I don't see many adverts on TV these days as I rarely watch TV in it's 'on at the time' format. Sometimes if I'm lucky, I catch some TV adverts when in the gym or watching 4OD. I occasionally use London Underground and see advertising there sometimes, but mostly not.
So what have I see that pisses me off?
I have never really understood why Iceland have stuck at their 'Mum's gone to Iceland' slogan for so long.
Ode to an Iceland mum from 2011
What do we have?
- women do the food shopping
- women prepare the meals
- women have children
- women are straight
- women only don't do the cooking when it's a BBQ - men do that cooking.
This seems pretty standard from the ones I've seen for Iceland.
I'm not expecting Iceland to become the leading light in being less sexist / more racially diverse / less heteronormative. It would just be nice to see something different than the usual shit. I don't shop at Iceland - I don't really use our tiny freezer - but I sure as hell wouldn't when they advertise in the way they do.
Thursday, 15 November 2012
Friday, 4 May 2012
It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.
Advertising is another thing that annoys me and it is advertising that finally kick-started me into writing this blog. Specifically McCoys.
If you can bear it, feel free to visit their repulsive website: http://www.mccoys.co.uk/
Let your 'manliness' be tested? Find out if you conform to what they think a 'real man' is. Swoon as they show how beer googles can convert a perfectly lovely but not skinny, shortish-haired, tattooed women into a pencil-thin, long haired woman who looks like she'd be up for it, whey hey. Take the 'man quiz.' Eat some 'man crisps, in man flavours.'
A friend on Facebook brought my attention to this, and the argument about whether we're all just not getting the joke is still raging. There are bigger things to worry about, surely? FGM, cuts, the health service, etc etc. Can't we women take a joke? It's only a packet of crisps forgawdssake.
This sort of attitude pisses me off more than the advert itself in some ways. Firstly, it's a bunch of men telling us 'girls' to lighten up, it's just a joke, don't take it so seriously. Do I need to explain the problem with that?
Secondly - well yes, it probably is a joke. But that doesn't mean it's a good idea, nice or even close to appropriate. Words don't become acceptable just because you attach a 'joke' tag to them. And in fact with things like this making light of them, turning them into a joke, is just another form of sexism and in some ways is worse. Lots of people would see something like this and don't think about the messages the advertising is actually conveying because 'ho ho ho it's a joke'. It's that nasty creeping sexism that people ignore, that people constantly use to undermine women, that leads people to say feminists have no sense of humour. Lies, I find lots of things funny. This for example:
http://enemiesofreason.co.uk/2010/05/28/littlejohn-cunt/ (linking to Stewart Lee's skit on Richard Littlejohn).
Thirdly. Would this be ok if it was about some other form of discrimination? Race for example? Would it be ok to describe these as 'white persons crisps.' To have a quiz to see if you are white enough to enter the website. To have beer goggles convert the woman behind the bar from being, say, Indian to being a white woman? Didn't think so.
Finally, the 'there are bigger things to worry about' argument. God I hate this one. It's the 'shut up about being wolf-whistled at woman, it could be worse, you could be experiencing female genital mutilation.' It suggests that you can only care about one of those things and that you are selfish for giving a shit about the little stuff. I can care about both, I can do things to try and stop both. But why should I not care about those little, nasty things which affect me on a daily basis, which mean that society still treats women differently and allows that to still be acceptable. These things reaffirm sexist attitudes, they underpin the bigger issues like unequal treatment of women in the workplace.
Anyway. I complained to McCoys about their shitty campaign. I will await the 'it's just a joke' and then maybe reply with my own joke.
If you can bear it, feel free to visit their repulsive website: http://www.mccoys.co.uk/
Let your 'manliness' be tested? Find out if you conform to what they think a 'real man' is. Swoon as they show how beer googles can convert a perfectly lovely but not skinny, shortish-haired, tattooed women into a pencil-thin, long haired woman who looks like she'd be up for it, whey hey. Take the 'man quiz.' Eat some 'man crisps, in man flavours.'
A friend on Facebook brought my attention to this, and the argument about whether we're all just not getting the joke is still raging. There are bigger things to worry about, surely? FGM, cuts, the health service, etc etc. Can't we women take a joke? It's only a packet of crisps forgawdssake.
This sort of attitude pisses me off more than the advert itself in some ways. Firstly, it's a bunch of men telling us 'girls' to lighten up, it's just a joke, don't take it so seriously. Do I need to explain the problem with that?
Secondly - well yes, it probably is a joke. But that doesn't mean it's a good idea, nice or even close to appropriate. Words don't become acceptable just because you attach a 'joke' tag to them. And in fact with things like this making light of them, turning them into a joke, is just another form of sexism and in some ways is worse. Lots of people would see something like this and don't think about the messages the advertising is actually conveying because 'ho ho ho it's a joke'. It's that nasty creeping sexism that people ignore, that people constantly use to undermine women, that leads people to say feminists have no sense of humour. Lies, I find lots of things funny. This for example:
http://enemiesofreason.co.uk/2010/05/28/littlejohn-cunt/ (linking to Stewart Lee's skit on Richard Littlejohn).
Thirdly. Would this be ok if it was about some other form of discrimination? Race for example? Would it be ok to describe these as 'white persons crisps.' To have a quiz to see if you are white enough to enter the website. To have beer goggles convert the woman behind the bar from being, say, Indian to being a white woman? Didn't think so.
Finally, the 'there are bigger things to worry about' argument. God I hate this one. It's the 'shut up about being wolf-whistled at woman, it could be worse, you could be experiencing female genital mutilation.' It suggests that you can only care about one of those things and that you are selfish for giving a shit about the little stuff. I can care about both, I can do things to try and stop both. But why should I not care about those little, nasty things which affect me on a daily basis, which mean that society still treats women differently and allows that to still be acceptable. These things reaffirm sexist attitudes, they underpin the bigger issues like unequal treatment of women in the workplace.
Anyway. I complained to McCoys about their shitty campaign. I will await the 'it's just a joke' and then maybe reply with my own joke.
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