Adverts that make women look like morons..

[ButWhyIsTheGinGone]

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!

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.

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.

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

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?

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

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

sorry off topic

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!

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.

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.

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.

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...

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

Adverts are the number one reason we stopped watching tv, life is so much nicer without that sexist crap and a few weeks ago ds, 7, commented that he'd been trying to think what to get for Christmas and couldn't think of anything, a big contrast to his advert exposed self who always had a mental list of things to want.

BWITGG, I don't think you're nutty for suspecting a fashion conspiracy to keep women starved and hungry! It happens to be a pet topic of mine, and loads of fashion/beauty editors agree with you; even some of the big British model agents do.

Unfortunately, whenever I mention it somebody posts a link to a 'documentary' of fashion adverts that seem to celebrate mutilation and death. The project was an entry for a fashion photography competition, made by students - the competition's theme was "Death". There are plenty of scary examples around for real, we don't need to repackage an art project as a documentary.

I agree with whoever said she loved the old Sophie Dahl perfume advert- and with you about the Glade commercials! From the second the voiceover tells me I would design an air freshener just like that (er, no I wouldn't) to the vomit-inducing end, I fucking hate them! And does anyone have a clue why perfume makes you suddenly find yourself having sex?

I don't mind cheesy aftershave commercials, though. They're either ironic or aimed at 14-year-old boys, whose urge for sex exceeds their knowledge (or anything else much, really.) Thinking of ironic: I love the Old Spice ads and the actor

Gotta go, I must clean and polish every inch of this house while looking astonishingly well-groomed, then build a shed using my husband's tools (casting him an affectionately exasperated glance) before checking that my whites look whiter than they did yesterday and driving to my high-powered job in my small, ergonomic, easy to park, new car. Of course my briefcase is full of anti-constipation, anti-diarrhoea, antihistamine, pain-relieving tablets as well as several totally essential skin products made with caffeine. I simply couldn't bear it if anyone thought I was tired or something!
Perhaps we could meet up for a reduced-fat, aspartame-loaded, bio yoghurt later? Don't eat it all, mind! Ciao ciao!

I love the old spice advert!!

My new pet hate is all the anti bacterial adverts aimed at women. Why on earth do we need to living in germ fear. I think it's getting ridiculous now they are selling us vanish to get rid of the germs on your clothes!! I would also never design an air freshener as the smell of the things knock me sick. I'd rather open an window.

KFC - "Mum's night off"

I can't bear that Feminax ad in which the woman pulls a lever on her sofa and ejects the bloke sitting next to her out the window. Tagline: "if only all pains were as easy to get rid of" or similar.

I think it's actually quite offensive to men. If the situation were reversed and the man did that to the woman, it would probably be banned.

Obviously there are loads of ads that are sexist towards women - many of which are mentioned upthread - but I just think sexism generally is unhelpful whomever it's aimed at.

yoghurt ads

Possibly OT, but I'm going to weigh in - ha! - to defend the Diet Chef ads, because I think the woman is very attractive, as well as being bigger than you normally see on TV. Even by the ad of the ad, she's not especially skinny, but is shown as happy and attractive.

The yoghurt, Feminax and pretty much any household products ad are awful though.