Friday, July 15, 2011

F'd Ad Fridays: Premenstrual Edition

Last month, Cannes awarded a campaign that likened men to war heroes for putting up with their partners' periods.

Now the California Milk Processor Board (of "Got Milk?"fame) are getting in on the sexist action:



And this isn't just a couple of ads; it's a huge campaign that includes a branded microsite that very quickly beats the joke to death.




The campaign has been roundly panned on social media, and Ms. Magazine has even started a petition to get it pulled.

From the Ms. blog:

Jeff Goodby, of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, the creative agency behind the campaign, is sitting in that sweet spot where he gets to capitalize on anti-feminist humor about women being too sensitive and/or irrationally angry, and then write off any criticism as women being too sensitive and/or irrationally angry. Despite Goodby’s insistence that women with a sense of humor (i.e. not fuddy-duddy old feminists) will find this hilarious, such stereotypes are in fact anti-women. They’re the same stereotypes cited by those trying to keep women out of good jobs, and those who say we shouldn’t have a woman president because she’d start a war just because it was her time of the month. Additionally, jokes about women’s irrational anger or emotional instability reinforce the idea that men shouldn’t have to work hard in a relationship, a marriage, or at anything, really, because if a woman gets upset it’s because of her hormones and not for any rational, legitimate reason.

I also wonder what another women's advocacy group, La Leche League, will have to say to the California Milk Processor Board — their partner in an ongoing "Got Breastmilk?" promotion.

Tip via AdFreak

1 comment:

  1. Seriously it's like all those ads that reinforce the stereotype that men like sports, cars, explosions, girls in bikinis, beer etc. I forget where I was going with that... but yeah men are clearly the victims in this ad campaign... and that Ms. Magazine lady is basically calling men stupid and lazy... I'm mean these guys (in the ad) are obviously working hard make their relationship work. They are back with milk and comforting words. If we conformed to that lady's image of men, we'd be like: "Okay you know what I'm going down to watch the game at Bill's" have fun... We have a woman prime minister where I live, so Please stop antagonizing men at every opportunity you get you crazy deluded paranoid amazon!

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