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Men Are Becoming the Ad Target of the Gender Sneer

January 28, 2005 in
Short URL: http://boyink.me/s/2442

“Are today’s men incompetent, bumbling idiots? Judging by portrayals in some advertising, the answer seems to be yes - much to the dismay of some men.” Full Article >>

My first reaction to this story was—“becoming”?  Men - and white men especially - have been the advertisers dopes for a couple years now.

Advertising that routinely paints men as idiots is one the biggest reasons we did without a TV for a couple years, and even now try to make it a habit of muting the sound during commercial breaks.

Just the other day we neglected to mute the sound, and there was an ad where we saw a very masculine leather-clad man alongside the road, sitting on his motorcycle.  A minivan pulls up with a woman and a child, and as it turns out she is his wife who had to come “rescue” him because he had forgotten put gas in his motorcycle.

While the ad was trying to pitch the minivan and the way the seats would drop down and make room to haul the motorcycle, what it really did was paint the guy as an idiot and the woman as the smart savvy person with the knowledge that he would run out of gas and the solution to the situation - complete with knowing smirk on her part and the “yeah, I’m an idiot” look on the man’s face. 

All of this played out in front of the child (female, as I recall), who was sure to be sucking up the relationship dynamics at work.

I talked about the ad with my kids, and explained that I didn’t like it because it tried to make me feel dumb as a man and a father. 

My 6 year old daughter hugged me and reassured me that I wasn’t dumb..;)

Comments are closed, but you can read the comments other people left.

  1. Richard on January 31, 2005

    Here’s how we fix it:

    http://www.fathersandhusbands.org

    http://www.adage.com
    http://www.adweek.com

    The trick is to identify the responsible agency, use the advertising press to identify when that agency is competing for new accounts, and site social objection to the detrimental content in the ad in question when asking the agency’s prospective clients to opt against the offending agency. 

  2. Michael Boyink (Author) on January 31, 2005

    Richard - I’m glad there are people who can become activists in this matter. 

    For us, it’s much simpler to fix it by just turning off the TV.

    Or buying a TiVo.

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