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Original poster

Adverts that make women look like morons..

66 replies

ButWhyIsTheGinGone · 08/08/2011 12:24

timid wave to all
Hi,
Haven't posted on here before, I tend to read the posts of others and silently agree for fear of posting and looking dim! Anyway, I am on 6 weeks holiday from work at the moment and due to lack of funds have spent a fair bit of the time so far with a book in front of the telly. What strikes me is how many adverts there are that give off such crap messages about womanhood. There's currently a Glade one where the woman is admiring her new artistic-looking airfreshener when her man walks past, smells the air and gives the woman an approving wink as if to say "good job, keep it up!" At which the woman looks thrilled like a puppy that's just been patted on the head.

I really could go on, it just annoys me that women only ever seem to be portrayed as housewives rushing around at breakfast time after their important-business-man-husband or vapid idiots dithering over whether to be "naughty" and eat something calorific....

Sorry if this isn't the place for this rant - Ive never thought of myself as a "feminist" but then I've never really considered what the term means. Thaks for reading anyway!

OP posts:
VictorGollancz · 08/08/2011 21:54

Oh oh oh oh, I can recommend Sarah Haskins's Target Women, a series of shorts all about the stupid shit ad companies come up with in order to sell shit to women.

'Doofy Husbands' here, but there's loads more - I particularly like the one on pubic grooming

busybee1983 · 08/08/2011 21:52

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Original poster
ButWhyIsTheGinGone · 08/08/2011 18:25

Oh bugger - the rose tinted specs comment did not make sense -I meant to say that in "my day" at school kids were much more innocent...

OP posts:
Original poster
ButWhyIsTheGinGone · 08/08/2011 18:24

I'm so glad this thread has prompted others to comment - I thought it was just me getting angrier! Have to mention the Diet Chef ad - averagely sized woman on the scales looking depressed, but as soon as she calls diet chef she's all smile and her husband cannot get his hands off her.

I could be looking at things with rose tinted specs, but honestly, I look at some of my pupils (aged 9) sometimes - I listen to the things they come out with, the sexual stuff they know, their own expectations of themselves, and I feel so angry towards junk TV and adverts. These are little girls who talk about "going down" on boys and knowing where their clitoris is. It feels distasteful writing those things, but it really is the case and SOMEONE has to be accountable. Sad

To the poster who mentioned women being obliged to diet to within an inch of their lives before they dare set foot on a beach - another sore point with me. I'm currently a big woman but would LOVE to jump about in a swimming cossie/tankini on the beach. What is the only thing holding me back? My fear that someone (male or female) might point out the beached whale and laugh! Maybe that's my own fears, but media images of "what a woman should be" certainly don't help.

OP posts:
LolaRennt · 08/08/2011 16:51

Though generally I think advertisers are getting better about this - at the expense of men, who are regularly portrayed as useless dolts.

I don't think that's an improvement- it just shows men can't tidy because they've been left in charge of the kitchen/child for what appears to be the first time ever and even they can do it.

LadyClariceCannockMonty · 08/08/2011 16:51

busybee, the only perfume ad I've liked ? a print not a TV ad ? was that infamous Opium one with Sophie Dahl. I thought and still think it's a beautiful image. I find it interesting that it was banned; I suspect it had a bit to do with the fact that a) she wasn't a size zero child-alike and b) she looked as if she was having a lovely time on her own, thank you, and didn't need any perving or interference from any man!

MacGuffin · 08/08/2011 16:49

sorry off topic Blush

MacGuffin · 08/08/2011 16:48

....and the saddest thing is, they're all just out to be on Nuts and Zoo's front covers in a few weeks time....

MacGuffin · 08/08/2011 16:48

Ah yes the ravenous women - just like all those desperate to shag that ugly rugby player that cheated on Charlotte Church.....words fail me.......

busybee1983 · 08/08/2011 16:45

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mumwithdice · 08/08/2011 16:35

OP, thank you for this post! You have provided me with a chance to rant about the Lynx advert. For those who haven't seen it, it shows a woman in a bikini holding her untied top to her and the tag line is "The cleaner you are, the dirtier you get"

What sort of message does that send?

  1. It suggests that a woman is dirty
  2. It suggests that a woman can't think for herself
  3. A woman is only an object to be obtained by the use of this product.

Anything I missed?

busybee1983 · 08/08/2011 16:19

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MacGuffin · 08/08/2011 16:11

That's the one on the BBc for the TV License....

Jacksterbear · 08/08/2011 16:07

What is that advert in which the woman is so busy talking on the phone that she gives her baby a bowl of dog food and her dog a jar of baby food? A car insurance one I think. Arggghhhhh. So annoying.

BuckminsterFullerene · 08/08/2011 16:06

MBJ, there were 3 girls, aged about 7/8 (I'm not that good guessing ages of smaller kids).

Sorry if I wasn't clear.

Your point is valid still.

busybee1983 · 08/08/2011 16:02

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TheFrozenMBJ · 08/08/2011 16:00

How is that remotely appropriate? 3 year old girls do not give a flying fuck jot about any boy, other than that he may or may not be a good playmate.

BuckminsterFullerene · 08/08/2011 15:42

Indoctrinate them young:

I've just seen an Ariel ad with 3 primary school age girls staring at the ~12yr old 'handsome' boy working in the ice cream van so rapt & vacant the their ice creams melted all over their obnoxiously pretty dresses. And so grown up woman gets all excited about washing them.

If DS hadn't launched into a strop I'd have emailed a complaint already. Poor boy is going to spend his life listening to feminist range while she does the laundry

msrisotto · 08/08/2011 15:40

Even the ones making men out to be incompetent fools benefit men in that they are not expected to do housework! What a way to reinforce shitty stereotypes. Women do housework and men shouldn't be expected to.

MacGuffin · 08/08/2011 15:38

I loathe the term 'cheeky glass of wine'

GhoulLasher · 08/08/2011 15:35

All of them. Literally ALL of them.Some succeed in makig men look like morons too but they're not as common and tbh I would rather they were ALL frigging banned.

MacGuffin · 08/08/2011 15:35

Don't you dare go on your hols with your female friends until you've lost your bikini weight....so you can all ponse about vacuously on a deserted beach together....otherwise - they may not like you anymore.....

LadyClariceCannockMonty · 08/08/2011 15:34

Agree with the 'naughty foods' bollocks angle in advertising and marketing. I really loathe how people, mainly women, are infantilised by being encouraged to talk in childish terms about food being 'good' or 'naughty', 'treating yourself' etc. It makes my toes curl. People I know and otherwise respect IRL do it and I have to bite my tongue hard. I understand though because it's so prevalent. I catch myself starting to think or say something like that occasionally. Terrifying.

DialsMavis · 08/08/2011 15:32

DP feels exactly the same about loads of adverts with men in though. He shouts at the screen every time guys are portayed as stupid bumbling buffoons who can't look after themselves or their children properly. Or that they are obsessed with beer and tits

busybee1983 · 08/08/2011 15:29

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