To think Poundland ad is not “genius” and is actually a bit I appropriate?

[speakerwoofers]

Most comments on Facebook are proclaiming it “genius.” I don’t think a sexual innuendo is that genius TBF.

Plus why is it a woman lying on her back with a t shirt saying “power” and a man standing over her dominating her. They could have at least chosen another sexual innuendo.

Also difficult to explain to kids.

Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

Can you cite your source for those sales figures please Elton? I would be astonished if they included the period which this campaign covered - if their financial year is the same as the calendar year, they will barely have reconciled their numbers yet and certainly won't be reporting them.

If you think people being angry at misogynistic bullshit is ‘po-faced’, or due to their supposed love of being outraged, then you clearly have never suffered from misogyny, and as such should listen to those who are oppressed by it.

Either that or you have internalised misogyny so much you seek approval by defending the aggressions of patriarchy.

Oh this is interesting - actually, it looks like Poundland's parent company is in trouble (criminal and tax investigation) and so Poundland has had to secure separate funding www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jan/03/poundland-seals-180m-financing-deal-reduce-reliance-steinhoff (this does reference the bumper Christmas trading, apologies Elton) - ugh, what charmers they all sound.

^^Custard has already provided links.

Atrocious from your post I don't expect you to understand. But they laid a trap for a certain type of person who enjoys being outraged and they walked right into it.

That was the whole blooming joke! That they set the bait to make the usual suspects get outraged and of course they went for it.

The outraged (and I assume you) created a parody by having long discussions about whether or not the dolls eyes being open or it's 'body language' implied that a bit of plastic and fabric had consented to another bit of plastic and fabric dangling a tea bag over another bit of plastic.

Which is what it was a picture of.

As I said earlier, Poundland's core, long term market is generally made up of people who find it an absolute hoot to see people like you get your knickers in a twist over something so ridiculous.

Incidentally, Paperchase, who gave in to an SJW campaign over Christmas saw their sales tumble.

SJWs make a lot of noise but they're not a lot of people. Their ability to hit a companies bottom line is limited. Their piousness and censoriousness is also a bit grating on the mass of the population, particularly the sort of CDE population who shop at Poundland.

Poundland very cleverly harnessed that.

You can call me names all you want or shout slogans about internalised misogyny.

But the fact is all the people complaining about it did was make them a shit load of money.

Basically, the joke is that it's really funny to watch people who think they are dead clever and like to preach to others about supporting unethical companies doing something a bit thick and inadvertently making a lot of money for a company they say is unethical.

Yeah it's fucking hysterical, good job you're here to explain it to all us pious liberal lefties.

It is possible not to give a shit about Poundland's motivation or profits and simply want to express how unpleasant the ad is. Whether deliberately set as a cunning trap by the marketing geniuses of Poundland's advertising dept or the work of a teenage work experience student. That doesn't make you a SJW, it just makes you a woman who is fed up and tired of such stupid stupid misogyny sprinkled around everywhere. From your posts I don't expect you to understand that.

It is possible not to give a shit about Poundland's motivation or profits and simply want to express how unpleasant the ad is.

Well then you have to ask yourself some hard questions. If it's genuinely so important to you that the message that advert sends isn't disseminated what would you do? Tweet about it so even more people see it? Or tweet whinging so you can frantically virtue signal and also drive traffic their way and make them loads of money?

Even if you're talking about promoting rape culture: Poundland had 90,000 followers before the campaign. Probably most of them dead accounts or bots. Now they have 116,000+. So probably at least 30% more followers seeing their adverts as a result of your protests.

You know, there are quite possibly a few sensible women out there who just complained to the advertising watchdog. And I expect that Poundland WILL be fined for that advert. But they won't be fined more than their sales boost.

So basically all the hysteria has done is told advertisers that you can harness exactly the sort of ads you don't like and make more sales. Do you think that is an effective method of protest?

Now if I was protesting against something that would be the worst possible result for me.

Ffs, I don't twitter or post about shit like this on social media. What a stupid assumption.

Yes you do! You posted on here!

Riiiight, so how does someone posting on MN increase Twitter followers exactly?

Also, not sure that discussion forums are categorised as social media in the sense of Twitter/Facebook/Instagram etc are. But no doubt you'll be able to correct me there.

Riiiight, so how does someone posting on MN increase Twitter followers exactly?

Are you..serious? Seriously? You're asking this as an actual serious question?

Okay, giving you the benefit of the doubt. Mumsnet is one of the UKs most visited and influential websites. If someone posts on here about something lots of people see it and many will follow on Twitter and many will share. The it gets shared again and then followed up. It might even appear in the Daily Mail.

Honestly, this is basic internet. Do you not understand how it works?

No , I'm thick and stupid. Probably my piousness getting in the way. Good job you're here to explain.

And you're missing the point that I don't care if Poundland increases its followers or its profits. Well done to them for attracting more misogynist idiots who think this kind of feminist-baiting is absolutely hysterical. You don't really think that any of them would ever have their thought processes shifted by people they despise? Comments are not aimed at them.

So, Elton, if the images were racist, would you still advocate silence?

I am amazed that Pumpkin hasn't been back to reiterate how funny she thinks the advert and subsequent reaction is. I'm not sure the message quite sunk in for us 'feminazis' last time.

So, Elton, if the images were racist, would you still advocate silence?

If the images were racist I would advocate the same action I do here. Report to the host and complain to the people who produced the image in a way which didn't spread the imagery.

That's part of the 'joke' people are failing to understand. 'I am so offended by this image and find it so distressing and damaging I am going to shout about it from the rooftops to make sure the maximum amount of people possible see it'.

Do you not understand why people laugh at that? Do you not see the hypocrisy there?

Yes, people laugh because they are vile idiotic misogynists. Just like those who would laugh at a racist joke would be vile idiotic racists. They enjoy winding up people they dislike/hate because it satisfies a cruel and unpleasant "sense of humour", and also publicises their world view.

In your world, the only response to open contempt is silent complaint. You see only harm in saying publicly that this is not ok. I think there is value in saying clearly to other people, not the target audience of the "jokes", that this is not ok. Otherwise there is tacit acceptance as it goes unchallenged publicly. Then these sorts of things become normalised.

Sigh. The point is that people care far more about publicising their outrage than they do about the supposed damage the object of their outrage does.

LIf you were really worried about it being 'normalised' you wouldn't be doing your damndest to make sure as many people as possible saw it. Because the more people that see it the more normal it becomes.

You are the joke. Thanks for being such a great example.

Yeah, don't agree with you, and I see you're unlikely to change your mind.

I don't see why you think I might be doing my damnedest to publicise it, when I've already pointed out that I personally haven't shared it on any social media or in any way referred to it in any setting apart from discussing it on this thread. I don't think that is publicising it widely, although perhaps you can tell me otherwise?

To suggest that all negative comment must be shut up for fear of encouraging the "joke" is ridiculous.

Yeah. £3 million pounds of sales worth of 'ridiculous'.

Any publicity is good publicity, amirite?

The point is that people care far more about publicising their outrage than they do about the supposed damage the object of their outrage does.

Mmmm, I disagree with this. I was on this thread but that’s it, although I’m happily never shopping in Poundland again. I didn’t speak to anyone in RL about it or show it to anyone, for example.

I think misogynistic junk like this does a lot of damage. I’m not someone who looked closely at the angles of the doll or the idea of consent - but I do think the Girl Power tshirt was a deliberate dig at women, and I don’t think that’s ok. I wouldn’t say I was ‘outraged’ either because I don’t think the advert was clever enough to cause outrage. I think women are just so tired of it, the constant drip of ‘you are not important, we can do whatever we like to you and you have to accept it’ and it’s just another example of that.

The thing I do find strange though is how far people will go to defend misogyny. The idea that somebody being offended is funny is so purile too.