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Yeah I saw that ad. It's kind of like they didn't know how to end it so they dug into the bag of old cliche advertising gags and came up with "hit man in the nuts."
On the other hand, I think we should mention men-positive ads. There's one for Smirnoff that shows a guy in a bar talking to his friends. A beautiful woman arrives (we assume it's his new girlfriend.) The caption reads "1 part in love." He introduces her to his friends and she rolls her eyes, tosses her head and makes it clear she does not want to associate with these people and would rather leave. The man sheepishly shrugs to his friends, like, "sorry, but what are you gonna do?" The caption reads "1 part easy-going." They leave the bar and the man hails a cab. Beautiful woman gets in the cab, looks out at man with lovey-dovey eyes and pats the seat next to her expecting him to get in. Man closes the cab door and taps the roof of the cab and the cabbie carries the harpy away. Man re-enters bar and apologizes to his friends who reply with "don't worry about it" gestures and expressions. Caption reads "1 part backbone." Neat little commercial with no actual dialogue but communicates the characters' attitudes and feelings very well.
A different ad which pisses me off to no end is not actually male-bashing but through obvious, PC group-think run amok, frames an important male issue (workplace fatalities) in a completely insulting and dismissive manner. The ad shows two small children looking out the window into the rain - they are waiting for someone to come - a parent - they look anxious. The announcer talks about how sometimes parents come home late. Then he says in Nova Scotia 26 people a year don't come home at all. Through the rain we can see someone walking up the sidewalk. Carrying an umbrella, and wearing a long trenchcoat and heels we see a woman approaching as the children cheer out "Daddy, daddy, mommy's home!" I nearly choked on my supper the first time I saw this monstrosity. 95 percent of workplace fatalities are men but the government chooses to frame the issue in a manner which implies that this woman was at some risk of not coming home. The least they could have done was give her a lunch pail and work boots in the commercial so we could actually assume she worked some kind of dangerous job instead of the preposterous assertion the commercial makes that female office workers dodge the grim reaper between the photocopier and breakroom and that their children wait with baited breath for her return from the deathtrap known as the office. I'll be calling the dept. of labour over this one.
On another note the gears are getting in motion up here in Canada to celebrate 'All men are murderous bastards day' on Dec. 6. This is the anniversary of a day when a mentally disturbed man shot and killed 14 women at a Montreal University. He also shot and wounded 13 other people 4 of which were men but these people are never mentioned. Anyway I work for a newspaper and the press releases have started rolling in from the shelters and women's groups wailing about the "horror that women and girls live in every day." I got in an argument with the reporter who is writing the story telling her not to let the facts get in the way of a good story. Working in the news industry I get to see how this crap gets through. When a politician gives us a press release saying how his party's new initiative 'X' will create jobs or put money in taxpayers' pockets the first thing the reporters will do is call the opposition party's leader and get their take on the issue. There is an automatic and correct assumption on the part of the reporter that the politician is probably overstating his case and we need to get another point of view. When we recieve press releases from the women's groups they don't make this same assumption. Rather, they usually print it word-for-word as it's fed to them without doing any fact checking. I think the biggest reason for this is there IS no corresponding authoritative voice to counter the claims from women's groups. If we had a shelter for men or a council on the status of men I know for a fact that the reporters would be calling them to get their take on the issues. Reporters can't write a story that says "Official, government-sponsored women's groups claim X, Y and Z but private citizen Joe Nobody disagrees." Without a credible, community-trusted organization to promote men's issues we don't have a voice. This is how they control the way the public views issues like domestic violence. They deny others a platform from which to state alternative views.
Sorry for the wandering around in this post, but it's my first (long-time reader, first-time poster.) I'll try to keep it more on topic next time. All these things seem to be tied together in my head.
H. Vincent
"Scotty, warp power! NOW!"
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Hello Henry,
Thanks for the post. It was a good read. I think you're right about the need for credible men's organizations to present the truth. Reporters may have their prejudices, and many editors-in-chief may be feminists, but with the creation of credible men's organizations that can be asked for their perspective, it will be harder to dodge the alternative viewpoints.
The part of your post that I liked the most, though, was the description of the Smirnoff ad. Constantly reading about the bad stuff in the world can get pretty depressing, though it's necessary to get the information out. It's good to read about something like this once in a while.
Again, thanks for posting.
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by Anonymous User on Monday November 24, @10:06PM EST (#4)
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Great post, Mr. Vincent. I'll celebrate it with a shot of Smirnoff!
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by Anonymous User on Monday November 24, @07:07PM EST (#3)
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In the 80's, a common gratuitous movie exploit was showing some boobs (as in the female breast).
Today a common gratuitous movie scene is for a guy to get hit in the groin. It is shown in kid shows (Daddy Daycare) teen flicks (Charlie's Angels) and comedy (My Myself and Irene). Just to name a few...as many movies now have this violence in them.
It seems very common today to see a movie where a man at some point gets hit in the groin.
How did this trend start? Who is behind it? And if most men think it is odd that in today’s "PC" climate where women are falsely portrayed as physically equal to men that a guy always ends up getting a shot to the groin, why does it continue?
Is the feminist influence on society a culprit? Or is it the gay influence in Hollywood? Or both? Or the people that advocate “what people want to see” in movies. Anyway you slice it, women's strengths get highlighted, and men's weaknesses get exploited.
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by Anonymous User on Tuesday November 25, @12:08PM EST (#5)
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In Peru is being aired a beer ad, and it's really funny. And it also paints men as wise and women as not-so-smart (unlike so many ads painting men as morons), so I would like your opinion, and if something like this could happen in your countries. Nobody here (not even feminist organizations) have complained about it, so tell me what do you think.
The video can be watched in http://www.pilsencallao.com.pe/
You have to put the third beer flask (Publicidad) under the beer tap, and it will appear a page with six videos, for six different ads. I think the last one is the one I am talking about, but you'll want to watch all of them. This firm is famous for its great ads.
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First scene: The beach. A sunny day. A parked car. Two average-looking guys are talking, leaning on a red Ferrari's door. One says to the other: "Yes, and my father sold the firm for about 1-1 1/2 millions..."
Second scene: Two drop-dead gorgeus girls (Baywatch-type, and obvious gold-diggers) in the skimpiest bikinis overhear their conversation, go back and begin a conversation:
Girl One: "Hi! nice car!"
Boy One: (looks at her indifferently) "Uh-hu".
Girl Two: "How fast it runs?" (while she caresses the car)
Boy One: (looks at her with a bored look) "About three-hundred" (km)
Girl One: (strikes a model pose, hand on her chin, sultry voice)
"Guys... would you like to go to a party?"
Boy One: (looks at his friend. Boy Two watches the girl, and makes a shrug. Then, Boy One turns to her and says in the same indifferent, bored voice) "Uh-hu"
Girl Two: (twinkling her eyes and in a sexy voice) "call me.."
Third scene: While the girls go, both guys look indifferent until the girls are out of earshot. Then, they jump, hoot, give a high-five and begin to drink beer cans. A moment later, an older man arrives:
Man: (leaning to open the car door) "excuse me..."
The boys: "Of course Dr. Ferrari", "Nice car", "So fast"...
(Obviously, the car doesn't belong to the boys, they were only leaning on it.)
Fourth scene: The party. Both guys are drinking beer, and the girls arrive.
Girl one: (looking a bit wary) "Hi...Oh, I didn't see your car outside..."
Boy One: (looks to the beer in his hand, and with an indifferent smile) "When I drink... I don't drive"
Final scene: The boys are making out with the girls, in the middle of the party.
Announcer voice: "Who drinks Pilsen (the beer brand) is streetwise"
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The first time I saw it I rolled on the floor laughing.
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