|
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
|
 |
|
|
|
by Anonymous User on Friday July 26, @07:31AM EST (#1)
|
|
|
|
|
I saw it two days ago. However, I also saw a new one last night, which was not anti-male (it was about a man demanding guarantees and quality from his plumber, even though the house was in emergency need of a plumber). Perhaps they got smart and replaced the anti-male one with this one. (The new one actually *is* humorous, where the anti-male one was just stupid.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I saw it last night on WKBD-50 Detroit; I've had it with that station and I'm going to send them a faxed complaint.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by Anonymous User on Friday July 26, @11:10AM EST (#2)
|
|
|
|
|
I'm part of an online group at Yahoo! called ms-discussion. Someone from mensactivism.org posted a topic about this ad on this group's board and this led to a member of ms-discussion writing a letter to a top ad executive (or someone else in the ad department). The member who wrote the letter received a reply that said they were rethinking the way they did their ads. There was no statement in the reply that the ad was being pulled, so I'm not sure of their intentions.
I'll ask permission from the one who wrote the letter if I can post the letter and reply here.
Josh
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by Anonymous User on Friday July 26, @02:34PM EST (#3)
|
|
|
|
|
Listen, Josh, THANKS!
I think we can All take this, tenatively, as good news.
Even if they haven't pulled the "voodoo doll" comercial, Our collective reaction\protest of it may have shaken some sence into them, to where they will not ever try to pull a stunt like this again. 'We are watching them!' (insert dramatic music here.)
Hopefully, OTHER ad agents will learn from this as well. and realize trivializeing, de-humanizeing, humiliating and promoting hatred of men (or anybody) is the WORST possilbe way to sell something to ANYONE.
If THIS all is indeed the case, then perhaps we HAVE won, maybe even better than we had expected.
Thundercloud.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by Anonymous User on Friday July 26, @03:35PM EST (#4)
|
|
|
|
|
I received permission to post this. This is only the reply. I'm looking for the initial complain. I took out the responder's phone number and his real name.
...
Dr. Hubin, I manage Progressive's specialty insurance products including motorcycle insurance and was forwarded your e-mail. I can't argue
with your logic, and won't give you the answers you said you didn't want to hear. Don't laugh, but my wife is our company's creative director
and produced the ads. We've received many complaints and we are rethinking aspects of the ads. As you can imagine, we get many complaints on every ad we put on the air.
I do appreciate your business and hope that as you reflect on all aspects of our motorcycle insurance program you ultimately decide to
remain our customer. I hope you are enjoying the lack of rain and are getting out on your bike when the temperatures drop a bit in the morning and evening.
Feel free to contact me via e-mail or by phone at xxx-xxx-xxxx.
John Doe
General Manager, Special Lines Insurance
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by Anonymous User on Friday July 26, @03:38PM EST (#5)
|
|
|
|
|
Here's the initial complaint:
...
My wife and I currently have our auto and home insurance with Met
Life. We have not been happy with that company for a number of
reasons and have been gathering quotes from other companies. Because
I have had motorcycle insurance with Progressive for a number of
years, I was considering looking into insurance with your company.
I will not do that now. I'm out of town right now, but when I
return, I'll look into alternative insurance providers for my
motorcycle, too.
I have had no problem with Progressive Insurance so you might wonder
why I have now resolved not to purchase insurance from Progressive
and, in fact, to find another provider for my motorcycle insurance.
Here is the answer.
I will not support with my consumer dollars any company that promotes
the ideas promoted by one of your recent ads. I know that women
purchase a lot of insurance but I will not support a company that
panders to the "all men are bastards", "you go, girl" mentality and
makes light of violence against men--including genital torture.
I fully expect to receive from you your boilerplate, "Gee, we
certainly didn't mean to offend anyone...It was intended to be
humorous...We sincerely apologize if we offended you" reply. Spare
yourself the time and trouble.
It is reflective of stunning insensitivity and appalling gender bias
that you could even consider running this ad. The idea shouldn't
have even made it out of the mouth of an ad writer in a brainstorming
session. If you have trouble understanding the issue here, it is
always useful to do a little role reversal. So, imagine that one of
your genius ad writers said this: "Why don't we show a woman going
out on her boyfriend and then we'll have the boyfriend torturing her
through a virtual voodoo program. And, wouldn't it be funny if,
right at the end, he crushed her nipples with a pair of pliers or
maybe jabbed a barbed rod into her crotch." How far would that idea
go? I'm betting the genius ad writer would go far--all the way to
the unemployment line.
It is just amazing! I'm really stunned that someone actually thought
this was a good idea. Fortunately, we can vote with our insurance
dollars, and I vote against Progressive.
I will also do what I can to let others know of Progressive's
"progressive" attitudes.
Donald C. Hubin, Ph.D.
Department of Philosophy
The Ohio State University
Moderator: Men's Studies Discussion List
Director: Parents And Children for Equality
P.S. You absolutely have my permission to use my comments as part of
any advertising or marketing promotion you want.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by Anonymous User on Saturday July 27, @11:55PM EST (#6)
|
|
|
|
|
miramax just put out "tadpole", a movie endorsing the sexual abuse of a young boy. do you think it would be to our advantage to begin a letter campaign to them as well? it would be nice to feel that same satisfaction that we are affecting hollywood as well.
|
|
|
|
|
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
|
