It can be plain and simple, striking and popular. It’s available in every store, for all to want and all to buy. And no I’m not talking about the latest deal on Wotsits or Toilet paper. I’m talking about sexism.
From chocolate bars to airline companies and designer suits to crisps you’d have to be blind as a fucking bat to say you’ve not noticed it. Not even once. However, if you are one of these people, before I ask you how long you’ve been living on Mars, I suggest you do at least one of the following and then tell me you still don’t notice it:
- Walk into your nearest supermarket and pick up a Yorkie.
- Turn on your telly and wait for the McCoys advert.
- Fly with Ryan air and ask for their charity calendar.
Do any, as close to naked as possible, Men feature in this calendar? Naw. Didnae think so.
That’s just naming a few, and boy do I mean a few.
If I could afford to spend the rest of my life finding all the sexist ad campaigns ever to exist I’m positive it wouldn’t even be a little bit hard to find one for pretty much EVERY consumer bracket imaginable. But at the rate they’re churned out, that’d be damned near impossible. Yet people are still so quick to jump in and tell us that sexism simply doesn’t exist anymore. Women are equal to men. End of story, Bye bye and Goodnight.
Just incase you’re a lazy cunt and cannae be bothered to do any of the three things I suggested above let me make it a little easier for you.
Isn’t the campaign for underwear, on the right, absolutely hilarious? Incase you can’t read the tag line, it says –
“Bet you didn’t notice the armadillo”
Naw. Wanna know why? Because you’ve made it look like a fucking cushion. Had you put it somewhere a little more obvious… say in front of a white wall, photoshopped to ‘perfection’/death, sticking it’s chest out for example, or even at her feet or how about on her bloody head, then aye, I’d have noticed the fucking armadillo.
And isn’t this Pepsi advert just fan-fucking-tastic?!
Her life is clearly of such high importance that a single can of Pepsi can ‘buy’ this creepy weirdo as long as he wants to assault her whilst the lifeguard sits back and what, enjoys the view? So fucking respectable Pepsi. Tell you what, even if your product didn’t taste like shit, this advert certainly wouldn’t send me to the shops in search of a can. And if I happened to come across one? I’d save it until the chance to lob it at the head of whoever passed this god awful campaign arose.
Oh, how about this –
‘You know you’re not the first’
The first what? Lassie you’ve fucked in the back of your BMW because it’s such a ‘babe magnet’. Please give me a break. This shit is actually allowed to run whilst an advert that showed electric eels being released into the water systems was placed on an after 7:30pm rule? If you still try to tell me sexism doesn’t exist? GET TAE.
And here’s a little message to the ‘brains’ behind this oh so wonderful campaign – Ken whit I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Buying a BMW does not now, or ever get the buyer laid any more than if they drove a pimped out polo or a three wheeled banger. Many men are not stupid, and will still buy your fucking vehicle without you trying to make them believe it comes with some added ‘bonus’. Chumps.
Some brands even go as far as banning girls from buying them. But don’t worry ladies… it’s all in the name of humour, right? How about you go and buy a packet of McCoys instead? In fact. NAW. They’re ‘MAN CRISPS’.
I could continue on for hours and hours and hours but I think you probably get the drift, or at least, I hope you fucking do. Yes, I am aware that it’s going to take a while and a lot of work to remove sexism from advertising and ultimately from the world, but until that day comes, gonnae naw be a complete ignorant bastard and at least admit that it does still happen. And not only does it still happen but it happens in the majority of companies and campaigns. I hope that if you did not realise the extent of this problem before –YES, IT IS A PROBLEM -you can at least realise it now. And if not… I hope it’s because you’ve either:
a) Just been born.
or
b) Don’t live in this fucking universe.
News from Nowhere 
http://blog.modelmanagement.com/2010/11/16/scandalous-sex-in-advertising-campaigns/
This is fucking filthy. Quite possibly one of the most disturbing I’ve seen.
Spot on, Brogan!
I laughed out loud at your bit on the armadillo. You’re totally right on though with the fact that EVERY ADVERT EVER is geared towards sex except say, Pampers and Cow and Gate adverts, and that’s only cause they wouldn’t get away with it.
Totally raging at the pepsi ad, i hadn’t seen it until now, and it’s totally disgusting, I’m very annoyed about it.
And lastly, your link in your comment?! WTF?!?
Keep up the great work. 😀
I like how this post was just going to be a rant on Yorkies and the like and then when I was looking for ad campaigns to back it up I total got my rage on. And voila, we have this.
The armadillo campaign also ran with other things stupidly placed in the shadows.
A T-Rex for example – http://www.shoppingblog.com/pics/fayreform_hidden_dinosaur.jpg
And ken whit. The same fucking applies. Place it anywhere else, except under the table, and aye I’d have probably seen it straight up.
Sarah showed me the Pepsi ad when I was looking for other food companies who use sexism, so like you, hadn’t seen it until recently. But it is totally horrific.
Oh and yeah. The reason the link in the comment isn’t in the actual article is because I found it a while after it was posted. It’s demeaning and filthy and the product has fuck all to do with naked women/ really women in general judging by the fellows actually wearing the product. However I’m finding it hard to focus on them with the shock of the whole thing sort of taking over.
Thanks.
You act as if this is so discriminatory to you, when in all honesty it does not affect your life. But may I bring to your attention, Sheila’s wheels “womens car insurance”, diamond car insurance etc. And on the case of adverts, the recent aero chocolate advert, with a guy Jason Lewis in it walking around almost naked. Finally a link to a page showing 10 adverts which basically make fun of men.
Firstly, this does affect me as I am a WOMAN, and women’s oppression does exist and IS a part of MY life. So get of your male high horse and realise that you are not always right. Secondly, there is no such thing as sexism towards men. Just like there is no such thing as racism towards white people. You have a privilege – and it’s about time you realised this. Like, really? OMG there’s a car insurance advert JUST FOR WOMEN?! How many insurance or car adverts are aimed at men? Did you just read the above article? BMW for one.
You have no idea of my personal experiences, so how dare you tell me that this does not directly affect my life. Now if you’d be so kind as to take your unwanted, bigoted opinion as far away from my blog as possible. And a tip for next time – Think before you open your clearly, closed minded gob.
Total overreaction. And your response when it was pointed out that actually ARE sexist ads towards men was just plain blase. You are also wrong about there being no racism towards white people. The Hispanic Scholarship Fund is a prime example of racism towards white people, and there are plenty similar. Open your eyes before your mouth.
*Facepalm*
Men are ‘more equal’ than women. There are no court cases being fought to gain equal rights and pay in jobs for men. For years women have been paid less for completing the same jobs. They don’t face struggles like this. They don’t face people winding down their windows and whistling at them, or thinking it’s acceptable to grope their arses as they walk past in a club. You don’t see rape cases that are thrown out the window because ‘he was asking for it’ as he was drunk/ wearing something other than a full body suit/ small pants (yes, some rape cases defence teams show the victim’s underwear as if it proves that there was no way the rapist could help himself.
A similar logic applies to white people regarding racism. You wont find a white man applying for a job being turned away because he is white, you won’t find people crossing the road because they simply see a white man – if they do it’ll be something to do with how he’s dressed which takes race completely out of the situation. But you will find people still cross the road from Black people and they will be turned away from jobs because of their skin colour.
I’m sorry but your ‘Total overreaction’ comment can get tae. Open your eyes and actually see the shit women face DAILY and what shite non white races face. Just because you don’t experience these things yourself doesn’t mean they don’t happen.