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To the staff at American Furniture Warehouse,
I am writing in response to your most recent television commercial, in order to protest the offensive use of violence against the man featured in it.
This commercial shows a man and his wife on an old squeaky mattress. The man is uncomfortable with the mattress and keeps tossing and turning, which obviously annoys his wife. The wife then suddenly grabs a frying pan and hits him over the head! After this so-called humor, the advertisement tells viewers that there is a sale on at American Furniture Warehouse where new mattresses can be purchased.
I'm sure that the ad was meant to be humorous. It wasn't for me. In fact, this commercial is very offensive to men in that it gives the impression that violence against men is acceptable and even funny. I doubt that you would have aired a similar ad showing a man hitting his wife over the head with a frying pan because he didn’t like the way she kept tossing and turning.
It should be brought to your attention that anti-male ads such as these are being criticized on several websites (which are viewed by thousands of people each day). Men have become tired of negative portrayals of males in the media, and even some women are starting to speak out against this (it isn't particularly flattering to them either).
It is strongly recommended that you discontinue this commercial before you cause yourself to lose a lot of business. Companies cannot afford to alienate half the population, particularly during a time of economic turmoil. While I have never been an American Furniture Warehouse customer before, I most certainly will not become one in the future after viewing this ad.
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by Anonymous User on Thursday November 14, @11:01PM EST (#3)
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Y'all wanna know something?
When I see commercials like this "American furniture warehouse" ad, I get the same feeling as a man, as I do when I see derogitory stereotypes of Indians, as an American-Indian(Things like those hideous "Indian" team macots.)
My guess would be, equalitarian62, If AFW bothers to respond to your (logical and just) complaint letter, It will be another one of those generic-response-letters, claiming how much they "value ALL of their customers" and that they "up-hold the ut-most standards of quality", Blah, blah, blah. Their actions COMPLEATELY contradicting their words, of course.
The same was the case with that horrendously anti-male ad done by 'Progressive insurance'.
I still remember all of us here who wrote them to protest it, posting that we'd all received the EXACT SAME generic-response-letter.
On the up-side of that, though, 'Progressive' finaly DID remove the offenceive scene from the commercial. It took alot of doing on our part to make 'Progressive' remove an insulting, sexist scene, that should NEVER have been aired in the first place.
While this AFW ad is not as bad as the 'Progressive" ad was, It is still sending the SAME message. "Violence against MEN is cute and funny. and perfectly acceptable."
So, yeah, I agree let's write them and tell them what's what. This crap has to stop. Allthough it took a while for 'Progressive' to comply, they DID eventualy do so. So let's put 'American Furniture Warehouse' on notice, the same way we did 'Progressive'.
PS. If I may be so bold...,
A friend of mine advised me, that when writeing these companies, DO NOT tell them you will NEVER do buisness with them again (or ever).
The reason being, because if they've lost you forever as a customer, they will have no incentive to change the ad or do the ads differently in the future. It is BETTER to say; "I refuse to do any buisness with you as long as you promote such advertiseing. If (and/or when) You cease such ads, then and ONLY then will I consider being your customer!"
I thought that was good advice, so I'm passing it along.
Thundercloud.
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by Anonymous User on Thursday November 14, @11:54PM EST (#4)
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I wonder if employees can sue or claim it's a "hostile working enviroment" from these kinds of commericials? Not that I think that's realistic, but wouldn't feminists claim such an enviroment is mysoganistic with the top of the company making commercials where a man is shown in a humorous or positive light beating his girlfriend with a hubcap?
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If they were female employees who were offended by a company's ad, Sure, I'll bet THEY could.
But I can just see a MALE employee trying that.
He'd likely be fired on the spot!
And if he tried to take it to court he'd likely be laughed right out of the courthouse.
Remember we're the "diposable gender".
TC.
"Hoka hey!"
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I meant to say "DISPOSEABLE gender".
Not ""DIPoseable" gender"
sorry.
TC.
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This ad is so obvious but I wonder if some of you have examples of more subtle and insideous forms of sexism in TV advertising.
Last night I was watching TV and there was a commercial for female pads. Two women were driving down a highway. (The purpose of the add was to project how long the pad can be worn). The narrator says something to the effect (I'm going by memory) "Obviously men designed this highway. Reststops are [too far] apart. Fortunately, your pad can hold for x hours.... blah blah blah"
I was floored. I mean it was totally gratitous. There was no logical reason to imply that men designed highways to inconvenience women. The subtexts were highly insulting to women as well.
1. That she can't figure out a way to change her pad when she needs too ... she needs men to design highways around what women might need (preposterour though this particular "need" would be, going to the bathroom would be a better excuse to put rest stops closer).
2. That women weren't involved with the design of the highway. I know several women civil engineers.
3. That we need products to specifically circumvent problems that men create ... the implication being that either men deliberately go out of their way to inconvenience women, or lack common sense enough to place rest stops closer together for women. I mean c'mon. Rest stops cost money. The real reason they are so few is that they are expensive to build and maintain.
The ad would have been equally stupid but at least not insulting had it simply made a comment about how far apart rest stops are on highways. The "men" part was totally gratitous.
Anyway, I was floored. It's nitpicky but once you start looking at ads you find all sorts of stupid things. As I've said before, I find these ads insulting to women by trying to play up to them in this way. Wretch! I was so floored by this one that I didn't catch the brand.
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by Anonymous User on Friday November 15, @01:09AM EST (#6)
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It was also overwhelmingly men who were the workers who made that highway for men 'and' women to drive on. Who worked in the sun, rain, whatever, who got dirty, who beathed in dust,who sweated, and even sometimes bled to make a highway to get to wherever the hell the were driving to. But with all this they didn't build enough rest stops for the comfort of women with periods. (it is overwhelmingly men who built the car they were driving, as well, I'm sure)
This comercial doesn't seem that big of a deal. I think a little harmless jab at the other gender is ok when it's done in a kind way or something. Kind of like how you'd make a joke about a friend's quirck or imperfections to his face. I don't want more PC bs. But this stuff does get annoying when it's always around and it's only about one gender.
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Hi all,
I just wanted to ask a question, and I hope that it will be taken as a legitimate question, and not as criticism.
One of the things I've noted many people (not just here) say about NOW is that they have become humorless, and that they seek to remove anything that could offend any woman. It's also been said by some that humor is always at someone's expense, so just about all humor has the potential to offend somebody.
Now, I agree that there is indeed a double standard where depictions of violence are treated as humorous. While it is generally acceptable to show violence against men in a humorous light, it is not acceptable to show violence against women in that same kind of light.
That being said, is there a way for people who want to strive for equality in gender to get that message out and try to transform society without running the risk of becoming labeled the "humorless thought police" type? Don't get me wrong, I don't think that's what anyone here is doing, but I wonder what we can do to avoid that stigma.
Any thoughts?
Sean
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This had occurred to me some time ago and I articulated it here. It seemed not to generate a lot of discussion at the time.
My opinion on this topic is pretty simple. If a company chooses to lampoon men, then they should be just as willing (and actually DO it, not just talk about it) to lampoon women in the same way.
The situation as I see it right now, offers no such symmetry. Men are treated as imbeciles, as evil, or as punching bags in all manner of advertising and "entertainment" while women, when they are the butt of a joke, are treated very carefully.
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This had occurred to me some time ago and I articulated it here.
I thought someone had, but I couldn't remember.
I agree that a company should actually give equal time to women-as-butt-of-joke as they do to men-as-butt-of-joke. Of course, many of them wouldn't do that, because of the possible repercussions. That doesn't excuse their one-sidedness, mind you, in my view. But it gives some reason for a company's decision.
Perhaps it would be worth approaching companies with such advertisements from the direction of asking them to consider either to give equal "butt" time, or try to avoid things like that in the future.
This is pretty tame (and perhaps "pantywaist"), but my tactical preference is a softer one. I'm not arguing against a harder tactic, I'm merely stating my personal preference.
Sean
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(("asking them to consider either to give equal "butt" time, or try to avoid thimgs like that in the future."))
That's an idea.
And for most of these ad execs, giveing equal "butt" time should be easy, considering most of them are BUTT heads, to begin with!
TC.
"Hoka hey!"
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Good points Sean. This ad is almost too stupid on a general level to get very worked up about on a specific one.
Sometimes I think it would be a better activity to blast general low-brow idiocy than to look at things too narrowly.
I probably over-reacted to the ad. The timing of seeing it coincided with reading a lot of stuff recently on another BB where it seemed some weren't being very mature and always blaming others for their (relatively minor) problems.
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by Anonymous User on Friday November 15, @01:19AM EST (#7)
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Lorianne.
I agree with you.
Both Women and men should feel insulted by these types of commercials.
For one thing these ads seem to believe that all Women hate and are prejiduce towards men. They, in essence, are calling women bigots and trying to "kiss up" to women by playing on this.
Men should be insulted because we are CONSTANTLY bombarded with this whole "Men's sole purpose in life is to torment women" B.S. And the whole "evil oppressor" stereotype.
By the way, I have a question for everyone here.
If Men are these stupid clods who can't do ANYTHING right, the way they are seen by the media, How can they be these sly, manipulateing, cunning oppressors?
So which is it? Dumb-as-a-bag-of-hammers neanderathal, who doesn't know his a$$ from a hole in the ground, Or Opressive, omnipotent evil incarnate?
It can't be BOTH!
Could it be... Neither?
Hmmm...,
Thundercloud.
"Hoka hey!"
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Well, Thundercloud, it seems to me that if Men are about as stupid as turnips, and that if these stupid turnips have managed to oppress and rule women for thousands of years, that women must be even dumber than a box of rocks.
Hey, I didn't make it up - I'm just following pheminist logic to the obvious conclusion.
---- Burn, Baby, Burn ----
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"...even dumber than a box of rocks."
ROFL!!
Funny, TGK. Another thought occurred to me though, and maybe this is a little sexist but it is also offered in jest:
There was an article out a few months ago that said that men listen with only half of their brains. Then of course, there's always the joke about the woman seeking a used brain and how a male brain was so much more expensive because it was harldy used. So I have to ask: 1) how is it that we get the message as well as the girls and we only need half our brains to do it? 2) we've accomplished an awful lot for only using so little brain capacity. Imagine the potential!!
Just for grins...
Frank
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I think we've just un-covered yet another "Feminist urban legend"!!!
TC.
"Hoka hey!"
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