It seems the women were not actors, if this comment is to be believed:

"So I know one of the women involved. She gets shouted at by the actors, can’t quite hear what’s said, and then gets stopped by another random to sign a release form for the use of her likeness in the ad.

Shame they didn’t offer, y’know, pay. Or ask for consent for participation. Or hire actors to play the role of the women at MEAA actors rates. But hey, that would be consistent with the male participants work being valued and paid, and the women being regarded as free participants for the low low price of street harassment." via: http://mumbrella.com.au/construction-workers-yell-positive-compliments-public-demonstrate-snickers-slogan-youre-youre-hungry-216213

This isn't the first time that Snickers has run distasteful ads: http://media2.policymic.com/c12c93c4cd21d918f66bd155f21db98d.jpg

If anyone is being "mocked" here, it's construction workers - and by extension, working-class Australian men in general - who are being stereotyped as inherently sexist, misogynist harassers of women.

The class element here can not be understated. Sure, being catcalled by some random laborer on her way to work is an actual thing that does unfortunately happen to middle-class women sometimes. But if you asked any of those women to talk about the times they felt harrassed or degraded, they'd more likely discuss encounters with peers and men in positions of power - which hit a lot closer to home.

So, why is it that when the advertisers want to show us men that we're supposed to assume are natural troglodytes, they're wearing hard hats and not business suits?

Hugely disappointing. It's enough to make me stop buying Skittles. And I frickin' love Skittles. Asshole move, Mars.

Not only is this as offensive to women, but it is also offensive to men because it assumes the worst of them.

mockery makes some sense: the candy bar is called "snickers"

I am so glad to hear you say this Lisa. I also thought the closing line of this ad totally reversed the point of the whole thing, and was amazed to see how much love it got in facebook posts.

And Andrew, I see you point. This ad layers a stunning reversal on the position against harassment of women with a bonus classist stereotype of working men. I see that you are not trying to excuse construction workers, but are pointing out that Snickers is ALSO stereotyping manual labourers instead of the more privileged white collar types, in addition to saying harassment will continue, as long as the blood sugar levels remain in control.

My guess is this sells well to the candy bar buying population in Australia.

It would be a much more academically interesting exercise to research that niche and understand why they'd be receptive to this kind of ad. Unfortunately, this forum seems more interested in rolling in indignance and high-five complaining among the faithful than academic interests. It feels good and it's not as hard as real academic work.

FWIW the product of the Mars Corporation are health hazards so avoiding them--whatever your motivation--would be a wise move.

the line at the beginning kinda undermines the point that all this is all "yanked away" at the end

"what happens when builders aren't themselves"

so the surprise at the end should only come if you're not paying attention at the start.

"What a dick move, Snickers." So the commercial offends you, and it's therefore appropriate to compare it to a dick? As we all know, offending others is strictly male territory.

Of course, whining/complaining about a candy bar commercial might be considered a "pussy" move by some people.

And people like me who enjoy pointing that out? We're just assholes.

Nothing was yanked away in the end... this ad was problematic from the start. It lost me on the second word...

"Hey! Darling!"

Nope. I don't care what comes after that... that moment is a problem, and it doesn't matter what comes next.

I think this is a very admirable step on Snickers' behalf. There's nothing wrong with some heartfelt activism that isn't all just sad horrifying reportage. It's a shame you can't accept the love being depicted here.

I just posted this ad on facebook with a link to the contact us page on Mars' website. I let them know I won't be buying any of their products until they pull the ad.

"What a dick move, Snickers." Okay, just stop with the gender shaming. All this continuing to classify terrible and misogynist things as a male body part is part of this gender shaming trend and it has got to stop. I expected something a bit more educated-sounding from a sociologist with a PhD.

And guess what? I'm a female, and yeah, I'm sticking up for the guys. Everyone would be freaking out if something stupid like, "Wow, what an ovary move" started trending (yeah I know that's lame sounding but work with me, people) so why aren't people trying to stop this male gender shaming stuff? (And don't give me that oppressor, faux-feminism Marxist bullshit.) This war on gender is just going to continue if women start to reverse the gender shaming.

The first and last thing I boycotted was table grapes.

Personally I think you all need to get a life. Offensive to men or women, who cares? Get over it, it's quite a funny ad. Don't you ever feel like looking yourselves in the mirror and asking yourselves what a sad miserable pathetic boring virgin you have become? ZZZZZZZZZZ

As an Australian feminist for more years than you'd like to know about I recommend actually asking those women in the ad and other Australian women how they feel about what is happening here before assuming and speculating about a society you appear to know nothing or little about. Australia is not America! !Praise be!

Wow... That's... really, really mean.

The thing that's being mocked is the idea that a man parroting feminist speech is the equivalent of true respect. And the really funny thing is that some of the women in the advert and Ms Wade genuinely believe that it is.

Not sure where you get off attacking Snickers for an advertisement when you're a public supporter of moderation on Female Genital Mutilation, Lisa Wade.

You know, "why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" Heard that one? It's a classic. :)

“I’d like to show you the respect you deserve”

Because men being obsequious to women is feminist doctrine. People don't owe you respect, you have to earn it. They owe common decency, and they owe it to every stranger, and are owed it in return.

"The first thing women do is get uncomfortable, revealing how a lifetime of experience makes them cringe at the prospect of a man yelling at them."

It took them a lifetime of experience to work out that being yelled at was
unpleasant? The author must think women are really stupid. My cat
doesn't like being yelled at, the birds don't like being yelled at, I
don't like being yelled at. In the author's mind, only women get yelled
at, only men yell. Women are teh victims!!1!

"It ends by claiming that pro-feminist men are clearly unnatural."

The construction workers are not all men. Playing on stereotypes is what ads do.

And you know what? The men who do that to women are also likely to do violent things to men. It's a loutish culture, which creates group solidarity
by treating outsiders as the enemy. They might say things you don't
like, but if you happen to be near them in a pub, and be male, they will
do you to show off to their mates.

But of course, the author doesn't give a shit about that. Look at their attitude. Men can't be feminists, merely pro-feminist. They
can't sit at the table with women as peers, but if they are real lucky,
they get to sit at the women's feet and eat any crumbs that fall! Good
doggy!

So yeah, I happen to agree with the author; these men
aren't acting naturally, they are acting like poodles. Most men will
fight back against oppressors instead of signing up for a chance to
enforce it in return for treats. Most men aren't Kapos.

" I don’t think I can ever buy a Snickers bar again. What else does your parent company sell? I’ll make a note."

I am sure they are terrified of your note taking and will repent, oh yea! and remove their offending organs and pack them nicely in chocolates for your delectation.

Men don't respect women by committing to the mental illness that is feminism.

Tell me, since you know men can respect women, how many guys go around shouting what the actors in the commercial does? Exactly. You've conflated respect with gender equality, a social construct meant to delude people into thinking the sexes are equal so as not to hurt feelings.

What if it means that all men are idiots becuse they are hungry, and men might be better and treat women well if they ate snickers, (the ad being an after-snickers case rather than pre-snickers)? Although I dislike the idea that women should stop and pay attention to men shouting at them whether what they are saying is complimentary or not, women deserve to be able to walk the streets un-harrassed.

i feel like snickers isn't actually dumb enough to make this.

probably a good thing that women are getting turned off by this ad, the less fat snicker eating bitches on the street the better imo

Maybe they are suggesting that all misogynistic construction workers, are just hungry. Once fed (presumably a snickers) they act such as these fine men, declaring equality for all!

This Sneakers ad really sucks. Shows how low companies are willing to go (and pay for such a crap production idea) to get some attention toward their product. If I was buying sugar+fat snack bars I would now boycott them and never ever buy their stuff ever again. It's not real food anyway.
Would be interesting to know where their sales numbers are heading following the advert in terms of potentially revealing how male Australian construction workers really tick... (maybe that could be a nice follow up research project for Lisa Wade (wink, wink ;-)
The ad creators seem to believe they are striking some sort of cord with their target market, unless they've got it badly wrong. From a corporate point of view, any advert would have to be designed to fulfil a certain purpose. I wonder if they are achieving whatever it is they wanted to achieve?

It is meant to be playing on the construction worker stereotype rather than picking on women, but it backfires horribly. I even think it's possible that they were trying to do something nice for women, but did it so badly that they made the whole notion of being nice to women into the advert's punchline.

And then there's the classist angle, of course.

I have watched the conversation about this ad unfold over and over again on the internet and each time a guy comes in and waves his hands about trying to make the conversation about something else. One guy said that men get harassed too (hey, women, look over here, stop talking about that hugely relevant subject and talk about this now!) Another guy said that women should grow thicker skins and get a sense of humour like men do because men get raped and assaulted as well but manage not to have hissy fits about it (more smoke and mirrors) and then andrew is saying 'lets talk about white collar work place harassment (everybody spend the next few hours trying to get me back on topic). Can we not just focus, PLEASE and have an intelligent conversation about THIS ad and THOSE women and THOSE men? Jesus.

hey in an effort to not partake in the patriarchal corporate structure that continues to oppress women, men, children and non-human animals i became a vegan, and guess what i dont have to worry about boycotting Mars because of this 'incident' because every day i NEVER spend a red cent because they make NOTHING vegan... hmmm.. GO VEGAN- BECOME POLITICALLY CORRECT- easy as!

This ad is laughably ridiculous.

It's offensive to both men and women (as misogyny and the patriarchy often is). It stereotypes working-class men as sexist jerks. And it insults women by turning feminism and gender equality in the punchline of a joke. But it's also just a *terrible* way to market your product. The main message is "Eat a Snickers so you can go back to being a sexist jerk the way nature intended," Or, "Sexism is great! Brought to you by Snickers: food of the patriarchy." Geez.

its a joke.. because humor (not misogyny) sells.. lighten up

The commercial is pretty cynical... I don't think it's just a gender thing, but also a social class thing. Construction workers are deemed to be at the bottom, unsophisticated, and unable to respect women, because of who THEY are. This is a degrading prejudice towards the working class :(

No sense of humor in this world. And apparently this is the where we should focus our energy? I reject that this is offensive to either men or women. If you found this offensive, be prepared to have the world continue to give you a right fist-forking...

Here is a link to find out what M&M/Mars makes beyond Snickers. http://www.mars.com/global/brands.aspx

The writer of that article doesn't get the joke. It is a stereotype that construction workers yell lewd things to women walking by their job site . The joke is that the workers are not acting like "normal" because they haven't had their yummy snickers. The company does not mock the idea that men can respect women. You are reading way too into a simple funny commercial.

I can't help but think that only an immature audience would take offense to this. A mature audience watches this already knowing that gender discrimination is wrong & wouldn't be so silly as to think this is advocating discrimination, rather that it's poking fun at a despicable stereotype. When I see this I don't think "The normal thing to do is objectify women!", instead I think, "Snickers made a joke."

That's just disgusting. I am pretty much done with candy already but Snickers won't be getting my money when I do have the rare treat.

Perhaps it's best to simply laugh at the commercial. Obviously a stereotype exists and enough of one to create parody. Relax, it's not the apocalypse.

whine whine whine men don't respect us oh shut up

Given that this is the internet, I'm happy to see that the dialogue going on here is generally respectful and thoughtful. Many good points are being made. What I see in this ad, is a harmful stereotype of a certain class of men, a variety of women having different reactions and enough controversy to likely prove that no press is bad press. Snickers probably knew quite well what they were doing.

I think the intended message is that these construction workers are the ones who are not hungry, and the people who would be shouting more unpleasant things need a Snickers.

It makes more sense, and as much as you clearly really want to believe that every man hates women and sees them as without value, that's not how it works. Men who act like that are frowned upon by everyone, including other men.

I agree, and also think it's classist. Preface: I don't want to make this a #notallmen argument, I am not denying white male privilege in anyway, or the trends attached to it. I don't think it's going to sound like that, but how I originally wrote the following post could have been read that way, and I rewrote it.

But treating the cat-calling construction worker stereotype as a normal thing hurts any attempt at fixing social norms. Particularly when it comes to ideas of working class males, and how they are expected to treat women.

This commercial was on the path to making the traditional joke of the 'harmless cat-calling construction worker' look like an ass, in way that might contribute to a shift in what masculinity means, and backtracks with the snicker's gag line, in such a way to specifically target trade workers.

My take (I'm a man, BTW): the making fun of construction workers was intentional. But there's something uncomfortable about duping the women (assuming they're not actors) into believing that the workers were sincere. This, I hope, was probably unintentional.

Also, by making the catcalling a component of the joke, the writers (and client) are showing that they don't think catcalling is very serious, and they are ignoring the opinion of women made uncomfortable by catcalling.

Bottom line: I don't think the spot makes things any better, or any worse, but it just maintains (and reinforces) an attitude toward women that, in my opinion, should change.

There is an important point I need to make somewhere, and I can't find anywhere else to make it, so here will do. Firstly, women and girls are not the only people who sometimes lack getting respect. Children often don't get respected to, and are treated unfairly. In fact that Potty-Mouthed Princesses advert and it's Part 2 exploited children. Also that TV programme called The World's Strictest Parents treats teenagers as if they only have to be taught a different lifestyle, and then they will change. Despite this programme doing that, there are real problems teenagers face that make them badly behaved, and in some cases this programme acts as if teenagers only have to become religious and then they will change. People with allergies are also often tormented about their allergies and having people make too much of a fuss over them for having allergies. Also disabled people are often shown no respect. Also the whole idea of who is to blame for being disrespectful is actually more complicated then people think, which the reality of that Potty-Mouthed Princesses advert and it's Part 2 show, for they seem to be encouraging respect of girls and women, yet they exploit children. The people who appear in adverts that say women and girls should be respected are probably guilty of disrespecting others themselves, these things are nearly always that complicated.

Super geschrieben.Vielen Dank.