Is this advert offensive to women, or am I being overly sensitive?

[Italiangreyhound]

Is this advert offensive to women, or am I being overly sensitive?

I'm quite sick of the bloody tune as it's got in my head! Don't like the lyrics.

The Fifth Harmony - Worth It video show lots of women in potentially powerful positions writhing around and shaking their backsides, it just makes we think that it's so posed for men!

So back to the advert for that money company, when it's actually men in the advert I think rather than being 'for women' it's just still 'for men' by kind of laughing at women, sort of 'hey look a large builder and a big-bumed business man can do it better than you ladies!'

Or am I just being over sensitive!

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

Is there a series of them as the big bummed business man has been around for a while?

It was completely crass and so is this.

[almondpudding]

I don't get it.

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

I don't get it either. I assumed it and the earlier one the businessman were supposed to be parodies of music videos. I found it really crass but then I don't like the videos they are parodying. There does seem to be a series of them. I'm clearly not the target audience.

[GibbousHologram]

I think they demonstrate beautifully how ridiculous the dances/clothing/posing/behaviour of women in music videos are, similar to all the 'men doing women's fashion shots' type things.

petapixel.com/2011/10/04/men-photographed-in-stereotypically-female-poses/

[EBearhug]

I don't get any of those adverts. I assume I am not part of their target demographic.

[almondpudding]

I don't understand why he has a fake arse.

Is it supposed to be funny because he is ugly?

[DioneTheDiabolist]

It's my favourite ad at the moment. However, that is not the point. The point of advertising campaigns is to be memorable and talked about and as this thread proves that it has worked.

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

Yes, almond I think that is the point. I don't find them funny. I've no idea how it relates to money supermarket (although I don't actually know what money supermarket is)

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

The point of advertising campaigns is to be memorable and talked about and to sell the product.

I still don’t know what money supermarket is and have no interest in finding out.

[DioneTheDiabolist]

But you know the brand name. Financial comparison websites are not terribly exciting, so it is all about creating a memorable brand and getting people to talk about it.

Their competitors are Compare The Market (Meercats) and Go Compare (that opera bloke). None really talk about the product. Indeed it is not a product that people talk about. But they do talk about the ads.

[Italiangreyhound]

I get the ad, I think!

I just find it (faintly) offensive but I seem to be in a minority of one!

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

I'm only "talking" about it because of this thread and only to say what an awful advert it is. In real life I would never dream about having a conversation about it.

As an advert I thought it was stupid and ugly, so stupid and ugly I'm not interested in whether or not it is sexist, it's bad enough as it is. If I ever needed to use this product that ad would put me off.

[imwithspud]

Well I think it's quite funny. Even if I didn't find it amusing, I don't see how it's offensive to women at all.

[Italiangreyhound]

Well that is the thing Imwithspud I am happy to be wrong and over sensitive, maybe it isn't offensive to women! Maybe it is offering up men as a sex object tp be lured at and the men are loving it and it is not about women at all.

But most of what society tells me is that that isn't how society work!

Plus although I am talking about it here I am not interested enough to explore the 'product'.

[kittensandgin]

I think they demonstrate beautifully how ridiculous the dances/clothing/posing/behaviour of women in music videos are, similar to all the 'men doing women's fashion shots' type things.

Agree with Gibbous, I was immediately reminded of this:

(If women's roles in ads were played by men)

[Italiangreyhound]

My goodness that Hardees ad with the woman is appalling!!!

So it sounds like this advert is parodying the music industry and not intending to be offensive. OK, thanks.

Those man verses women reversal clips are amazing. Thanks.

[imwithspud]

Kittens I love that video, makes a very valid point actually. Just shared it on my fb.

[almondpudding]

Well, you are not alone Greyhound, in the sense that the first ad in the series was the most complained about ad of 2015. But I'm not sure that people were complaining it was sexist, but rather sexual.

When I see the parody adds and poses where men do 'women's' parts in adds, I don't find them ridiculous. I just see men being sexy, and it immediately makes me think of men in general that way. If I saw ads and images of men like that all the time, I'd either objectify men a lot or maybe I'd become immune to it from the image bombardment, or I'd have to split off a certain category of men as sexualised.

I'm not sure why we're supposed to find men being sexy ridiculous? Because women are supposed to not objectify men? Because men shouldn't be in sexually passive poses and we should see it as comical when they do, like it's unthinkable that could be sexy?

But image two of the stills is a young hot guy, in the videos the pretty guy in a pastel shirt kissing a more average looking geek woman in more serious work clothes, that's hot, the guy eating the burger with very little clothes on, hot.

Are we supposed to see it as ridiculous because straight/bi women (and presumably gay/bi men) are morally above objectifying passively posed men, or are we supposed to find it ridiculous because men's superiority means the notion of their sexual passivity is absurd? Or are we ridiculing society, for flooding the media with images of women's sexual availability and passivity. In which case, I don't think that is a laughing matter.

Back to your ad, I still don't get it. There's some extra layer put in place by making them 'ugly' in terms of the beauty standard. I don't get the point. It's like when people made Robin Thicke videos with 'ugly' men. It is missing the point that men's sexual interests are catered to by this constant line up of hot women, and yet the parody equivalent is an average looking guy. It's like reinforcing the idea that media is set up for white men, by the men being sexual not needing to meet a beauty standard. But as I don't get the ad, my whole last paragraph could just be wrong.

[scallopsrgreat]

I think its taking the piss out of women in a 'look how ridiculous they are' type of way. Maybe I'm being oversensitive too .

[almondpudding]

This is probably similar to the Drag argument - some people find it funny and some people find it offensive to parody women. In this case a white man parodying black women. Apparently Money Supermarket were thinking of Beyoncé (according to the Guardian).

[almondpudding]

Sorry, xposted with Lumpy. I was answering Scallops.

[almondpudding]

I think the line between 'absurd sexualisation' and 'men being sexy' is in the eye of the beholder Lumpy.