Nokia Capitalizes on Misandry

	posted by Matt on 02:36 PM December 6th, 2005
	MANN admins received a note from a reader who corresponded with Nokia customer service over a TV ad they are airing that features a Nokia user gloating merrily over how she uses her phone to exorcise ex-boyfriends from her life. Needless to say, the same kind of ad is unlikely ever to appear with the sexes revesed. So far Nokia hasn't acknowledged the capitalization off of misandry that this ad represents. In fact, it appears as if this ad or a tale very much like it is prominenetly featured on Nokia's website, here, as "Jill's story"-- have a look. Alas this is just one of many instances of ads made by companies that seek to make appeals to misandry (either directly or indirectly) in an effort to sell products and services. And, I know many of us here who visit MANN are sick to death of it. So I encourage MANN readers to write pointed, respectful, but honest faxes and emails (communication.corp@nokia.com) regarding Nokia's attempt to capitalize off of anti-male sentiment in society. Also mentioning how you feel about purchasing their products and services will assuredly help - big corporations think with their wallets since profit seems to be all they are concerned with. Their contact page is found here. Click "Read more..." for the reader's letter, response, and counter-response. And, stay tuned for updates!

	Original letter to Nokia: Date: December 6, 2005 To: William Plummer VP External Affairs Nokia Corporate Communications, Americas 6000 Connection Drive IRVING, TX 75039 Tel +1 972 894 4573 Fax +1 972 894 4706 Email: communication.corp@nokia.com Dear Mr.Plummer: Nokia currently is running in heavy rotation a television advertisement in which a female describes with tremendous enthusiasm and glee how she "gets rid" of her former boyfriend -- "David" -- including erasing his name from her Nokia cell phone contact list. At the conclusion, she invokes his name as if she never knew him and asks, "David Who?"...and laughs. Tag line -- Buy more Nokia phones (so you can have fun getting rid of men like this too!) The attitude portrayed and supported by Nokia in this spot truly MEAN SPIRITED and supports the offensive societal bias that male bashing is perfectly acceptable, desirable, and even fun. The audience knows nothing about who David is, what he did right or wrong in this situation, or why we should side with this female in her joyous elimination of him from her life. What, perhaps, was David's side of this story? Just Consider this.... How would this advertisement play if you REVERSED THE ROLES -- i.e., a male describing with great glee his technique for "getting rid" of a former girlfriend, then smiling and laughing as if this were attractive behavior. I challenge you, Nokia, to produce and broadcast the exact same "David Who?" spot, except REVERSING the gender casting and editing the script to a male perspective, e.g. "Susan Who?" [laugh-laugh!]. Would that have the same appeal and help you sell more phones? What is most disappointing too is your TIMING for the release of this spot. This is Christmas...a time for people to come together and love one another...not to take pride and pleasure in disconnecting from people they previously cared about. "Bah Humbug to THAT spirit!", says Nokia in this advertisement of yours. We give you NEGATIVE POINTS, Nokia, for VERY BAD TASTE, and REALLY POOR TIMING with this "David Who?" campaign. Consider taking corrective measures in your advertising. Respectfully, John Speer President Media III Partners Palm Valley, TX CommitteeAssociates@Yahoo.com Nokia's reply: Hi Mr. Speer- Thank you for your comments - however, this commercial was not written or scripted - this is an actual consumer's story of how she uses her Nokia phone. While this may not be the method that every person may use while dealing with a breakup - this is how she deals with it - and is a story that illustrates the myriad of unique ways that individuals use their Nokia phones. While your proposal is certainly interesting, it would not be in the spirit of our current campaign which uses real people (not actors) telling their own stories. Keith Nowak Nokia Reader's reply: Date: December 6, 2005 To: Keith Nowak Nokia Corporate Communications, Americas 6000 Connection Drive Irving, TX 75039 Tel +1 972 894 4573 Fax +1 972 894 4706 Email: communication.corp@nokia.com Dear Mr. Nowak, First of all, I am impressed that Nokia would respond to my email in such a timely fashion. Your response was in hours, not days. Thank you! That is appreciated. Nokia does have its ears open. Secondly, I appreciate now that your enactment of the "David Who?" spot was just a testimonial from a real customer. I am a Nokia phone owner and a Nokia customer of many years myself. QUESTION: May I write Nokia a testimonial as to how I use my Nokia phone and then have my testimonial made into a commercial too? I have a testimonial which might present the "male perspective" as a balance to the female perspective you are funding and promoting with the "David Who?" spot. By way of background, I'm a former creative executive / copywriter from the largest ad agency in the Southwest (worked on American Airlines account and others). I could send you something developed and ready for production, if you feel a corporate responsibility towards gender fairness in your public relations and dealings with existing and future customers. SUGGESTION: If the controversial attitude and approach promulgated by the woman in the "David Who?" spot are truly just her own and do not represent the corporate position or opinions of Nokia, perhaps some DISCLAIMER to that effect would be in order, either in a voice tag or a written disclaimer on screen. Merely by your funding and promoting this anti-male point of view in a broad based media campaign, others naturally ASSUME this customer's male bashing dialogue is Nokia's brain child or an attitude Nokia supports with considerable corporate resources devoted to its national promotion. And I must ask you as a male, Mr. Nowak...do you smile with this woman when she gloats and laughs about her various ways of ridding her life of her boyfriend, David? Just from a basic position of general appeal (or lack thereof) and beyond all considerations of gender issues, the "David Who?" spot comes across as unkind, rather arrogant, and purposely disrespectful. It "smacks" of emotional abandonment or even abuse (we don't know the full story). Snubbing those you once loved is not particularly adult-like or kind behavior. Did you test market this spot before airing it? I'd love to see the test group results and composition of your focus group. Every time I see the "David Who?" spot, it makes me reluctant to chance dating or committing to a woman who might act like this -- and I've had unpleasant experiences with several like her. Don't we have enough problems with a highly disposable-minded society, distrust between the sexes, divorce rates that are out of control, and a general lack of committment in America already? I offer this as constructive criticism for improvement as a marketing professional with a background in consumer research. Best Wishes, John Speer Media III Partners Palm Valley, TX CommitteeAssociates@Yahoo.com

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It's Certainly Mean-Spirited (Score:1) by Boy Genteel on 06:21 PM December 6th, 2005 EST (#1) ...and not among our priority causes, but I've been turning off that commercial, too. Think about it: what do you learn about the product via this commercial? That you can delete names from its "phone book." That's it. Otherwise, it's just someone telling us what a spiteful jerk she is. As I've said before, I've never been in a romantic relationship, but I like to think that if I were and we eventually broke up, it would be a somber phase, not one in which I'd be as cavalier as "Jill" is here. I would also pride myself on not being so experienced and jaded that I don't have a damned system on what to do when it happens. My brother said it well: maybe the reason she's had so much practice with breakups is because so many men can't stand her that they eventually break up with her. boy genteel Men are from EARTH. Women are from EARTH. Deal with it.

Sadly, I can see why they're doing this (Score:1) by RandomMan on 08:04 PM December 6th, 2005 EST (#2) I realize that I'm going to get beaten senseless for saying so, but I can see why Nokia is doing this from a dollars and cents point of view (having worked in marketing as well). I see it as an effect, not a cause. Sure, it's prolonging the problem, but it's not causing it. It's just a symptom of the underlying disease (misandry, limitless female greed and the feminist social hypochondria or victimology) afflicting society. It's pretty simple: women do most consumer spending; young, single women with disposable incomes in particular. Women have been conditioned to believe that they are "special" and have been "oppressed" and deserve to be pandered to at every step of their privileged, useless lives. They're taught over and over that they have the absolute right to shit all over anything which doesn't suit their each and every last little whim every instant of every day, and they are told that society and men in particular "owe" them something in return for sex/affection because of the terrible "plight" of women someplace at some point in time - i.e. due to over-identification with perceived "victims". It is very much to the advantage of a consumer products company to appeal to the glamourized image of a single woman who is portrayed as a "liberated" free spender (someone gratifying their needs and compensating for developmental and social deficiencies through materialism), immature (sexually and socially, again, with a focus on selfishness and materialism as a form of gratification) and completely selfish, for obvious reasons. It just keeps them buying crap they don't need. The "material girl" is now a 36 year old single woman with a job, no responsibilities and a huge disposable income who contributes nothing to society, except through spending on merchandise and services for herself. Nokia is simply trying to capitalize on this social phenomenon and draw the business in from their competitors. No business with a fraction of a brain is going to do the "right" thing and make respectful advertising which doesn't pander to generations of greedy, self-entitled, neurotic little sluts running around out there looking for a reason to be offended and buy another brand. Tried dating lately? Now imagine doing it a few million times a day. That's marketing in the consumer products business. Any questions? In short: blame women, not the company. Businesses are mindless, money-grubbing zombies. They'll do whatever is profitable. If they could figure out how to legally sell employees for parts and make a profit, they would. The fact that our society has borne these generations of atrocious, selfish little whores is simply a condition of the climate to a business, and they will only react to that climate. If it's cold, they put a coat on. What they won't do is try to proactively change it under any circumstances - it might cost them brand loyalty. Sure, they fight regulation once in a while, but they don't try to engineer entire social movements against existing trends. It's just not profitable, so don't expect them to change. I'm not saying "don't fight misandric products and advertising" - we absolutely should. Those disgusting anti-boy t-shirts are a great example. I'm saying that businesses will simply reflect the society they operate in. Think of them as a useful barometer of misandry.

Re:Sadly, I can see why they're doing this (Score:2) by Tirryb on 03:45 PM December 7th, 2005 EST (#9) I agree, at the end of the day companies like Nokia (and almost all others) are going to do what makes the most business sense - and in today's world, the most business sense is to appeal to the largest audience. Since (currently) the vast majority of men aren't offended by this kind of approach or if they are they still buy, it makes this approach a very acceptable one. The best way to fight this in my opinion is to educate more men. I work in the field of usability - making things easier to use, for example on websites - and there's a thing called 'the curse of usability'. Basically it's this: once you've learned what usability is and know how to look for the flaws, you start seeing them everywhere, in books, taps, fridges, etc. Bad design starts to jump out at you, and you become far less tolerant of it. The same holds true here. If more men were educated on this subject then the'd know what to look for and listen for, ads like this would flare up as unfair for them (right now they probably don't even think about it). You become less tolerant of the problems. The other day I had to go to my daughters new school to buy uniforms, as she starts in a month or two. I lined up to buy them behind a few dozen mums, and waited. As each mum was served they were given a yellow slip, and asked if they'd sign up to help out in the canteen as they were in desperate need of volunteers. Sure enough I waited, and when it was my turn no yellow slip, no request for help. So I asked why not, and with a shocked and slightly embarrassed look on her face she said she'd assumed I'd be too busy. I told her that actually I work from home several days a week and could easily help out - then made a point of not signing up, having been insulted in the first place. A year ago (before I became more aware of the mens rights movement) I wouldn't have thought twice when I wasn't offered the yellow slip. We just need to make more men as aware as we all are. Gary

Re:Sadly, I can see why they're doing this (Score:1) by SacredNaCl (tbessR3m0Ve2SendNEIN[SPAM]@R3m0ve.2.sendAt.mail.ru) on 08:29 AM December 8th, 2005 EST (#10) Perhaps you could give Amazon.com a few pointers. Their checkout is hideous. Tried to purchase a CD for my brother to dropship, and after going through 6 pages still wasn't done with the checkout. Said to hell with it, abandoned the purchase, and bought it from Rhino directly in 2 clicks and 1 page for information. I may have paid .70 more for it, but my time is worth more than that. Nokia is simply wrong. You can argue that they are marketing to the climate all you want, but I'm going to tell you the truth: Marketing largely created the climate in the first place. If you look at who is funding the various groups, you tend to find rather large companies, and their advertisements drive it as well. Yes, they go with the trend, the trend large companies funded, molded, and created because they felt it was more profitable for them. Making us angry enough to contact them is one thing, and it is a good thing. Making us angry enough to do something else, like vote with our dollars and trash their brand every chance we get ... That is what changes things. Point it out to people when you see advertisements like that. Plant that seed of resent, they already feel it, but it acknowledges it and gives it voice. Enough of those voices and people begin to act. ' Freedom Is Merely Privilege Extended Unless Enjoyed By One & All.

That being said... (Score:1) by RandomMan on 08:12 PM December 6th, 2005 EST (#3) In spite of my long-winded comment above, don't take anything I said to mean that I'll ever buy another piece of Nokia's crap, be it phones, security/network gear or whatever other junk they might decide to peddle. They just joined Sony (thanks to their trojan/rootkit copy protection) in the "not if you put a gun to my head" bin. They can stuff it up their collective asses, along with their pandering, androphobic drivel. Ahhh. Much better. I hate it when I slip into "reasonable" mode.

I am a David! (Score:1) by Davidadelong on 09:10 PM December 6th, 2005 EST (#4) To be honest with everyone, I took offense at that ad, for the obvious reasons, and for a personal one as well. It bothered me when I heard it, perhaps I am to sensitive, but when I heard my name, and how she said it I took offense. If for no other reason I am writing Nokia to complain, and mention that David is a very popular name, do they want to allienate all Davids?

Follow-up Email (Score:1) by mcc99 on 09:14 PM December 6th, 2005 EST (#5) Following came from the original author of the note I posted.: December 6, 2005 3pm CDT Here is Nokia's latest response, defending the "David Who?" ad. I'd like to know who was in their test group and are they decidedly skewing their advertising pitch to women since they seem to be the heaviest users (particularly teenage females) of cell phone time. Of course most people have been trained to laugh when, on television or in film, a man gets kicked in the crotch. Kick a woman in the crotch and there is outrage. I think Keith Nowak's laughter at the "David Who?" ad is a function of many years of conditioning by the gender biased media in these issues of aggression and violence. There is much work to be done in changing public perceptions and Mr. Nowak doesn't understand just how confused he is when it comes to protecting the interests of his own gender. Read below and marvel at how blind some men are, John Speer Media III Partners ------------ communication.corp@nokia.com wrote:         Hi Mr. Speer-         The campaign (which comprises three ads) was developed over months of         interviews with consumers, and has now been completed, so I am afraid         that we will be unable to produce more ads with other stories.         We did do extensive testing with all of the ads, and the response was         overwhelmingly positive to each of the real-life situations. And to be         honest - this is my favorite of the three ads, and cracks me up every         time I see it....         Keith Nowak         Nokia

e-mailed Nokia (Score:1) by Davidadelong on 09:32 PM December 6th, 2005 EST (#6) I e-mailed Nokia, complained as a David that I was offended, mentioned that there are a lot of Davids' out there, and also told them I was shopping for a cell phone and wouldn't consider their product. I also told them I read about this on Mensactivism.org, a great place to get info! I am waiting a reply from nokia.

I've been a Nokia stockholder.. (Score:1) by n.j. on 10:44 PM December 6th, 2005 EST (#7) ..for the last couple of years, sorry having to tell you that I technically own a part of that company :). I don't think the ad has been aired here in Germany, but from what I read here, it's could influence my decision on with which brand I should go in the future.

Third reply (Score:1) by mcc99 on 11:56 AM December 7th, 2005 EST (#8) John Speer sent them the following in reply. Can we wonder if or whether they "get it"? Date December 6, 2005 8 pm CDT To: Keith Nowak Nokia Corporate Communications, Americas 6000 Connection Drive Irving, TX 75039 Tel +1 972 894 4573 Fax +1 972 894 4706 Email: communication.corp@nokia.com cc: Support Group Distribution List From: John Speer President Media III Partners Palm Valley, TX 78552 CommitteeAssociates@Yahoo.com Media_iii@Yahoo.com Re: Nokia's Test Marketing of "Jill's Story"   Dear Mr. Nowak:   I can understand how your researchers might have received favorable responses in test marketing the "Jill's Story" testimonial. Male bashing and putting men down in general are quite popular in America right now.   Question: What was the gender weighting and age distribution of your test market? Are not females, particularly teenage girls, some of the heaviest users of cell phones and therefore, maybe one of your most lucrative target markets?   In pursuing that market, did your test sample purposely skew female? And which broadcast day parts have you purchased most heavily for the "Jill's Story" campaign roll out? Might those dayparts have skewed more heavily female as well?   You've seen depictions on television and in the movies where some poor, hapless male is kicked brutally in the groin -- and that is supposedly hilarious, as our media would encourage us to believe.   Mr. Nowak, was it ever funny when YOU were kicked or injured in the groin?   Is it EVER funny when a woman -- as depicted in the media -- is kicked or hit in her genitalia? So heinous is this thought, it is never portrayed. Therefore, hurting men is funny while one should never hurt a woman, correct?   The question becomes one of Corporate Responsibility to promoting images and behaviors that are respectful and positive to BOTH genders in a healthy society, versus pandering to popular and easy stereotypes that are untimately destructive...but work in the short run to help sell more product.   I'm sure if you filmed a testimonial of someone happily berating and putting down Jews during World War II and showed that clip to a group of Nazis, they would have a positive response and find that funny too -- just as elements of your test audience found boyfriend bashing in "Jill's Story" humorous.   But is it RIGHT to encourage these abusive attitudes and behaviors?   Mr. Nowak, of the 3 Nokia testimonials to make it through test marketing, "Jill's Story" is your favorite one, as you stated in your last email. It "cracks you up" every time you see it. Mr. Nowak, I've yet to see the humor in anyone showing joy over treating others with such utter disdain. Can you explain to me what is so funny about what is done to the ex-boyfriends' memories in "Jill's Story"? I'm serious. Where is the funny twist that delivers the surprise and makes the bad treatment humorous versus just abusive sounding? Jill's punch line escapes me...and I'm a successfully produced comedy writer for stage and screen (Chicago, New York, and Austin).   While you report that your ad campaign employing testimonials is over now and not open to new submissions, I trust Nokia will continue to advertise in the future, regardless of the creative vehicle employed. Therefore Future advertising offers AMPLE opportunity to counter the anti-male perspective Nokia has been promoting with the "Jill's Story" campaign.   I respectfully ask Nokia's marketing department to consider that as they might want to address your male customer's sensitivities and needs going forward.   I might also offer you for consideration the following link to a similar Vorizon advertising debacle that promoted even less obvious anti-male messages than "Jill's Story".. The Vorizon ad met with considerable opposition and was pulled from the market after mass outcry was heard. Click on this link for reference:   http://www.hisside.com/verizon_campaign.htm   I would call to your attention in particular the audio link of "Glenn's Call to Action" (middle of page, on the right, below photo). It makes for interesting listening, particularly for cell phone marketers.   I would be happy to discuss responsible media practices further via email or telephone, if you like. We welcome your feedback and thank you again for your responsiveness as it is our desire to help with constructive observations, not to hinder or bash.   Best Wishes,   John Speer Media III Partners Media_iii@Yahoo.com CommitteeAssociates@Yahoo.com 956-423-2007

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