Look at this cute ad from the 1950s. Mom is so satisfied as she watches her three children husband and two kids discover the Swift’s Premium bacon she just cooked up. We should wax nostalgic because that kind of feminine domesticity and helpless husbandry just isn’t expected in marriage any more. Right?
Wrong! Enjoy this dizzying ad from Maple Leaf in which a woman finally gets her three children husband and two kids to be decent human beings by feeding them, you guessed it, bacon:
Thanks to Tom Megginson, The Ethical Adman, for both of these examples and the title of this post.
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 21
Palaverer — August 1, 2013
"I was living the stereotypical second shift, holding down a full time job, doing ALL of the housework and childrearing, while my douchebag husband couldn't be assed to do the few measily (stereotypically male) chores I asked until we turned our lives into the ultimate cliche by making him a slave to BACON."
Larry Charles Wilson — August 1, 2013
I love bacon
The_L1985 — August 2, 2013
...What.
I love bacon as much as the next person, but I'm 100% certain that no one food item is going to accomplish that. Also, I'm seriously cringing at the laziness of hubby, the fact that tasks are all so heavily gendered (seriously, even my old-fashioned, somewhat-sexist dad cooked Sunday brunch for YEARS, and Mom used to help with yardwork a lot), and the sudden, Stepford-ish transformation at the end. Creepy.
Mary Moylan — August 2, 2013
I keep telling Daughter we are regressing so dreadfully and now bacon confirms it. Demeaning and horrible. What a douchebag this husband is...
Tusconian — August 2, 2013
Where is their third child????
Jennifer Miller — August 3, 2013
The old print ad is less sexist than the contemporary TV ad. At least in it she has simply cooked something the family enjoys and is pleased with that. In the TV ad she is alone in all household care and repair and is using the product to enslave hapless dad.
Tom Megginson — August 3, 2013
Thanks for covering this, Lisa. I was well and truly appalled.
BTW, I tweeted the Ethical Adman post at @MapleLeafFoods.
Their non-committal reply: "It was certainly not our intention to offend anyone, we will pass along your comments to our team."
Seamus — August 3, 2013
The husband comes off much worse than the woman in this. He's a lazy selfish oaf who is magically transformed by the appeal of bacon. He doesn't help because he cares about his family; he's driven by the desire for satiety that only bacon can provide.
Truly S. — September 17, 2013
I want to see Lisa Wade take on the "lovable" elderly Swiffer couple whose lives are transformed by a box of Swiffer products left lovingly on their doorstep by P&G (who of course video the whole thing). How are their lives transformed? The WIFE doesn't have to climb up on stools and chairs to dust anymore! Because you know, they're both over 90 years old, but aside from the laundry, which he claims to do, he's still the one who "makes the mess," and she's the one who cleans it.