Another go woke go broke - McCains

[Birdsweepsin]

twitter.com/McCainUKIE/status/1541406087324246019?s=20&t=pug-ahmQqiD5mqyyLzLdAw

Who the hell in adland thinks insulting or mocking the people who buy your products is a winning strategy?

I had this pop up on a kids' video on YouTube today (video my 5yo was watching, supervised by me, was aimed at very young children).

For those complaining this is aimed at children because it's promoting something eaten by children: it absolutely isn't.

It's aimed at the family shopper - usually the female parent in a family. You can't even target ads at people below 18 online so unless your kid is lying about their age online/ using your account, they won't see it.

It is an ad that appeared as social content, not on TV. If you're letting your impressionable child on instagram you've got bigger things to worry about than a man in drag.

Finally, people comparing drag to blackface is abhorrent. Drag is almost exclusively performed by the gay community as a form of self expression and rebellion against a society that confined them to traditional ideas of masculinity. It's a traditionally marginalised group taking the piss out of themselves, not women. The venn diagram of 'drag is blackface' and 'white lives also matter' is a circle.

If you find it offensive that's absolutely ok, you are entitled to feel how you feel. You are also entitled to not find it funny and you can even stop buying McCain products as a result of their marketing, just like I'll by A TON of potato smiles for the freezer this weekend to offset . If you're going to take a stand over this though there's a TON of other brands who love and support the gay community you'll also want to boycott, drag, trans and all... unless this is just a fun thing to get frothy about on a boring Tuesday afternoon and you're actually not really that bothered.

You don't think the regressive 1970s humour is a bit last century?

It's a traditionally marginalised group taking the piss out of themselves, not women.

The British Library promoted an event with children’s drag entertainer Alyssa Van Delle, calling Van Delle a “hot” performer who will “have you on the edge of your seat and gagging for more”.

“Charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent” is a phrase repeated by RuPaul, simply because the words spell out C.U.N.T.

Or how about the drag term “fish”, which is used to describe a very feminine drag queen or man that “passes”. It is a reference to the supposed smell of women’s genitals.

Words by Dr Em, more here

It is I agree, a man in a wig and a dress acting out stereotypes isn’t selling it more to me

I'll by A TON of potato smiles for the freezer this weekend to offset

You're going to be skint. Currently they're £5.07 per kg at Tesco and they're really not that nice. Go for the McCain Gastro Chips instead. They're only £5 per kilo. Or just buy ordinary oven chips and get it down to under £4 per kilo.

@Leftonread 'The venn diagram of 'drag is blackface' and 'white lives also matter' is a circle' is a lie. Plenty of people agree with the first but not the second statement, in a context of the arguments they are used on, including me. Why would you casually slur people as racists?

Who has said Drag is Blackface? I think posters are saying its Womanface.

It's the prefix -face being used to show the opinion that someone (usually a man) is dressing and acting in a way which is designed to mock the "face" of the person or culture he is presenting as.

A man walking around in a dress isn't Womanface. It's a man wearing a dress.

Adding charachature (sp) "feminine" styling and acting in a mock- woman fashion is what makes it Womanface. It's a persona worn to poke fun at women.

It's aimed at the family shopper - usually the female parent in a family

Well thats a pretty bad aim...it's on about 12,000 views to about 12 likes so far. Middle aged women aren't going to be enticed by this misogynistic horseshit. Except the stupid ones who think they're cool and edgy to be so purposefully unoffended by anything and everything.

The drag doesn’t bother but the knockers! That type of humour is so outdated now, especially for a kids meal.

Leftonread

your argument is based on misunderstanding at best

True. That means I’m the target audience then and it’s crap and outdated sexism dressed up in another form

Sorry, I really didn't mean to repeat 'drag is blackface', I just read it as 'woman face'. I don't think I've ever seen anyone refer to drag as blackface.

I can't believe it's not got more likes. I was sure it would have people liking it in their thousands, just to be contrary. Is the target audience still in bed?

Am I the only one thinking Baga Shite, in the voice of Paul Calf? (I think you have to be over a certain age).

Yeah, interesting. What part of his clothing are his 'big knockers' that the kids are informed 'you can drive a bus through'?

Woke? You've got to be kidding me. That's no woke. That's basic, sleazy sexism, gross😫

Or even better, spend a quid on real potatoes and some oil of your choice, microwave said potatoes for 7 minutes after a damn good scrub, chop into wedges, toss in a little oil and shove on a hot tray in an oven at 200 degrees C for 30 minutes and stop feeding yourself and your kids shit.

My dc falls into the Gen z age group. Will show the advert to them, and report back ( a highly scientific study of one!)

Loving the 18/23,300 likes 😂

@Leftonread blackface and drag have always been connected. Some of the earliest blackface 19th century shows were actually drag shows featuring white men dragged up as “mammies”; and they both originated in music hall as part of the exact same performance tradition - drag comedy began as part of music hall well before it was taken over by gay male performers. The acts that performed blackface minstrel shows on stage in the 19thc and indeed well up to the 1970s on TV were also part of variety performances that featured drag “comedy”. Same comedians and performers a lot of the time.

It’s not offensive to compare them because they are literally part of the same tradition. If you think drag is just gay men doing Pride then you don’t know enough about it tbh. Men in comedy drag mocking women on stage well pre-dated current drag acts. It’s always been offensive but also it’s always been connected to other offensive forms of performance. Funnily enough people have always thought it’s more OK to mock women though. But it doesn’t make sense to say you can’t compare them when they literally arose as the same thing in the same performances!

The juxtaposition of these two posts! 

From @Leftonread

It is an ad that appeared as social content, not on TV. If you're letting your impressionable child on instagram you've got bigger things to worry about than a man in drag.

Immediately following @LaPufalina

I had this pop up on a kids' video on YouTube today (video my 5yo was watching, supervised by me, was aimed at very young children).

So contrary to @Leftonread's scolding us about being shit mothers, this is an ad appearing on kids YouTube videos. Which are aimed at err children.

Not enough facepalms in the world really

Woke? You've got to be kidding me. That's no woke. That's basic, sleazy sexism, gross

I agree, this isn’t woke

It's so 70s isn't it! Get him to take his make up off and see if it's still acceptable?

I'm getting more and more fed up with drag.

Bagga Chips, I assume is from fish and chips, cos women are "fishy" to that bunch. Blah blah.

And when I say in the same performances, quite literally the earliest stage blackface minstrel troupe in America in the 1820s, the Virginia Minstrels, included some of the first American drag performances in their shows, blacked up and dragged up as black women. This was the case in variety and music hall across Britain and America in the 19th and well into the 20th century — blackface and drag comedy shared the same stage and often the very same plays/songs too.

One if the reasons why feminists have always been critical of gay drag acts, was that they were parasitic on a hugely racist and sexist music hall / variety tradition that had a long history of offensive impersonating of women as well as black people.

Gay drag was not always just some kind of celebratory identity performance subverting gender norms. It originated out of a popular theatrical culture that was already highly sexist and not particularly empowering to women or gay people — it parodied and mocked “effeminate” or camp gay men: that was the original point. Similarly, burlesque and cabaret similarly get reappropriated now as some kind of great sexy empowering culture; but in the early 20thc it was not actually always particularly empowering, and was often highly exploitative with connections to prostitution, and particularly the exploitation of black women.

Drag has always had a complicated history. It’s no surprise that many women find it offensive and problematic.