Funny Video Where Men Discuss Womens Products in the Parking Lot
Frances Woolley: Stupid sells. Especially stupid men
Dumb sells, first, because it's funny, whether it's the Keystone Kops, Dumb and Dumber, or birds taking revenge on humans in this Windex ad. But why dumb men? Why not dumb women?
Patrick Wanis ("A voice for women" according to Fox News) argues that advertisers portray men as incompetent in order "to appeal to women and to create a sense of female empowerment associated with the product – in the hope that women will then buy the product." He points to this Tide commercial, where a father's ineffectual attempt to stop his daughter from wearing a mini skirt is foiled by mom's (and Tide's) stain-removing ability.
Wanis is correct in so far as some dumb men ads are indeed targeted towards women. I would divide these into two categories. The first is advertisements that tell women "you're smart enough to make this decision." These ads are for products that are not traditionally "feminine", but are now purchased by women in significant numbers – cell-phones, for example (see this rant inspired by Rogers mobile phone ads). I find these ads grating, but see that they might make some women feel superior.
The second category of female-targeted dumb men commercials, however,disempower women. They are part of a larger social trend towards seeing men and women as fundamentally, irreconcilably different. The message is simple: Face it, ladies, your man basically wants to be fed, lie around on the sofa, and go out and mess around with his buddies. He is what he is, and you can't change his basic nature. As books like The Man Whisperer explain, women can achieve happiness if they stop trying to be the leaders in the home, and instead use their love and respect to lift up their men. And Tide and a host of other products will be there — to help women do laundry, cook dinner, clean the house, and generally take care of their hopeless idiot menfolk. The insult to men's intelligence in these commercials is obvious; the anti-feminist message is more subtle, but that makes it all the more dangerous. Me, I'll stick with a smart man who knows his way around a washing machine.
(I'm not alone. The Old Spice commercial featuring a not-dumb man has about 30 million hits on Youtube, the Tide ad mentioned here about 30 thousand.)
Yet many dumb men commercials are targeted specifically at men, such as this Diesel advertising campaign. These ads have a message, sometimes subtle, sometimes not: it's smart to be stupid. Why waste hours cooking a fancy breakfast, when you can mess around, have a good time, and fool everyone with Eggo homestyle frozen waffles?
Read the rest here
National Post
Frances Woolley is a Professor of economics at Carleton University and a contributor to Worthwhile Canadian Initiative, where this originally appeared.
Source: https://nationalpost.com/full-comment/frances-woolley-stupid-sells-especially-stupid-men
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