Would You Buy a Maxi Pad From A Half-Naked Man?
September 6, 2010
by Susan Macaulay
|The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda. This article has been cross-posted from AmazingWomenRock.com.
The advertising of so-called “feminine products” recently hit a new all-time low with the launch of a trio of “dream date” YouTube videos by sanitary pad producer StayFree.
The YouTube vids, in which three (admittedly gorgeous and stunningly well-built) young men find excuses to strip to the waist and compare the thinness and absorbency of Stayfree regular ultra thin pads with wings (now there’s a mouthful!), to those produced by rivals Kotex and Always, are as silly as they are insulting.
A Date With Ryan
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/w_KjAukYrak" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy “eye candy” as much as the next gal or guy. The human body is a wonderful thing in which to be housed, as well as to behold, especially when it’s fit, healthy and well maintained. That’s why artists have celebrated it in sculpture and paintings for centuries.
Yep, I’m all for sensuality, physicality, and healthy sexuality practiced between consenting adults. And just for the record, I’m OK with nudity too.
But what, pray tell, is the connection between a hunky guy and a sanitary pad? Bad enough that the advertising industry worldwide and advertisers themselves have spent decades objectifying and denigrating women to sell everything from automobiles to cleaning products and sweaters to shoes. Now they’re gonna’ do it to men too? AND continue to condescend to intelligent women in the process…?
While we’re on the subject of feminine products, why don’t they mention the word menstruation? Or flow? Or, God forbid, BLOOD!
Who came up with the ridiculous lines in these ads anyway? “The one thing I can’t stand is moisture… you too?” asks the freakishly neat, degree-toting Trevor from behind the piano (PIANO!?).
Ummmm. Every woman who has ever had a periodic “accident” knows that using the word “moisture” to describe menstrual flow is ludicrous. River, torrent or flood, perhaps. But moisture? Nah, I think not.
And little cups of blue liquid tipped precisely onto neatly aligned pads, topped carefully with weighted tissues to demonstrate relative absorbency. Hahahaha! Not like any of the 430+ periods I ever had!
Curious to know more (and simultaneously afraid of what I might find), I visited the StayFree site where I discovered an animation that invited me to “scroll over the butterflies to see the unique features” of their “ThermoControl” technology that “wicks moisture quickly away.”
Scroll over the butterflies? If there is a woman out there whose menstrual period evokes wildflowers, gentle breezes, wispy clouds, birds, butterflies, and/or anything that has anything at all to do with wings, raise your hand.
Yeah. That’s what I thought… Nary a one.
Why must we sanitize (or worse, romanticize and sexualize) menstruation and everything that goes along with it? The menstrual cycle is a normal physical function of the female body – part of the biology that allows us to reproduce and birth offspring in a process that’s also none too pretty or painless.
I’m menopausal, so I don’t menstruate anymore. It’s been about six years since I stopped, and, truth be told, I miss it, messy and incapacitating though it often was for me. Those bloody, painful and sometimes inconvenient periods reminded me every month, like clockwork, that I am a woman, and that my body was built for reproduction, though that part of its primal purpose was never fulfilled in me.
Which brings me back to half-clothed Brad, Trevor and Ryan (all of whom would no doubt make delightful bed partners, or at least that’s what’s inferred in the videos).
Might I like to bed them, if I met them? Possibly. But, if I were still menstruating, would I buy a maxi pad from a half-naked man? Not a chance.
Granted, I’m not part of the target market for the ads. But if I were, what would “sell” me – if not butterflies, breezes or Brad’s pecs ? That’s easy.
Tell me, StayFree, what you’re doing to help young women in Africa who are unable to go to school during their periods because they don’t have access to sanitary products. Or what you’re doing to support reproductive health education programmes for girls anywhere else in the world? Or….?
Surely you (or more precisely, your advertising agency), can come up with something less sexist and more convincing than half-naked men cooking, cleaning and playing the piano with their shirts off.
P.S. Vaginas are meant to be moist, not dry and desert-like as you would have us believe…
A Date With Trevor
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/2iHVPt88pjk" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
A Date With Brad
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/6Xnpk1DfOyw" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
I….I…I don’t even know what to say.
this proves what Bes is constantly reminding us about cable TV, is a much larger problem. Males don’t see that they are not 100% of the population and extrapolate from their sick desires what women want.
a pro women strategy is not asking for half the pie, but get the info out which one of the big companies is run by women and has a women centered service. and we try to boycott as good as possible everything else.
i don’t see how else we can put an end to the ever increasing hate and ridicule message against women streaming from our TVs.
LOL, I’m speechless. WTH was that??
WTF indeed.
Personally I don’t need ads to be specific and explicit in order to understand their point- Neither do I need a lesson in human anatomy or biology by the Kotex Corporation every time they air an ad.
While these ads are silly, I don’t particularly find them offensive.
Optix’ List of Things She Will Only Buy From a Commercial Featuring a Nakkid Man:
Yeast Infection Cream
Enema Bags
Tampons
Bikini Area Hair Remover
Douche Accessories
Phenazopyridine (see Urinary Tract Infection relief)
Hemorrhoid Cream
Laxatives
Yogurt with Pro-biotics
/end sarcasm…
Optixmom – thanks for the morning LMAO!
This reminds me of the first season of Mad Men which I just finished watching. In the 2nd episode, the “men” are stratgzing on how to get Right Guard deoderant to appeal to women-folk. They are totally clueless. It’s a hilarious scene!
Insulting? Why? Because some ad exec somplace actually came to the realization that women like looking at men? That sex is about THEM working ot make it sexy as well? That it’s not our damn job to look perfect all the time but that they can share the load as well?
Sorry, but there’s no insult here and I find this delightful and hope it’s a huge trend. I use Always, but I’ll give Stayfree a try now just because it’s refreshing to see this sort of thing. I cannot believe that the media for ONCE is acknowledging that women have eyes and that we AREN’T merely sexual by posing, and yallz are bitching. What the hell was it I was saying before about women’s need to be sexual while hanging around in sweatpants and ogling? Well, here it is. What the hell’s wrong with it?
The only thing I’d say would be a problem is that sex is usually used to sell non-practical things. If they want to sell breakfast bars, nail polish, or stuff like that, then gorgeous half-naked men will work well. Pads are a little too hard-nosed and practical. Put simply, if I stain during a plane flight to a work conference and have no change of clothing with me, I don’t care HOW naked the guy in the commercial was, I’m not buying that brand again.
That said … if anyone from Stayfree is listening, use thinner guys with longer hair next time, and you’ll get a new loyal customer.
I am literally sitting here in disbelief that anyone would complain about this. The men aren’t being presented as stupid. They aren’t saying we’re stupid, they’re merely acknowledging that we’re SEXUAL and have a gaze of our own. What the hell in Heaven or Earth could any woman find to complain about in that?
Hot half-naked guys? Bring them the hell ON, Stayfree! And everyone else who’s trying to sell stuff to me as well!
What do yallz want? For your fourteen year old daughters to see nothing but an unending media barrage of super-sexy porno WOMEN unleavened by a concomitant nice-looking guy for THEM to enjoy? I hope tons of teenaged girls see these commercials before the aforesaid barrage beats their sex drives out of them and forces them to resign themselves to never getting what they want and posing for the boys if they want to act sexual.
Yeah!
Bring on the hot, brainless male sex objects!
Let the men see how they like it for a change.
I’m really not opposed to half naked guys selling products, but I do get tired of all the mansplaining about the science of pads and tampons. It’s like “science for girls”, girls who obviously must be educated so they can properly appreciate the aerodynamics of a pad that’s so perfectly designed you can fly it around the room. I’m really tired of engineering diagrams, blotting papers, blue liquid, and weights.
If pad manufacturers wanted to make me happy, they’d do an ad with some woman kicking ass in an act of self defense. Or how about one of those scary movie spoofs where the woman is running away from the bad guy,(in her underwear as usual) and she turns around and kicks the crap out of him because she’s on her period and just not feeling in the mood for butterflies and flowering meadows, and endless shrieking in terror? They could call them power pads.
I’m ROFLMAO. Sorry, I think it is hilarious. Men have already established that there doesn’t need to be a link between nudity and product and this is a hilarious send-up of commercials aimed at men. And let’s not forget all the tit and ass commercials they aim at women but then call “ASSpirational”. I like these and I loved the Brawny commercials that were a take off on the same idea. It is good to get a laugh out of advertising rather than be hit in the face with an unexpected irritation. Seriously I hardly watch TV anymore because of the sexist schlock and when I do watch I watch with the clicker in my hand. I hope this link comes through it is to the old Brawny man commercials http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Uppity Woman, anna, pacific-cali, yttik: imagine a smiley here.
Optixmom: LOL imagine a tongue in cheek here
Amy: am watching Mad Men and really am stunned by what I see, blog to follow I hope…
Janis: as I commented in another post previously, I’m happy to ogle men, and as I say in this post:
“Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy “eye candy” as much as the next gal or guy. The human body is a wonderful thing in which to be housed, as well as to behold, especially when it’s fit, healthy and well maintained. That’s why artists have celebrated it in sculpture and paintings for centuries.
Yep, I’m all for sensuality, physicality, and healthy sexuality practiced between consenting adults. And just for the record, I’m OK with nudity too.
But what, pray tell, is the connection between a hunky guy and a sanitary pad? Bad enough that the advertising industry worldwide and advertisers themselves have spent decades objectifying and denigrating women to sell everything from automobiles to cleaning products and sweaters to shoes. Now they’re gonna’ do it to men too? AND continue to condescend to intelligent women in the process…?”
BTW, my gynecologist told me never to use Always as that brand is associated with all kinds of vaginal issues and infections…
Yttik: love that image of flying around the room on a maxi pad – kinda like a magic carpet ride! And yeah POWER pads, I’m all for those…
Anna: to me there’s nothing “hot” about brainless in any gender. But that’s just me. Further my view is, don’t sink to their level, rise above it instead.
Bes: clearly we have different tastes, I think Brawny is equally ridiculous – to each her own.
Delighted to have stirred the pot… *smiling*
Janis,
I am all for seeing handsome half-dressed men in commercials. I have been waiting for the Fruit of the Loom guys to sing a ditty for a man strutting around in his skivvies. Or for the Fruit of the Loom Gals to feature a hunk or two. If I have to stomach Victoria’s Secret bra commercials then I want to see Jock Strap or other male accoutrement commercials.
Also, I would like more handsome men featured in Feature Movie duos. It seems that whenever a channel has a movie feature they have a fat white dude and a hot chick discussing the movie before they go off for a commercial break. Get rid of the fat white dude and replace him with a hot dude of whatever race. I would rather you match the hotness factor of both then have a pathetic loser for the guy matched with the hot chick. AS IF hott women go for that kind of guy. Hot women don’t have to settle for some overweight white dude because he has a nice personality.
O am so sorry … I just keep thinking these guys are probably deeply insincere .. or reading a script from a soap opera script
You know I almost said it doesn’t matter what I think as I no longer need period supplies (oh happy day!)but actually I go to the drug store once a weekend and buy what ever my family has put on The List. So although I have no personal need I still buy this stuff for the rest of my entire household and in fact I buy my 24 year old son’s Rogaine, toothpaste, deodorant, etc and he doesn’t even live here! I just stick it in a bag with the receipt and he leaves me a check. I mean there is no longer any need for me to shop for these offspring but I like to do my own shopping and while I’m there I pick up everyone;s stuff and save them the trip and the gas.
But what these companies need to do is not get involved with some abstract discussion on this topic. They need to address the people who buy their product and only those people. Random opinions don’t matter in marketing to specific groups.
And I also agree that random fat guys, losers, average dudes and geeks paired with hot babes is always idiotic and often offensive. So is the dressed men and naked babes phenomenon. I’m not saying these combos can never be used in advertising I am saying they probably turn off more female consumers than they attract male consumers. And when Victoria’s Secret or copy cats come on I change the channel. I make sure the girls TIVO Vampire Diaries so the ads can be cut out because anything young women watch has every offensive tit and ass ad ever made crammed onto it. It’s kind of sad, they start a “women’s content” channel, advertisers like Victorias Secret sign on, no matter what content they offer women aren’t going to sit through some commercial of an idiot bitch in lingerie and stilettos trying to flirt with them as it causes nausea. That is aversion therapy for watching the channel and then the channels fail. And then they do it all over again with another NEW women’s content channel.
I’m with Janis on this.
Bring on the hot, brainless male sex objects!
Let the men see how they like it for a change.
I’m rolling on the floor here.
But Uppity, they aren’t brainless, just sexy and shirtless. When women are sexy, men prefer us to be stupid or act stupid. We don’t have those anti-evolutionary requirements — sexy and smart go together just fine for us. They are the one who connect fucking with superiority in their tiny minds, not us. So why should be do without nice-looking men to ogle when WE can do it humanely?
I still fail to see why Madison Avenue at last acknowledging female sex drives while men get in front of the camera and disrobe FOR US is some sort of damn insult. MEN are the ones who insist on humiliation and degradation as part of finding someone attractive, and I resent like all hell having my appreciation for nice-looking men judged by THEIR offensive standards. As if I think “hey, lemme lay some pipe on that!” when I look at a nice-looking man! Just because they act like shits when they get horny is no reason for ME to be denied something nice to look at.
WTH? Are those SNL skits?
Personally, I find it condescending for a young male to lecture women about what feminine product to use. What do they know about it? Do men have to be a part of EVERY decision a women makes? This so irritates me. When was the last time you saw a woman featured in a jock itch cream commercial?
“When women are sexy, men prefer us to be stupid or act stupid. We don’t have those anti-evolutionary requirements — sexy and smart go together just fine for us. They are the one who connect fucking with superiority in their tiny minds, not us. So why should be do without nice-looking men to ogle when WE can do it humanely?”
I absolutely agree with you Janis on this. And if The Powers That BE removed the prancing idiot bimbos in stilettos and lingerie from “women’s content” channels (Ads and Content) and replaced them with attractive men, women might actually watch the channels. Of course this would be no fun for the men who produce the crap they call “women’s content” and ASSpirational women’s commercials.
Here is another point. Men are not sexually picky. They will pretty much bang anything that is female human and not dead, so why the pretense about making all women on TV men’s definition of hot. They will lust after anything.
Probably all female characters in visual media are one dimensional because that is all the one dimensional men who create them can fathom. It is a reflection of their limited vision not a reflection on women.
Bes- you’re one of my favorite posters here- I always look for your comments/feedback BUT I have to call you out a little bit here on your anti-women epithets: “bimbos”, “bitches”, “idiots” – to describe the female actors featured in the male-centric commercials is really unfair and antithetical to our goals.
I agree 100% with your observation that the fault for obnoxious male-centric ads lies with the men who control the message, not the women who act in them.
Bes, they’ll bang even the dead, if it’s fresh enough.
Bes: “in fact I buy my 24 year old son’s Rogaine, toothpaste, deodorant, etc and he doesn’t even live here!”
WTF? LOL. You still shop for your 24-year-old son? What kind of an example is that? If and when he gets married, he’ll be expecting his partner to do the same and the cycle continues… (assuming he’s heterosexual).
“They will pretty much bang anything that is female human and not dead…”
Wow, you sure have a lowly opinion of men… does that include your 24-year-old son?
Pacific-cali: I’m with you, leave out the counter-productive misogynist “bitches” “bimbos” etc name-calling.
I’m of two minds — I dislike the words “bimbos,” but if Bes is saying that that is indeed the attitude in the male mind over this stuff, I have to agree 100%. They do indeed have a low opinion of attractive women and seem to regard them as unwanted obstacles between them and that nice vagina they’re interested in. It may be a low opinion, but it’s an accurate one. I wish it weren’t.
Sorry, the women in these commercials benefit from the malecentric status quo at the expense of everyone else. I have no respect for them and I am not a person who “fakes it” very effectively. I don’t want to understand or explain or make excuses for these women, I just ask that they get out of my face.
Susan: Actually I shop for a lot of people male and female who are old enough to shop for themselves. I have also shopped for elderly neighbors and family on a regular basis and I shopped for a young mom of three in my neighborhood who had a hip replacement. I have also been a volunteer shopper for people who have a disaster and need certain household goods replaced. I guess I am good at it. I am not talking about clothes or recreational shopping I am talking about food and household items. Yes I go to the drug store and several grocery stores one day each weekend and I’m done before the crowd hits. I still have a spot in the house where I put each kids stuff (including their bills) even though not all of my kids are home. It is just the sort of thing a woman who runs a family house does without thinking. Here is the part you might find sad….I actually enjoy that time because when I had little kids it was some brief time alone and out in the neighborhood where I run into a lot of people. I can not stand the idea of anyone doing my shopping for me. On the other hand I don’t do housekeeping. But the point is I have a lot of consumer power.
Ah, so glad I MAKE my own pads.
Couldn’t even get through the first video without cringing.
Bes -I get that you want “these women” “out of your face” -but can we not pursue that goal without resorting to misogynistic name calling?
I thought our platform here was PRO-Woman and I thought that meant ALL women – not just the ones who look the way we want them to and/or think the way we want them to.
pacific-cali: If women want to be respected they need to act respectable. As far as I can see the vast majority of women involved in media are complicit in the exclusive production of malecentric garbage. These women are not victims, they could have chosen a different occupation or they could have developed a true “women’s media” which, if ever developed, should be lucrative. I am not going to fake like I respect women who prance around on TV in branded underwear and stilettos. Feminists need to stop trying to control the conversation and accept some uncomfortable attitudes on the part of other people. Do you have problems with the word bimbo and idiot bitch or do you have a problem that I consider these women bimbos and idiot bitches or do you have a problem that I am not a politically correct feminist and don’t care that people know what I really think. Because I can be forced into verbal political correctness but my real opinion will be the same and that is I feel contempt for these women and want them out of my face. This is actually a primal response, if you watch animals and happen to catch one stupid enough to exhibit female to male behavior to another female you are going to see an animal get physically attacked. Being human I just change the channel on the rare occasion that I watch TV. There does not need to be one and only one attitude for feminists. I understand you all want to understand and tolerate and make excuses for these women. I have a different oppinion, I simply want to be entertained when I turn on the TV and instead I am offended on a primal level. Frankly Corporate Media provide aversion therapy to women viewers when they do this crap and aversion therapy is very effective. Look at how few women viewers Oxygen Network has, they aversioned them away.
Wow Bes, the hostility is really unexpected.
“I am not going to fake like I respect women who…” I’m wasn’t suggesting you “fake” anything, merely that you forgo the misogynistic epithets which I for one am offended by. It offends me “on a primal level”, to use your expression.
“Feminists need to stop trying to control the conversation and accept some uncomfortable attitudes on the part of other people.”
But only apparently as long as we’re talking about YOUR uncomfortable attitudes – not theirs. Furthermore, you would even go so far as to dictate other womens’ professional ambitions and choices. (“…they could have chosen a different occupation or they could have developed a true “women’s media”).
“There does not need to be one and only one attitude for feminists.”
Obviously. If you reread my previous comment, my concern was that your attitude and name-calling is blatantly anti-woman. This organization founded the Pro-Woman Movement and I find your attitude inconsistent with TNA’s philosophy.
Kind and respectful all! Thanks!
Well I find your attitude hampers honest discussion. We do not need to agree. So let me leave out the names you say you don’t like and say I find the women on TV in commercials and music videos who prance around in lingerie and stilettos repulsive and I feel they are embarrassments as women. I change the channel when they come on and I no longer watch TV without the clicker in my hand in fact I usually use TIVO and cut out all commercials so I won’t have to be offended by them. I feel contempt for them. Yes I do believe it is men who come up with these concepts but I do not consider these women victims, they freely choose to be part of the problem of sexist media and they profit from it. There is clearly a sizable group of women who are heavily invested in business as usual in corporate media. I think that is the same thought with permissible language. Let me also say the channels that feature this crap lets take OXYGEN and MTV and E! as examples, are not that popular, if people were given a choice of what channels to subsidize they would not have many takers. It is almost impossible to find info on this but MTV is something like the 44th most watched channel E! and OXYGEN are jokes. However because of the gate-keeping of Corporate Media these channels and programs clog up the offerings and we are prevented from having an authentic women’s media that a free market would allow us. I also don’t care what motivates these women or what their excuses for their behavior are as they couldn’t care less about my plight which is I pay the same price as men for TV and have nothing but malecentric crap to watch even on the “women’s channels” I also feel it is ridiculous to imply to women audiences in commercials that if they buy a product more men will want sex with them because young women are pestered by men anyway so are they supposed to want more pestering? Buy this and men will want you?! as opposed to now when men want you?!
And yes I could come off as hostile because I am 20 years past sick of what corporate media has to offer me. That is a lot of frustration. But still I don’t care what these women whom I feel contempt for do and I wouldn’t waste my time wishing them harm I simply ask that they stay out of my face. I don’t think that is too much to ask as an audience member with huge consumer power. We aren’t that far from having the problem solved however because the corporate media gate-keeping is breaking down fast. I can TIVO anything I want and skip all commercials, I don’t even have to waste my time sorting through them.
Anna in AK,
How do you make your own? Do tell, I’m interested. Store-bought pads are irritating to my, uh, skin. Even the so-called natural ones.
Bes: I guess you wouldn’t approve of this…?
“I’m going out tonight-I’m feelin’ alright
Gonna let it all hang out
Wanna make some noise-really raise my voice
Yeah, I wanna scream and shout
No inhibitions-make no conditions
Get a little outta line
I ain’t gonna act politically correct
I only wanna have a good time
The best thing about being a woman
Is the prerogative to have a little fun (fun, fun)
Oh, oh, oh, go totally crazy-forget I’m a lady
Men’s shirts-short skirts
Oh, oh, oh, really go wild-yeah, doin’ it in style
Oh, oh, oh, get in the action-feel the attraction
Color my hair-do what I dare
Oh, oh, oh, I wanna be free-yeah, to feel the way I feel
Man! I feel like a woman!”
http://www.amazingwomenrock.co.....inner.html
Patti:
http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/sanitarypads.htm
http://www.treehugger.com/file.....wn_pad.php
http://afripads.com/test/
For me, I also have a hard time not shaking my head at the way some women behave. I saw too much submissive scraping and cowering during the 2008 primaries, along with a lot of dressing-up of degradation as empowerment. I can and will question the brains of a woman who buys into that ridiculous garbage.
However, if she runs for office, I’ll vote for her. Period.
I still cannot believe this whole idea, this entire conversation. I cannot believe that I am supposed to be “insulted” because an ad agency put up some very noninsulting (to the viewers, AND to the men participating in the commercials) commercials for women’s products, acknowledging that as a woman I like to look at men, and men can indeed take their kit off for the camera without the world imploding.
Seriously — are these my choices? Is this what sex is for women? You either purse your lips together and get a stick up your butt over someone saying, “Hey, you like sexy men, right?” or else you pole-dance and call it empowering. Christ on a crutch, this is my choice? It’s like a feminist-flavored version of madonna vs whore. Pinch my face shut and act outraged over the whole idea, or drop my own kit and jiggle. Great. Thanks.
The concept of something new is so alien and incomprehensible to us all that we can’t even fathom it, even when it’s right in front of our faces. A noninsulting advertisement for women that acknowledges us as sexual and doesn’t insult us OR the men in it.
Sometimes I feel like a member of a separate goddamned species. Am I really the only human female on the planet who can even conceive of anything between outrage over the existence of sex itself and pretending that breast implants are like totallee empowerfulating y’know? Is that really all there is?
agree to disagree on those particular points. Thank you for the lively conversation!
Can’t click the link at work Susan but my ex-husband argues in that style. He used to make some outrageous point and then state “you wouldn’t agree with this” Or “you would approve of this”. What you actually should say is “what is your opinion of this” and not attempt to put words in my mouth. I’m going out tonight but if I have time I’ll click the link at home.
Janis: You are not alone. I think this conversation tapped into a batch of women who are financially invested in the status quo. If hot men are hired to make commercials aimed at women then hot women lose work opportunities. Personally I look at media and advertising from the female audience or consumer perspective(yes I realize that is a revolutionary approach). I don’t care if job opportunities are limited for your sex tart type women as a result of job opportunities increasing for your sex tart type of man. I care about the female audience. Women have so few shows or channels actually devoted to us that I think it is important that the female audience perspective is emphasized. There is only one financially relevant definition of “women’s content” and that is “content women will pay to consume” If women change the channel when something comes on that would not meet the definition of “women’s content”. The way that concepts for women’s advertising should be tested is by putting women of the target demo in rooms with distractions. Have a screen with a couple of windows with different images on them and see what one they click to watch. So I would put funny babies on one, which everyone loves, and various test scenarios on the other. If women won’t click to watch the test scenario it should be discarded and a new one tried. That would be my preliminary research but once you settle on a few choices then they should be refined in the same manner.
I’d have to balk at “funny babies.” Kittens, yes. Strange as I am, babies don’t do it for me. Anything on that screen should be calibrated alongside cuteoverload.com, IMO.
It just makes me incredibly depressed that everyone has been so brainwashed that sex is porno degradation and violence because that’s how it’s been sold to men using us for millennia … so now that someone tries a new approach that is for women and noninsulting to either side, we still freak the hell out about it. This isn’t even being done on a male-centered model like the well-meaning but ultimately failed Chippendales experiment (sorry, Bruce).
And women routinely fail to realize that freaking out over THIS one single innocuous and inoffensive example of “sex sells” in an effort to appear even-handed will leave our culture merely marinating in jiggling bikini chicks hawking beer and gonzo porn instead of at least showing the world and the young girls in it another alternative.
(And just in general, how many times are we going to delude ourselves that if only we come down harder on ourselves, men will come down harder on themselves in a show of sudden enlightenment and feminist solidarity? They won’t. We can sit here stiffly and call this quite nice, inoffensive advertising “sexist” and “insulting” all we want, but that will not prompt men to suddenly wake up and go, “Hey, that ass-to-mouth stuff in gonzo porno movies is oh-so-degrading to women! I protest it and will go wave signs outside the local rental shop!”)
But back to depictions of sex, our choices are:
1) pinch-faced disapproval of any and all expressions of sex, or
2) grab that pole and shimmy.
In other words:
1) Sex equals the degradation of women in all cases, so never give in, or
2) Sex equals the degradation of women in all cases, but it’s like totallee cool and fun!
And when well-meaning ad execs (words I never thought I’d be typing) try something new, they get it slammed right back in their faces. How dare they try to redefine sexiness as something other than ogle for boys and shimmy for girls!
It all boils down to madonna vs whore. Disapprove or degrade. Again. Thanks, I think I’ll sit the whole idea of sex out for the rest of my life, if yallz don’t mind.
Dear all:
I think there may be some misunderstanding of the points I tried to make in this post. To summarise, IMHO:
1) if we protest the objectification of women in advertising, then we must also protest the objectification of men in advertising.
2) there is no link between naked men and sanitary pads – why try to create one?
3) menstruation has nothing to do with butterflies and everything to do with blood – it’s insulting to my intelligence (and I feel to that of many other women, obviously with the exception of Bes & Janis), to portray it as something that it’s not. Some producers of feminine products seem to have cottoned on to that. (See my latest blog post: Excuse Me Sir, Would You Buy Me Some Tampons Please? On the UbyKotex campaign here: http://www.amazingwomenrock.co.....lease.html)
Here are some additional facts, clarifications and thoughts:
I love sex (the hotter the better). I love men (the more intelligent and the hotter the better). I love beautiful naked bodies (the fitter and the hotter the better). I don’t find the half–naked men in these ads offensive. Neither, in general, do I find half-naked or even fully-naked women offensive.
Bes: I am a female (My opinion is as valid as yours, and you don’t speak for me). I am part of the audience (My opinion is as valid as yours, and you don’t speak for me). I am a consumer (My opinion is as valid as yours, and you don’t speak for me). I am not your ex-husband; nor was my point “outrageous.”
Janis: in my experience, our choices with respect to virtually everything, especially sexuality are unlimited — I’m glad I’m not confined to only two.
Regarding something “new” in advertising, in my opinion, this would qualify: http://www.amazingwomenrock.co.....lease.html
And finally, once again: Let’s go girls: http://www.amazingwomenrock.co.....inner.html (Hope you will enjoy the link at home Bes)
Thanks for the stimulating and thought-provoking exchange.
OK Susan I clicked the link. It is fine. I don’t see that Shawnia is running around in her underwear or humping strange objects on stage. I like the use of the matching backup boys which looks like a take-off on the identical backup babe video which I can visualize but not remember the song. Country has always had stronger images of women than Rap or Pop. Anytime you put hot men in the image you are presenting a more complete image of sex to a female audience because at least you are acknowledging the half of their sexuality that men would like to define out of existence which is the half where women ogle men. On the other hand, I feel like a woman all the time not just when I am consuming beauty/fashion products. So if this were an ad I would resent corporate America acting as if they were selling me my womanhood, which is my being and I own that. I also find all ads that imply they are selling women sex appeal wrong. I remember falling behind my 15 year old daughter in the mall and as I walked to catch her I noticed about 9 out of 10 male heads age 15-60 snap to check her out after they passed. So saying to young women buy product X and more men will want to F you as opposed to now when an annoying amount of men want to F you is just ridiculous. And as Janice pointed out men even have the anti evolutionary preference of wanting dumb appearing women. It is time to face the facts that men have very low standards, if any, for sex partners and so it is ridiculous to actively seek out their sexual approval when all you have to do is breath to get it.
Janis, OK no babies, maybe images of a car wreck on the side of a road, everyone stops to look at that. Or maybe just pretty designs that change or morph. Something nearly everyone will look at. Of course I think almost all women would look at hot men but apparently from reading this conversation that is not the case. I think the main point this sort of test would make to Corporate Media/advertising types is that the only time women would click on women prancing around in their lingerie and stilettos would be when they were trying to get them out of their face. If women audiences repeatedly avoid a certain type of image there is no way you can label it “women’s content” no matter how much agreement you have from Gay men or Rich Old men who run media.
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