Comments on: The Super Bowl: Madison Avenue Misogyny

By: TFJ

TFJ — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:29:14 +0000

“Speaking as a man who enjoys beer, books, and football, and who finds intelligent women far sexier than empty-headed centerfolds, I happily refute these stereotypes through my very existence.” – Good Job!

“And, indeed, if women are deemed so problematic by the Madison Avenue hucksters, then why shouldn’t the audience consider a man instead?” – Good Point!

Read my little misogynist rant http://timfreeman.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/fantasy-and-voyeurism-men-and-the-violence-culture/

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:09:16 +0000

The misogyny was blatant in these ads, but I think the real message (which itself is misogynist) throughout the various Super Bowl ads was what men were being told about men, about appropriate, acceptable masculine ideals and behavior.

By: Bat of Moon

Bat of Moon — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:26:59 +0000

The Bud Light commercial falls into the general category of “dumb guy” humor. (That seems to be the major mode for selling beer on TV now.) By itself, it’s not that big a deal. But combine it with several other commercials that seem to be saying women are bitches (the Bud Light commercial DOESN’T do this), and the night had an ugly tone indeed. The most egregious commercials I recall (off top of my head — there may have been more) were for tires, a Dodge Charger, and some personal TV gadget.

By: marshall

marshall — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:38:28 +0000

The bud light commercial also portrays men rather poorly, men only want to play sports and are only interested in books to get beer. The men are too stupid to know that little women is a book. Women are not really portrayed that poorly in the bug light commercial but you want to be righteously angry so go with whatever makes you feel that way.

By: Osbo

Osbo — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:15:10 +0000

I should probably supply a link:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2010/02/03/tebow/index.html

By: Osbo

Osbo — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:13:30 +0000

Slate Magazine on the Tebow Focus on the Family ad.

Very off topic, but I thought you’d find it interesting.

By: DrMabuse

DrMabuse — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:45:34 +0000

Brian: I agree with you! Let’s say the commercial took the approach of just being centered around the women, where they attempted to analyze some callow James Patterson book (or some wretched novel defying analysis) and they concluded that the book was so bad that it didn’t even warrant discussion. Maybe one of the women says, “You know, I’ve got THE KITE RUNNER back at home.” Another woman says, “Who needs what everybody else is discussing when we’ve got Bud Light?” She says, “You’re right. That’s a shitty book anyway.” The women laugh and clink bottles. And maybe the punchline is the guy is outside the house looking through the window, desperately flipping through a Cliff’s Notes or something, trying to belong. Some setup along those lines would have demonstrated precisely what you were arguing while inverting the gender expectations.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:16:15 +0000

You’re right to say that the women were presented as sex objects and, as I noted, the ad overall was misogynistic, as anti-woman as 99% of beer ads. I didn’t mean to say otherwise; I just wanted to point out that there was the potential for portraying something possibly realistic and certainly positive – women drinking and talking books. (I was reaching even further in my hope that they were lying to the man by describing a sappy, sentimental book in the hope that he’d piss off and let them get their drink on.) But I do not credit such a positive portrayal to Madison Avenue, leaving me and you on the same side. Bud Light fail.

By: Daily David - davidgagne.net

Daily David - davidgagne.net — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:00:38 +0000

[...] you think the Super Bowl ads were too sexist? The Google Search was my favorite, but it’s tough to not love the Letterman/Oprah/Leno one, [...]

By: Bat of Moon

Bat of Moon — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:42:27 +0000

The mysogyny of this year’s Super Bowl commercials was so blatant and pervasive — a lot of people are noticing. At one site someone quipped — what kind of book club would serve Bud Light anyway?
It’s a pity in a lot of ways — after the game, my wife (who doesn’t like football) said that if more games were like that one, she’d become a fan. But who’d want to sit through commercials like those?

By: harriett

harriett — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:48:01 +0000

YOu knows ing you’re talking about last year’s Teleflora ad, not this year’s. At least get your facts right!