quite terrifying. It has been the beginning of the rapes and/or murders of women. 

Edited January 20, 2019 by Ashforth