The Super Bowl XLV commercials for 2011 were tamer and less focused on the female sex this year than in previous ones, but I did manage to find a few. Since the predominant audience of the showdown between the Packers and the Steelers were men, most of the commercials aimed at their status and their stomachs. Cars made them look hot, cool, and like successful men; trucks made them feel powerful and strong — real men. Their stomachs were nourished with ads for Doritos and burgers, and they were reminded (with great propaganda style repetition) that beer made them feel masculine, great, and fun! And in between, a few of these companies used female flesh to excite and foster men’s need for these things. Sex sells, right? But not all sex — just the female sex. Let’s take a look-see:
GoDaddy.com has no shame in using its two beautiful spokes-girls in attracting attention. They refuse with grandiose disgust to godaddynaked, alas — it is in the contract — they have to parade themselves without clothing or else! Come on…GoDaddy.com sells web site spaces and URL’s. We’ll buy those anyway — without the sex, thank you!
Two innocuous people on a date –she, a (stereo)typical girl, thinks about whether or not he is compatible for her. He, a (stereo)typical guy, wants to have sex with her. His easy passion for her is replaced by Pepsi. Loaded message here.
Unattractive crooner is found sexy and brooding by beautiful women weeping at the love song he sings for them. But wait…he’s not singing to them — The only object of his desire is Stella Artoir, his beer — because unlike the women in the bar, “She’s a thing of Beauty.” Ha!
Faith Hill is featured in this commercial — Teleflora has to have a famous and beautiful woman to juxtapose the geeky and immature young man who writes a love letter to his girl. His message:”Your rack is unreal”! UNREAL!
Another GoDaddy commercial dripping with sexist innuendo — Who’s the mysterious new Go Daddy spokesmodel? She’s smart and business savvy, the announcer says, but the camera is focusing on her big breasts, her toned buttocks in short shorts — and does it take away from the sexist and debased representation of the female when we find out it’s Joan Rivers? It’s funny, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that they get away with it.
The typical guy house sitting with smart dogs has a party — and even the dogs know to ogle and wink at the sexy girls.
Snickers will satisfy the whiniest guy — but not the girl — especially if she’s Rosanne Barr yielding a chainsaw — how unfeminine of her. While a snickers bar turns him into a tough logger, she gets struck in the breasts by a log twice her size. Wouldn’t have happened to her if the girl were, say, Kim Kardashian. Why’s that? Do we punish the unsexy and whiny women? Hmmmm….
And now the other representation of the female from a man’s perspective — the wife, the nag, the unattractive and bossy hag, who just happens to kick, shove, rage, and abuse her timid husband — and look, there’s not a sexy bone in her body.
Imagine a car. Sell it by imagining a hot woman driving the car — dodging helicopters, gunners, trucks of hay and racing cars. Now imagine her a teacher — sexy, the commercial says — she’s wild and tame at the same time.
Kaleidoscope hypnotizes men to buy the car with flashing images of car parts — and wait — do I see a multitude of red, pouty female lips, big painted female eyes, and uh-oh — long, sexy bare legs with hot red high-heeled shoes? Yup! Red, hot, and sexy. Buy the car!
Bonus Sexist Ad by Sketchers!
The prize for the most blatant and sexist of all the sexist ads mentioned above goes to Sketchers, for trying to sell sneakers with Kim Kardashian’s over-sexed sex appeal — and she’s full of it.
I am going to switch my website host from godaddy. I’ve had enough of their disgusting ads. Um, hello? Women have websites, too.
That’s what I was thinking, Erin! I use them, too! Who else is there? Let me know when you do. Really, aside from the sketcher one, GoDaddy was the most sexist — all his ads are. Thanks for coming by. I’m going to send you the wordpress for subscribing.
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I couldn’t even figure out what Go Daddy was advertising, but Kim’s shoes were pretty.
It was not at the superbowl but have you seen the commerical for Viagra with a macho man driving cdown the country road out west? I guess men with erectile dysfunction don’t like to think of themselves as wienes. I am so suprised by the number of men who have erectile dysfunction. but I am also amazed at the numbers of men who like to display themselves, rape children and buy black leather masks for sex use. Even in the old New England Colony days men were buggering sheep and cows. ( Plymouth Colony Project: court records for sexual misconduct) Sex is here to stay. Even the Bible had Harlots.
I think we need to get the men who have daughters to make a statement about these commericals. Men listen to Men.
Why have these Fathers allowed violence both physical and sexual , against women to continue for so long?
Marina, I have to agree with all that has been said. I was really disgusted with a lot of the ads, but for some reason GoDaddy bothered me a lot. I had just renewed a couple of domains. I should have moved them first and then renewed them with MomWebs. They sell domains and provide great hosting too. When I need help, they are right on it. It is a tad bit more expensive because they are not the domain giant, but a dollar is not going to break the bank for anybody. It can be even better because MomWebs has an affiliate program and they will pay a little for referrals for hosting. Maybe we need to start a movement to support companies that don’t use sex to sell their products.
If women would just take their business elsewhere, and let them know why we are doing so, it might make a difference. Just think of all the mom bloggers out there who register a domain with GoDaddy! After all, women fifty and over are the second fastest growing population on Facebook, there should be some power of the people there, and I can tell you that Joan Rivers would never get my vote!
Hi Marina,
As always excellent content. I thought the car fantasy where the woman is a teacher at the end was actually clever. It kind of showed a sexy/smart balance.
As for the rest, they are plain weird! Weird! Kim Kardashian’s over-sexed appeal bothers me because it is without consequences. There is never a moment where she says “oops can’t! I’m having a herpes flare up”. Irresponsible!
I won’t need to switch. I use Hostgator.com. Excellent $8.95 plan I have works great!
Hi Marina,
Thanks for posting this content. I was reading your article about boycotting cable television, and I noticed you did not mention sports and sports culture as problematic in mainstream media. I’m finding a common theme in sporting event commercials, particularly during football season, which is the glorification of dumbness – the lovable beer drinking, football watching, woman hating, couch potato protagonist just wishes his girlfriend/wife could be a “normal” submissive subjugated sex object who looks like a Cowboys cheerleader, instead of a boring book-reading, overwieght nag. Football is a perfect example of unfortuately pervasive gender roles – the men exerting awkard levels of machismo and toughness while the women provide moral support in the form of fake breasts and pom-poms. The whole concept is soooooooo old and tired… macho men as heroes, women as trophies. I know that is not the point of football, but unfortunately that is the culture of football, where if a woman is not a thin submissive barbie doll serving beer, she is unattractive and annoying. The correlation between machismo, sports, masculinity, and subjugation is interesting to me because if the culture of sports were less gendered, maybe the commercials during sports events would change? And then the attitudes of men who watch sports? I don’t know….sorry for the rant.
Mekahl, your rant is appreciated and always welcome. I don’t refer to sports because I don’t watch them, but I did just write an article for The New Agenda called Rape, Male Privilege, and Sports, which focuses on how athletes are privileged and get away with sexual assaults. This attitude is fostered not only by professional athletes, but also by college athletes. Our girls are not safe on college campuses. Read about it at http://www.thenewagenda.net/2011/04/28/rape-male-privilege-and-sports/
Thanks for taking part in this conversation.
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