Will M. sent in these spots, by Rethinking Autism, designed to counter misinformation about autism:
Sex sells, I guess. Or, as we’ve discussed before, women’s sexual objectivity and men’s sexual subjectivity sells.
Also see these controversial faux-ransom notesaimed at drawing awareness to autism and other cognitive conditions.
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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
Animals Awake, a Dutch organization for animals akin to PETA in the U.S., “takes a page from [their] playbook,” according to David at Adfreak. This commercial, in which a stripper is brutally murdered in front of a live audience, is so shocking that my first I thought was that it was a parody. It’s not.
Major major major trigger warning:
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/5323112[/vimeo]
The critique, of course, is that Animals Awake is contributing to an atmosphere in which violence against women is ubiquitous (see Jezebel, for example). But I actually think that this commercial works in that we are (I hope) genuinely horrified by the murder at the end. I don’t think it normalizes violence against women like so many other ads/media/products do (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here for examples).
BUT it does normalize the connection between violence and sex. There is absolutely no reason why the person murdered in this ad had to a stripper. There is no reason to spend the first half of the commercial titillating us, only to have it suddenly turned into a horror show. There’s absolutely no connection. But because sex and violence are so frequently linked in the American imagination, it actually took me a few minutes of thinking about it to remember that. And I’m kind of horrified that, in my mind, sex and violence go together like peas and carrots. This ad only reinforces that connection.
Sorry I made you watch it.
More images of sexualized violence here, here, here, here, here, here, here here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Here’s another PSA, this one from the U.K., with exactly the same idea.
UPDATE: In the comments, jeffliveshere points out that the commercial is based on a pun:
I agree that the sex and violence connection is unnecessary–but, to be clear, there is wordplay involved–“stripping fish” is apparently a technical term for removing the guts of fish…
Okay, so maybe there isn’t “absolutely no connection.” Even so?
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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
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.
And while we’re at it…
Another theme re-emerged among the safer sex ads that Julie C. pointed us to: the use of insects arachnids and reptiles to symbolize sexually transmitted infectiousness (you might have already seen a preview here).
After the jump, partly because of the creepiness factor:
Tracy J. sent in this ad aimed at encouraging women to get pap smears to check for cervical cancer (originally found here, but the page was taken down, so Ashley in the comments thread found us this cached page):
And along with the ad she offered this great commentary:
The message is essentially that pap tests have the potential to save the lives of women, but rather than pointing out that, you know, this is good cause… women deserve the opportunity to live a long and meaningful life in whatever way they may wish, or whatever… [But this isn’t the message, instead] they use the ad to scare us into thinking, “if all our women were to die, well then who would we objectify? men? gasp! wouldnt that be horrible”…
…it also sends a very clear message that one of the requirements of women in our North American society is to stand as objects for our admiration. Of course this is only certain kinds of women as this ad could easily be used for some sort of diet pill with an ‘overweight’ woman replacing this man with the statement “the world needs skinny women.”
This is very much like the breast cancer awareness efforts that revolve around how hot boobs are (see here, here, here, and the bottom of this post).
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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
Objections to a BuzzFreeProm ad has led the organization to pull it and apologize. The ad reads: “Go from prom king to queen in three shots or less.”
Lisa Derrick at La Figa had the following exchange with the talent behind the ad:
I will go further. I think that being a “queen,” in the jail sense, is about being, both literally and figuratively, on the bottom. The imprisoned, gay men and, for that matter, women, are all on the bottom in this sense. (The corsage on the prison uniform is a hint that it’s not just about being gay, but about being female.) The problem with this ad, for me, is that it conflates sex and power. That the conflation can span so many different categories suggests that it resonates strongly. And that is what is disappointing to me. I would prefer to live in a world in which sex and power could be disentangled, as opposed to one that affirmed their entanglement. Let’s try to keep kids safe some other way, eh?
BuzzFreeProm has since put up an apology:
Other anti-drug and anti-drinking ads: an anti-meth campaign reminiscent of reefer madness, a vintage hanna-barbara anti-drug commercial, bizarre anti-drinking and driving messages, and threatening women with unattractiveness.
Laura W. sent us a link to a review of sex education in the U.K. that featured a three minute video. The video is a clip from a 1917 film, called “Whatsoever a Man Soweth,” encouraging Canadian soldiers to refrain from having sex with prostitutes. It was important for states to keep their soldiers from hiring prostitutes because soldiers filled up the sick bay with sexually transmitted infections that, during World War I, were not easily cured with antibiotics. Watch it here.
Also in soldiers and STIs: “Bad” women as disease vectors.
I’ve previously blogged about how, during World War II, Americans were expected to sacrifice in ways that we simply do not expect Americans to sacrifice today. Specifically, my post addresses how people were encouraged to save gas and carpool (“Hitler rides in the empty seat!”), but people made all sorts of sacrifices: from going to work, to victory gardens, to eschewing panty hose.
Penny R. sent in another example that I found really interesting, staying off of phone lines during the hours when soldiers were likely to call home. These government-sponsored ads were found in a 1944 Southern California Telephone Company phone books for West Los Angeles (found at This Book Is for You):
Text: “Night-time is about the best time a service man has to call home. That’s a good point to remember when you feel the urge to make a Long Distance call between 7 and 10 P.M. If it isn’t important, we hope you won’t make it. Let the men in service have first call on the wires.”
Text: “We appreciate the help you are giving us in keeping the Long Distance lines open for war calls. The production of munitions . . . the movement of troops . . . the building of ships and bombers . . . have put the Long Distance lines squarely up against their biggest task. Materials for building telephone lines are no longer available — they are needed on the fighting fronts. That is why we ask that only really necessary calls be made to war-busy centers. Thank you for your fine co-operation.”
Text: “This year, war is on the wires. And the Long Distance lines to war-busy centers must be kept open for calls that help to build planes and ships and move supplies and troops. We cannot add to the lines–that would require the use of materials needed by our armed forces. That is why we ask that only really necessary calls be made to war-busy centers. Your co-operation means that we can do a better war job for you and for the Nation. Thank you.”
Text: “The trained eyes and fingers of telephone operators are needed, these days, at the switchboards that are heavily loaded with war calls. Telephone equipment of every kind is deep in the war task. Will you help us to make every bit of equipment count? Here is one way: Please look in the Directory for any number you are not sure of. Please look there first before you call ‘Information.’ Thousands of calls daily, in which ‘Information’ is asked to help, are for numbers that are IN the Directory. Our foremost job is the war job. It just is not feasible to do all the things for our customers that we were able to do in peace time. We appreciate your understanding and your friendly cooperation.”
Can you imagine being asked to stay off the internet every evening? Impossible!!!
Text:
Wine doesn’t just come with cheese. For women it’s also accompanied by hair loss, wrinkles, and obesity, plus the other problems like breast cancer, early menopause and memory loss.
This ad rests on women’s fear of looking like men (whatever that means)
(1) Interestingly, none of the side-effects of alcoholism listed seem, to me, to be masculinizing. I can only imagine that the creators of this ad thought that straying from the norms of youthful femininity makes a woman seem masculine, thereby conflating aging with masculinization in women.
(2) Also, notice the excessive make-up. The ad is relying on the viewer being disgusted at the idea of a masculine face covered in make-up. That is part of what is supposed to create a negative reaction. But make-up and masculinity are not intrinsically or naturally at odds. We only believe this to be so.
(By the way, the fact that most men do not wear make-up, I think, is a beautiful example of the triumph of gender ideology over capitalism. For example. But see here.)
(3) Finally, what’s “drink like a man” all about? I guess men can have all the wine and cheese that they want without getting wrinkles because, gosh darn it, it’s just how men drink! Maybe they even get more masculine! (Hmmmm… as someone who loves her liquor, suddenly I do have penis envy.)
Thanks to Julie C. for the link!
NEW! This vintage ad (found here) uses the same logic:
