Comments on: Go For the Black Can, Dude!

By: Holly

Holly — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:43:21 +0000

UPDATE: I feel I should report that I ate the SECOND can of Campbell’s Chunky Fully Loaded soup. It was Turkey Pot Pie, and it wasn’t that great, in part because the “pie crust” parts were more like dumplings and not quite doughy enough. However, it DID turn me into a man this time. Just so you all know, I am changing my name to “Zeke” and will now only be blogging on Feministe about being an ex-gay, the men’s rights movement, how unfair it is that Asian girls don’t only date Asian guys, how men should have a say in other people’s wombs or else child support should be abolished, and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.

By: Napalm Nacey

Napalm Nacey — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:27:25 +0000

Solo lie. It IS fizzy, and that’s the beauty of it. It’s freakin’ tangy and it’s VERY lemony. My favourite lemon squash lemonade, actually.

This soup ad really reflects a thread in Australian culture of mocking the 70s/80s “Manly Sweaty Outdoorsman” stereotype of Australian men, but it strangely, at the same time, reinforces it. Aussie men have a lot of pressure to be these tough extreme-sports types, as the outdoors is an expected way of life here, especially including any sort of sports. So I find ads like the Chunky Soup one a welcome relief to the background noise of media. Plus, I think, as the city-dwelling Aussie guys strive to be more sophisticated and urban, they’ll continue to mock the ol’ Crocodile Dundee idea of the Australian man. It’s a celebrated idea but I think most guys know that it’s a rare man that can measure up to it. Maybe Steve Irwin. Or Harry Butler. Or the guy that is like Harry Butler but goes fishing a lot up north.

By: Renee

Renee — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:32:03 +0000

I cannot believe this is not some sort of ridiculous comedy skit…Honestly soup is manly?

By: gudbuytjane

gudbuytjane — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:45:16 +0000

@Ariel Obviously we need to develop binary-smashing food items, like stouwp, or androgycheese. We would do well to follow the progressive lead of Goober, which has been striking down the peanut butter/jelly binary since 1968! Also, I think that book would more accurately be titled My Year as Jimmy Kimmel (unless you included a tendency to believe in moon hoax conspiracies, then it could be My Year as Joe Rogan).

By: Meg

Meg — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:31:20 +0000

LOL. This has to be one of the most ridiculous marketing trends ever. Especially in this case! I remember when Campbell’s Chunky Soup was advertised as a man-soup, as opposed to that watery, wimpy regular version of Campbell’s Soup. Now, once they’ve realized that nobody has really bought their genderized ideas about Chunky vs. Regular soup… they’ve decided to rectify this by trying it all over again? It didnt work the first time; do they really think it’ll work now that they’ve recolored the label and added the words “fully loaded”?

By: exholt

exholt — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:34:46 +0000

Like far too many “be manly” ads, they play on cultural anxiety over masculinity, but also while poking fun at the whole thing. I mean, what choice do they have, really?

Wonder how this video is related……

By: exholt

exholt — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:24:31 +0000

I alwayss thought Dinty Moore was the manly soup, or stew, or whatever. I get the feeling that stew is more manly than soup.

My family and those of my childhood neighbors literally lived on large cans of Dinty Moore whenever they were on sale. We’d buy enough to last 3-6 months and often used a can as a base for creating a watered down beef stew with some form of pasta like pasta shells thrown into the mix so one can can last for 3-5 days worth of meals. Mmmmm…brings back tasty memories…:)

Comparatively speaking, most of these chunky soups are too watery….and the can sizes have noticeably shrunk. Would think that if it was supposed to be manly that they’d INCREASE can sizes and drop the smallest portions from their product line…..

By: Ariel

Ariel — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:18:13 +0000

So I guess then the only thing for me to do is eat half a can of this and half a can of regular, wussy, broth-based soup. androgyny in a bowl.

I think there is a book deal in that, @gudbuytjane. MY YEAR AS A MAN. Only not.

By: Nentuaby

Nentuaby — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:09:28 +0000

You know, in retrospect, I brought up Boraxo because of Thomas’s mention of Real Men “scrub[bing] down with steel wool” and then Henry mentioned a few other similar brands… But none are gender-targeted at all, unless I’ve missed an ad campaign. They’re just ‘heavy duty,’ mostly meant for cleaning up after things like mechanical maintenance or landscaping. Calling them ‘for men’ is more reinforcing the ‘power tools vs. laundry’ stereotype than anything.

By: Reader

Reader — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:02:59 +0000

Too bad it isn’t really Steve Zahn. I’d eat a can for Steve.