The ad depicts a horde of completely insane women, screaming with excitement… if, as the ad claims, these packs are “goodies for grown-ups,” then why are women the only ones going crazy over the cookies in this ad? The men in this ad react to the woman with a mix of “WTF” and “oh my god, you’re crazy” which only serves to make the women look even more pathetic and ridiculous.
This commercial tells a similar story: women totally lose it in the face of low calorie sweets.
NEW (Nov. ’09)! And, of course, there is holiday shopping (found at Ad Freak):
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wer7b29mreA[/youtube]
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 18
John Smith — February 8, 2009
Sarah Haskens at Target Women has a great take on this:
http://current.com/items/89789741/sarah_haskins_in_target_women_chocolate.htm
Note the prominant attractive black man in a suit during an ad for chocoloate geered towards women.
John Smith — February 8, 2009
Sarah Haskens at Target Women has a great take on this:
http://current.com/items/89789741/sarah_haskins_in_target_women_chocolate.htm
Note the prominant attractive black man in a suit during an ad for chocoloate geared towards women.
NL — February 8, 2009
Sarah Haskins covers this in the newest Target Women -- "Chocolate." What an awful commercial.
Cecil — February 8, 2009
What I find interesting is that the women are from all professions - we even see a police woman going for this truck of cookies. Yet, even in the masculine jobs, they are weak for chocolate.
Tyrone — February 8, 2009
Lol, can all comments here just be about how much we love Sarah Haskins instead of this stupid ad?
pcwhite — February 9, 2009
Ugh, I can't stand any of the commercials geared toward women. Sarah Haskins ftw. :]
Tyrone — February 9, 2009
Clean, sexy, young, underpants!
Tyrone — February 9, 2009
Woooah, that looks wrong. That was meant to be me quoting the start of "Target Women", not a request!
pcwhite — February 9, 2009
no worries...totally understood ;) best opening of a show ever...
drew — February 9, 2009
I can't see this at the moment. There must be a pileup somewhere in the tubes.
At any rate. Pulling back (a ways back, we'll see), we have a "portion control" product here, a good idea in that it makes it easier for people to monitor intake, and allows biz. the opportunity to jack margins. It's something of a "self-help" product, then.
My interest is in the particular associations that are tied to the "self-help" "genre" (yes, separates sets of quote!). A dash of patchouli (which itself can be factored down to elements like lazy, ineffectual, over-emotional, contradictorily trusting and conspiratorially minded etc.). Definitely feminine.
So let's just skip a few steps of the analysis and get to the money. Who the hell are these people who think that they're perfect and actually go to lengths to denigrate those who would make some effort to ameliorate their acknowledged imperfections?
At any rate. Here's another point. Internet posting. Still not used to it. I mean, concision is always highly valued, but where do you cut off, on the internet? I want to preempt the observation that yes, even men and other perfect entities are subject to all manner of social pressure and the imposition of unattainable ideals that inculcate personal ideologies of inadequacy. That's just a different can of worms.
In this commercial (which I admittedly haven't been able to see), I have it on *good authority* that the men are baffled. Baffled, as if by the notion that anyone would want to take advantage of an aid to improving their eating habits. Pullback conclusion: The ways in which men and women are socially* encouraged to self-improve are apparently very different.
Sociological Images » WHERE GENDER STEREOTYPES COME FROM — February 27, 2009
[...] Frito Lay campaign is one source of this particular stereotype about women; more can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and [...]
Sociological Images » WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO BEHIND YOUR BACK (APRIL 2009) — May 1, 2009
[...] on to hold it together in the face of low calorie sweets… or at least that’s what another commercial tells [...]
who knows — June 26, 2009
women are insane men are superior no matter what i'm not sexist and believe in equality but it is the truth plain and simple.
pg — September 1, 2009
LOL at that last comment. "I'm not sexist, I'm just sexist!"
Cute Bruiser — September 1, 2009
Woah, who let the trolls out? They're all over the place lately!
What We’ve Been Up To Behind Your Back (August 2009) » Sociological Images — September 1, 2009
[...] And also in overtly sexist, we found another commercial that portrays women as batshit insane, this time for shoes. It’s delightful. [...]
Doctor Bob — July 7, 2011
A substantial percentage (1/6 .. 1/3) of women have the minds of 12 year olds. An extreme depiction of that fact is what these commercials are presenting. That is why these adds are so funny to the majority of both sexes.
There will be those who pull the "that's offensive" "you are offensive" "I am offended" BS card. So what (take a pill). That card is played as a bully alternative to them malfunctioning or admitting to themselves that the depiction is sadly spot-on. Still more will attack me directly, trying to change the subject. The majority of people find these adds funny because it takes the demeanor & behavior of a substantial percentage of women & presents it in the absurd extreme.Missing from shoes is Imelda Marcos. Missing from any food add is the morbidly obese female. That depiction of reality would break the humor. It would be too real.The BEST add I have seen of this type is for Heiniken Beer. The add begins with a woman opening her walk in closet (to her female friends) which looks like a shoe store. The women are squealing & jumping around UNTIL they hear the men in another room doing the same thing. The man has opened his identical walk in closet to (the male friends). The man's closet looks like a giant beer fridge filled with frosty Heiniken.Save the "Im offended" attitudes girls & accept that unfortunately this is part of your collective character. If you identify with the "silly feeling" presented personally & are ashamed, then change your behavior or admit the fact that 1/6 .. 1/3 (or more) of your gender act like children.Men too, but these adds are marketing to the people who buy this crap.. women.
Doctor Bob — July 7, 2011
It is very interesting that some of the videos have been dropped from YouTube. That is most likely because of copyright. There are a lot of women who DO & WILL complain to Google (YouTube) & the original companies saying they are "offended". Worse yet is the "this is offensive to women" collective bullying. If they are actually "offended" then they are identifying with the absurdly puerile behavior & are actually ashamed.
If you do not believe that women are NUTs, read ALL the postings from doctors & psychiatrists at the National Institute of Mental Health, JAMA, most hospitals, the Canadian Institue of Mental Health. Science does not cow down to the bully card ("Im offended"). The data proves it.
Don't be "offended", don't be ashamed, accept the truth & have a good laugh (including at yourselves).