AdAge runs an interesting article on a group of men who have teamed up together to fight back against the advertising industry’s use of men in commercials. Unhappy with the way men keep getting portrayed as losers to poke fun at, they’ve started to fight back: after the SuperBowl dozens of emails were sent to the CEO of Pepsi, their agency, BBDO and publications such as Ad Age and The New York Times, complaining about the balls-banging treatment of Justin Timberlake in their latest commercial. Jonah Bloom is rather dismissive of the groups efforts:
A loose coalition of these hombres against humor has formed in the past few years. Led by a guy called Richard Smaglick, co-founder of a group called Fathers and Husbands, they’ve attacked a few different ad agencies. In particular they spent several months “torturing,” as one ad exec put it, Arnold Worldwide, which was considered guilty of “contemptuous depictions” of men in its ads for Fidelity Investments. The group even tried to persuade Volvo not to give its account to Arnold.
…the saddest thing about all this is the time and energy diverted from the more important ways advertising must be held to account. Right now, there are financial institutions with aggressive campaigns pushing credit to consumers whose debt loads are already crushing. Advertisers are spending billions to support an Olympics in a country with an abysmal human-rights record. There are companies with shocking environmental records making claims to environmental friendliness. There is a debate to be had about the merits and pitfalls of advertising drugs directly to consumers. Or, say, over whether a country that holds democracy dear should be happy its presidential primaries could come down to who spent the most on ads.
Whether you agree with Bloom or not, Fathers and Husbands is an interesting example of how people are ganging together and using digital means to lobby commercial enterprises.
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Something tells me the Manâ„¢ brand positioning is, at the moment, banging the wall as the pendulum swings. Note the pain is typically inflicted on middle-class caucasian men, and what probably began as some karmic retribution for our perceived ills has now turned into stereotypical fodder for slapstick yucks.
This theme feels like its about 10 years old, and hopefully will have run its course into oblivion soon–not because we white men don’t deserve more horse beating, but because it’s just getting so damned stale it’s hard to laugh about it anymore.
February 18th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Worked in ireland for 5 years and was amazed how the whole male bashing thing permeated everyday life. Women complaining about men,in the workplace, at home you name it. Funny thing thing is the arguement could be that women (mothers) are to blame for not raising productive members of society who can’t cook clean etc because they had it all done for them.Some of the ads are laughable especially for men who are not the stereotype. The thing is though with increasing independence and expressed freedom of women, the decreasing dependence on men, and the bashing messages I.e. The messages that both young men and women get through the media could there be any correlation to the number one cause of death amongst young men being suicide? Does advertising add fuel to the fire? Just a thought to stimulate discussion.
February 19th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Aren’t any man-attacks balanced and then some by the incessant casting of the hot girl with the schlub/ad guy stand in, American Apparel, Girls Gone Wild, Axe & friends, Crispin style fratvertising… I could go on but someone might accuse me of PMS.
February 21st, 2008 at 6:46 pm