One Million Moms against sexualized men

One Million Moms have their hands full these days, as advertisers keen to tap into the demographic of aging, sexually confident, women create "equal opportunity" objectification ads starring men.

Case in point is this Ktaft Zesty Italian campaign (above) which also has a video component:



Of the campaign, they write:

Last week's issue of People Magazine had the most disgusting ad on the inside front cover that we have ever seen Kraft produce. A full 2-page ad features a n*ked man lying on a picnic blanket with only a small portion of the blanket barely covering his g*nitals. It is easy to see what the ad is really selling. A person has to look closely to see the item the company is marketing because the salad dressing bottle is so small next to the male model, picnic basket and other food items. There is also a small Kraft logo in the upper corners with the words "Silverware Optional - Let's Get Zesty." The website getmezesty.com is listed in the bottom corner. 

Kraft has gone too far and will push away loyal, conservative customers with this new ad campaign. Christians will not be able to buy Kraft dressings or any of their products until they clean up their advertising. The consumers they are attempting to attract - women and mothers - are the very ones they are driving away. Who will want Kraft products in their fridge or pantry if this vulgarity is what they represent? 

One Million Moms cannot get over the gall of this company. It is unnecessary for Kraft to use s*x to sell salad dressing! (An asterisk is used to ensure our emails get through to those who have signed up to receive our alerts. Otherwise, referencing specific words would cause our emails to be blocked by some Internet filters.)

This is not the first time that OMM have been upset at "s*x" (even str*ight s*x) in ads. Last August, they called for consumer action against Ragu for showing a boy accidentally walking in on his f*cking parents. And there was that time they complained about the double ent*ndres in this Liquid-Plumr ad:



More recently, the moms tried to rally the troops against Philips Norelco, for the latest in their series of humorous manscaping ads (see the classic one here):



Of this outrage, OMM writes:

The new Norelco commercial goes beyond a close facial shave to body grooming well below the chest and back. This commercial went WAY TOO FAR! During the commercial, it shows a man trimming hair in different areas of his body. Toward the end, it shows him standing with his boxer shorts down with hair falling to the floor as he uses the hair trimmer. It is implied that he is shaving in his private area. The dialogue in the ad is equally offensive. "I'd wink at me; I'd hug me," he says. Then he looks in the mirror, admires himself, and says, "I'd F*** me." The F-word is bleeped out. But then they display their website, www.IdFAQme.com. This is clearly a play on the F-word.

Clearly.

The most interesting thing about One Million Moms, at this point, is that their protests draw positive attention to the campaigns — like a reverse Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.

Me, I just want to note how men's sexuality in advertising is so often displayed in an ironic, goofy and self-aware way, compared to the un-ironic and unaware meat display of many (most?) sexualized ads with women.