Gasp! Kids’ toys are… gendered?
We frequently take on cases of blatantly sexist advertising around here. This stuff tends to show up online from all over the world — well, from everywhere except perhaps Sweden, because in Sweden they have the Trade Ethical Council against Sexism in Advertising (ERK). The ERK recently accused Irish airline Ryanair of sexism after they [...]
...read moreBut Will It Turn Me On?
The inimitable Sarah Haskins on women and car advertising: [apparently I can't embed it, so click here] I’ve only had a hand in buying one car and thankfully the salesman didn’t latch on to the stereotypical trope of showing me the vanity mirrors and built-in car seats. No, he waited until after the papers were [...]
...read moreWell Maybe Your Identity Wouldn’t Have Gotten Stolen if You Weren’t So Fat
This photograph of an ad in a Netherlands train station was snapped by a Shapely Prose reader. It’s an ad for identity theft prevention — in short, the woman in the photograph “loses her head” over seeing a bag of candy, and her distraction allows the man behind her at the ATM to see her [...]
...read moreMessage to the Guys: Donating Your Organs is Almost Like Sex
This ad promoting organ donation appeared in a Belgian men’s magazine. The message at the bottom reads: Becoming a donor is probably your only chance to get inside her. Nice way to objectify women to get across your “altruistic” message, suggest that women are only good for “getting inside of,” imply that women who don’t [...]
...read moreA Response From Pepsi
Today, a Pepsi-Cola Company representative posted this comment on Feministe as a response to my post about the “lifeguard ad”: Official Response from Pepsi-Cola Company: Pepsi-Cola Company wants to assure you that there’s absolutely no Pepsi advertisement in circulation that even remotely resembles the creative in question. After investigating this matter further, we learned that [...]
...read moreRape Culture In Unexpected Places: New Pepsi Ad
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Pepsi has responded by denying and denouncing the ad. Please see this post. Whoa. Other ads in the series show a monkey trading a Pepsi for the keys to a truck carrying bananas, and a young male trading a Pepsi for an astronaut’s space suit. This ad is hugely offensive on its very [...]
...read moreHarnessing the Power of Pop Culture
In the first 45 seconds of the trailer for Clueless, Cher Horowitz (played by Alicia Silverstone) gives one of the best rebuttals I have ever heard to opponents of providing asylum on our shores for oppressed people. Yes, I’m serious. Let’s reexamine the language (excerpted from Paul’s Ultimate Clueless Script): SCENE IV – CLASSROOM DEBATE [...]
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Mad Men
People are talking about Mad Men, AMC’s new show and my new obsession. Mad Men takes place in early 1960’s New York City in a large, WASP-y advertising agency recognized as much for its creative output as for its swagger. The show has received quite a bit of critical praise, partly for its retro style [...]
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Touch of Gray
I’ve gotta say, I think gray hair is attractive on men and women alike. Zuzu wrote about embracing gray hair awhile back and the consensus was clear: Gray hair is hott. Now the Beauty Machine eats at men, men with gray hair, and it deems them old and unattractive. And unfortunately it gives them the [...]
...read moreTarget Women: Birth Control
Note to self: just post these as soon as they come out, because Sarah Haskins is always funny as hell. Doot-doo-doo-doot!
...read moreLady Yahoo!
I don’t even want to do a full post on the new Lady Yahoo! site Shine — specially vamped to sell lady products via lady advertising — so I’ll just compile some of the headlines. Whose Design Is It Anyway? Does the man in your house have a say in the decorating, or is he [...]
...read morePardon me
But when I am hopped up on pain killers (OH NOES!) I get babbly. So we’ve all at least heard of John McCain’s campaign ad mixing images of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears in with images of Barack Obama while calling him a “celebrity,” right? I think we can agree for the most part on [...]
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