So many man-bashing commercials

[Rollo Tomassi]

My concern is that this agenda is not so much payback as it is an attempt to psychologically subdue men by making them ashamed of their masculinity. Even in the 1950's & 60's, show's like 'Father Knows Best', 'My Wife, I Think I'll Keep Her', 'Leave it to Beever' or 'My Three Sons' the female character was never ridiculed for her femininity. They weren't 'poisoned' by their estrogen into being idiots. If anything she was respected as a nurturing buffer for the younger male characters recklessness while the Father was judicious and wise. Even in 'All in the Family' or 'I Love Lucy' you could still respect Archie Bunker and Lucielle Ball, not so today.

Today it's blatant and malicious. The most common theme is the idiot husband needing the feminine intuition of his spouse or female partner to solve his uniquely male derived problems. The silly stupid men in these commercials attempting to emulate cats don't even rate as animals, making one wonder if a similar commercial were made casting a woman in the role of a dog and still not making the cut would be as widely accepted as an effective marketing tool.

 

[WestCoaster]

Another thing I'm amazed at is the complete lack of thought as to who they're marketing to.

My often-used example: A huge billboard for big Dodge TRUCKS just off the West Seattle Freeway with big letters that say, "More reliable than most husbands."

Just who in the f--k does Dodge thinks buys their freaking trucks? Housewives? Single women? God, amazing. I e-mailed them on this in a pointed, angry letter ... interestingly my Seattle friend said that billboard came down within a week of my letter after being up there for months.

Of course if the billboard read, "Puts out more than most wives" oh God, the protests and vandalism would be off the charts.

Correct Rollo, it is blatant and malicious and I wonder why few people call their sh-t on it.

 

[DJDamage]

Just who in the f--k does Dodge thinks buys their freaking trucks? Housewives? Single women?

Its all about marketing and women eat it up. Its like Home depot and women all of the sudden get into home renovations because they watch reality tv with women hosts and think " oh wow I can do it too, looks like fun!". If they can appeal Home Deopt to women then they can pretty much do anything.

 

[WestCoaster]

I still don't think women will flock to buy big Dodge trucks. First rule of business: know your clientle.

 

[wayword]

Straight up. Look who is coming to this forum. White men from America, Canada, and Britain. Chinese dudes from all parts. Why? Because those are the weakest dudes on the planet. You boys need more confidence. Don't let the b***** be playing you so much.

Lol, easy for you to say because our guilty White liberal pop media is heavily biased in favor of Black males, against Asian men and mixed on White men. I mean, if they regularly showed half the dirt (highest violent crime rates, highest STD rates, highest cheating rates, highest absentee daddy rates, highest welfare rates, lowest IQs, poorest, etc) on you guys like they do us, women wouldn't touch you with 10' poles. There's more Blacks in prison than college now. And if it weren't for affirmative action, half those Blacks wouldn't be in there either.

Right now, Black men, Jews & women are the sacred cows of our Matriarx. This is why Black men do best in areas where our Western media is strongest (Americanized areas). So, consider yourself lucky but don't let it get to your head. Of course you're confident when our Matriarx pimps you up on a pedestal. But if White men weren't guilt-tripping so hard, half of you'd be living in mud huts like in sub-Saharan Africa... Without the White man, you are nothing.

 

[Rollo Tomassi]

Sorry, but "My Wife & Kids" is every bit as AFC and masculine ridiculing as "Everybody Loves Raymond." It's what's dangling between your legs, not your skin color is that pop culture mocks.

 

[Albion10]

I still don't think women will flock to buy big Dodge trucks. First rule of business: know your clientle.

Yeah, but who usually makes the decision when a married couple goes out to look for a vehicle? Think about it...

Wife: "But honey, those over there have child safety seats. You don't want little Johnny flying through the window now do you? Those over there are more reliable. You really don't want me calling you to come get pick me up while you're in the middle of poker night with the guys, do you? We really need to think about those things now! Oh BTW, I washed all those spare blankets and pillow cases, they're up in the linen cabinet. Just so you know!"
Husband: "Oh hey, yeah, let's go over there!"
Wife: "You're so smart, I love you!"

As far as hotels.com goes, it's all marketing. The context of the commercial depends on which group of people you're trying to market it to. The hotels.com commercial is being marketed to men. It's saying, "You better choose the right hotel or your wife is going to kick your a$$. Guess what, we can help you do it."

Every married man knows what happens when he pisses off his wife, especially when it comes to something as big as a vacation. I don't know about you, but my couch is not the most comfortable place in the house to sleep. So I'll think of Hotels.com when it comes to looking at hotels for my vacation because I've made the simple corilation in my subconsious "Go to hotels.com or you're sleeping on the couch."

Learn to play with psychology and you can sell anything to anyone. When you're making lots of money doing it, do you really care if you're bashing on someone or not?

-Al

 

[squirrels]

Right now, Black men, Jews & women are the sacred cows of our Matriarx.

I'm seriously looking for something in my office to head-butt that is sufficiently hard to knock this comment out of my head, but not hard enough to do permanent damage.

I'm tired of this BS "I'm the victim" mentality justified by this babbling on and on about "Matriarx this" and "Matriarx that". You want to believe that you're not responsible for the quality of your own life, fine. You want to believe that the only reason anyone gets ahead of you is because of some outside program that society's set up to keep you the fvck down, then go to some EMO forum and cry about it there...I'm sure they have long discussions there about how society sets certain people up for success and others for failure.

Or, alternately, you can start taking an active role in your reality...start building something instead of letting it be built for you and then complaining about the results.

Honestly, I don't know if BigBlackSuperMan is a troll, but what he said is absolutely 100% right-on: You boys need more confidence. Don't let the b***** be playing you so much.

Once you see and know about the Matrix, or Matriarx, or whatever the hell you want to call it, the reason...the ONLY reason...that you continue to be a victim of it is because you WANT to be. You're using it to explain your failure, as if it's something outside of your control, and I think it's high time we projected a more positive attitude for this forum.

The system is not absolute. You have the power to inject new code in it to bring about the kinds of changes you want to see. It's all based on how you think and your ability to imprint yourself on the Matrix, instead of letting it imprint itself on your brain.

You're suggesting that black people are the "sacred cows" of your Matrix? And by "black", I'm assuming you mean the ghetto subculture, since to even suggest it's a "black thing" is ignorantly racist to begin with, and I could name three silver-spoon black kids off the top of my head who became doctors and lawyers and still get no respect and don't get laid.

Ever look at what some of these rappers and athletes CAME from? What they grew up in? While your "Matrix" was telling you, "This kid will go to college, get a cubicle-monkey job, and have a decent-size house with a wife who doesn't really love him and two kids he never sees", this same "Matrix" was telling these men, "You will live in poverty. You will struggle to eat, you will only get the jobs no one else wants, your kids will starve.

These were kids in the ghetto DESTINED for failure. If they had curled up in a ball and whined, "I'M UNDERPRIVELEGED! THE MATRIX IS SCREWING ME!", they would never have gotten to where they are now. The difference between you and them is that they decided, "F this, I'm not going to let this universe run MY life for ME. I am going to get this paper, or I am going to die trying. Those are the only two options." For some that meant excelling at athletics. For others, it meant entertainment. Some ended up running drug cartels. But they all decided for themselves that what THEY wanted was more powerful than what society had planned for them.

THAT'S what society is so attracted to in the "black" subculture. That's why girls dig the black guys. Not because society has gifted them...but because it HASN'T. And they, through their imagination and will to win, did it for THEMSELVES. They created the universe around them in their image. Who WOULDN'T be turned on by that??

Stop your mental masturbation and your exercises in finding excuses for your lack of vision and willpower. You claim to understand the "matriarx", but the most important fundamental truth to it, you miss entirely. That truth is that YOU can REWRITE it in your image. Anyone who feels trapped by this "system" of society does not have a good understanding of it.

 

[Latinoman]

Ever look at what some of these rappers and athletes CAME from? What they grew up in? While your "Matrix" was telling you, "This kid will go to college, get a cubicle-monkey job, and have a decent-size house with a wife who doesn't really love him and two kids he never sees", this same "Matrix" was telling these men, "You will live in poverty. You will struggle to eat, you will only get the jobs no one else wants, your kids will starve.

These were kids in the ghetto DESTINED for failure. If they had curled up in a ball and whined, "I'M UNDERPRIVELEGED! THE MATRIX IS SCREWING ME!", they would never have gotten to where they are now.

Sadly enough...most of them end up with nothing (Tyson, several pro-football players, MC Hammer, etc.). Why? Because they STILL in the Matrix...but in their case is called the Ghetto. While most of the succesful ones tend to be the kind that did NOT come from the Ghetto (e.g. Michael Jordan, P Diddy, etc.).

Personally, I don't know what's worst of the two Matrixes.

 

[Nighthawk]

I'd like to see this argument (gender, not race) debated in the wider media. Anyone have any ideas about how that could be done?

One of the problems I see is that whining isn't manly. The media has little sympathy for angry, (mostly?) white men, and attacking our 'enemy' must be done carefully, preferably with wit and charm and all the qualities a Don Juan is supposed to embody.

Reversing the sexes on these examples is a powerful way to expose the double standards. If only we could somehow film the 'Bizarro' versions of these where the women are continually demeaned. Like Rollo says, when we were in charge we treated our women well. Mostly.

Anyway, I'm thinking we need a 'New Masculinism' movement, with this site as it's cornerstone. Because if we don't promote ourselves, clearly no one else will.

 

[squirrels]

Sadly enough...most of them end up with nothing (Tyson, several pro-football players, MC Hammer, etc.). Why? Because they STILL in the Matrix...but in their case is called the Ghetto. While most of the succesful ones tend to be the kind that did NOT come from the Ghetto (e.g. Michael Jordan, P Diddy, etc.).

Personally, I don't know what's worst of the two Matrixes.

Once again, you're proceeding from an assumption that every black man has the same lot in life and every white man has the same lot in life. It's an ignorant assumption.

Wayword was representing that all blacks are prized in today's society, when in reality he was focused on a very small subset, the entertainers we see in the media. So I was addressing that notion.

 

[romangod]

When I see a commercial that makes men look like idiots and steretypes them I will usually boycott the product. I will not be kicked in the butt as they take my money.

 

[WestCoaster]

The latest here in the West, a chain of gas stations called Stinker Stations are putting up so called philosphical billboards -- of course praising women and bashing men.

One I read yesterday: "Husbands, if you're always right you'll soon be left." What if they put, "Wives" instead of husbands?

Today I read: "Evolution is not true, otherwise women would have more than two hands."

Nevermind that MEN built the material for the billboard, MEN did the construction and placement for the billboard, and MEN built the freaking road that I was driving on while I was reading the billboard that the MEN built.

F'n amazing ... why is this going on?!

Got news for Stinker Stations, men AND women buy gasoline ... but they're not getting my money anymore.

 

[knighttime]

first off mad props to west.

now for my 2 cents. why do commercials man bash? its very very very simple. a lot of women are suckers and the message appeals to them. it plays right into their 'victim' mentality that men are holding them back in life.

so it goes like this: "hey miss consumer you think men are holding you back, well i think so also. i appreciate that deep down your a queen and just as smart, strong and competitent as any man, if not more so. i appreciate you, unlike those male oafs in the world. prove to those big dumb men that you are your own woman and just as good as them. And you can do that by buying my (****ty) product."

hahahaha!

those commercials aren't really insulting men when you think about it, in truth they are insulting WOMEN's intelligence! any woman that would buy a product becuase it bashes men is a f*cking idiot - and obviously there are a lot of f*cking idiot women out there for this advertising to be so pervasive.

and don't think its not being done to men also. those AXE commercial are about as f*cking retarded as you can get. any kid that thinks he can spray that **** on and 4 chics are going to jump his scrawny white as and bang his nuts off deserves whatever he gets in life.

now as for the damage it causes.

1) it does make a whole lot of women think they are more than they really are - but that's ok, those are the idiot women and you don't want them anyway. leave them to the AFCs.
2) yes, it does psychological erode a lot of males confidence (if even subconsciously) but that's because they are ignorant to the nature of the advertising and what it's trying to accomplish.
3) the real damage is done to male kids who aren't mature enough yet to understand the full nature of (subliminal) advertising. these male kids are growing up thinking its normal to let some woman walk all over you and to see you as the clumsy homer simpson just becuase your a man. but that said hopefully by the time they are knee deep in woman someone has exposed these kids to the real deal about being a man in this world.


anyway, instead of letting these commercials upset you see them for what they are - they exist to play on the psychological flaws / weaknesses of women. they appeal to a woman's insecurities, just like those AXE commercials appeal to a guy's insecurities.

the reason advertising is so f*cking stupid yet works nonetheless is becuase people are so f*cking stupid.

but i'm glad its that way. otherwise i'd have a lot more competition in life. I thank god every day for all the stupid people in the world, because it just makes it all that much more easier for me to survive and thrive in the world.

 

[Rollo Tomassi]

I'd agree with that too. It's easy to spot the manipulation that commercial influence peddles to women in the form of ridicule-as-empowerment, but's it's far more difficult and subversive to see how this same masculine ridicule is sold to men. We eat this ridicule up in advertising that's meant to pander to us and get us to accept this ridicule of our gender while simultaneously selling us a product.

Take for instance the AXE cologne commercials or any beer commercial. All these typically do is reinforce the masculine ridicule and confirm the feminized assumption that men are little more than over-sized boys, easy to figure out and only interested in sex and alcohol when their not watching football. Only homosexual/metrosexual men have any real redeeming intellectual traits and are interested in pursuits that accommodate women's idealizations.

Shows like 'The Man Show' ridicule masculinity in that it further confirms that men are only interested in juvenile behavior - if it has t_its and it's carrying beer it gets our stamp of approval. This sh!t is every bit as damaging to the perception that masculinity is anything but negative as the same commercials meant to confirm women's assumptions while selling them cat food or lipstick.

 

[DJDamage]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPu-RdgKWyA&feature=related

As if there is not enough out there to discourage men from approaching

 

[Señor Fingers]

This is not an agenda against men.

It's smart marketing.

Corporations know who the big spenders really are in their target markets, so of course they are going to cater to them and kiss their asses. Women are frustrated with men nowadays.. most of us have become bumbling idiots with no backbone. The commercial sympathizes with them cause Big Money knows who wears the wallet..

 

[penkitten]

Take for instance the AXE cologne commercials or any beer commercial. All these typically do is reinforce the masculine ridicule and confirm the feminized assumption that men are little more than over-sized boys, easy to figure out and only interested in sex and alcohol when their not watching football. Only homosexual/metrosexual men have any real redeeming intellectual traits and are interested in pursuits that accommodate women's idealizations.

i actually saw at a seminar that advertisers sometimes put subliminal messages into alcohol commercials and ads.
the wine glass has a scratch on it that is in the shape on an x.
a bubble in the glass might have the shape on an e .
the way the wine is being poured is in the s shape.
all to tell the person seeing the ad, that if they drink more of this, they will have more sex.
it sounds silly but....
so do the coors light commercials where all the chicks wore in the freezing weather were bikinis.
they mess with your heads. its telling you that if you drink the coors light, you will be able to have beautiful sexy women drooling over you.

 

[Señor Fingers]

Good point penkitten, the sexes get exploited both ways.

I dunno bout you guys, but I'm starting to have a low tolerance for these "Men are Victims" threads.

 

[romangod]

Sadly, men do still watch TV, and sadly we've become so freaking numb it's incredible. WaterTiger hit it on the button: If the tables were turned, some serious pilaging would be going on by women's groups.

Men just put up with it. Don't worry, the longer we keep ignoring it in about 20 years men will be wearing dresses to work and carrying purses.

Insanity reigns.

It's time for men to organize and set up a Men's Liberation Movement. We are slowly but surely being devoured as a gender. The Laws, Society and the Collective Psyche are all against men. We were given enough rope to hang ourselves.................. and we are.

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