Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: It's Boots. Again

I hate the Boots Here Come the Girls ads. I think they are misogynistic twaddle and glorify the objectification of women's bodies, the fetishisation of "girls" and construct women as shallow, narcissists with serious addiction problems [notably shopping which can be self-destructive when compulsive]. I try not to let the kids watch ads so we record things before we watch them. Unfortunately, Boots has now taken to advertising before the Kids Club movie at Vue Cinema. And, they have surpassed themselves with the misogyny in their new campaign, although not with creativity since they have liberally "borrowed" from Galaxy's "women have to hide chocolate bars around the house so no one knows they eat chocolate" twaddle. 

Boots' pre-movie Here Come the Girls ad now features a woman staring with glee into a locked box full of chocolate bars. As I said with the Galaxy ads, 

Hiding food isn't the sign of a woman with a healthy relationship to food. Its quite a serious red flag for eating disorders. This ad simply fetishises eating disorders as something that all women should aspire too. ... I turn off the TV every time I see this ad because it makes me sad and utterly fucked off with a society that treats women eating as a social taboo.

The old Boots ads are bad enough. They feature women with compulsive behaviour problems and women trapped in marriages with men who are selfish and rude. They reinforce the idea that women's bodies are inherently ugly and that we can not be seen in public without covering ourselves in make-up and expensive skin creams, all the while getting our daily vitamin intake from pills whilst we stop eating to desperately lose that extra 10 pounds so we won't be fat too. But, now, we are not only ugly and fat, we are being encouraged to fetishise chocolate. No doubt, so that we will then be back at Boots buying weight loss products. The entire campaign is degrading to women. 

And, don't get me started on the word "girls". God forbid we get to be strong, intelligent, resourceful, and kind women with real needs and desires. Nope, we get to be infantilised and demeaned whilst hiding chocolate in locked boxes.

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Because this image of patriarchal arsehattery can't be shared enough:

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Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: Samsung's Smart TV's Seductive Emotion

Because the only way to sell a TV to men is to have an advertisement, run before the Kids' Club Movie*, starring a woman in her underwear being stared at by a building full of men incapable of thinking with anything other than their cocks: 

Because it is not at all frightening or creepy to find a couple of hundred men, some old enough to be your father, show up at your door salivating with lust. It's what every girl dreams of at night: some middle-aged arsehole who you've never met rocking up at your door with an erection. Nothing says desperate loser more.

No doubt, if one of them turned out to be a sexual predator, it would have been her fault for getting raped because she "enticed" them with her sexiness. Whilst watching the fucking TV. Because no woman is safe in their own home from predatory men. I mean, Reddit's proved that women's bodies are fair game in public. Why not in private too? God forbid, women think they are entitled to any privacy. 

Does Samsung realise women watch TV too? That I'm definitely not going to buy a TV whose entire ad campaign is based on perpetuating and perpetrating rape culture? Cus, it's not happening. 

Also, why is this commercial appropriate for an audience of small children? Does Samsung think 4 year old boys are so obsessed with tits that they are going to make their fathers run and buy a new TV so they can see a pair? 

And, why don't more men find this kind of advertising offensive? It's just said that all men are sex-obsessed losers with no self-control? Do none of you find that a tad rude? Or, objectionable?

*Okay, this is a bit a theme recently. I can safely say, bar an outbreak of the plague, I will not be taking small to see anymore kids' club movies because I clearly can not handle the rage-inducing levels of misogyny. At least, I won't until the get rid of Aquafresh's Nurdle World which is just the most appalling gender stereotyped shit that even Disney would struggle to match. After that, I might reassess the situation but only because it's raining. Again. 

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Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: Vagenda Knocks Them Down

These images are taken from a blogpost on Vagenda. I think they've brilliantly deconstructed the misogyny. But, sometimes, you just need to look at the images a second time to fully understand the WTF?  bit. [Or, a third time in this case].*

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*Between, Kookai definitely don't sell yogurt. I googled just in case there were two companies called Kookai. There aren't.

**Surely, PETA should be starting a campaign against French Connection now. That way, we can admire the misogyny squared.

*** Pot Noodle: The Lynx Effect of Food. Only eat them if you have a penis and are stupid****

****Not everyone with a penis is stupid so please don't bother posting that level of nincompoopery as a comment.

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Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: Eurostar's Tedious Twaddle

These are some of Eurostar's Post-Olympic ads which "invite customers to bring a little something back" with them. Granted, these aren't quite as horrific as the MyCheck ad starring Bar Rafaeli but they are so utterly tedious with the monotonous sexism. The second one definitely comes with an undercurrent of slut-shaming; just to be extra exciting.

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Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: The Victoria Secrets Barcode Puzzle Box

So, I'm way behind the times on these ads since they apparently date back to the summer of 2011. They have, however, just appeared in my FB news feed via Any-Body, who are an organisation well worth following. These ads are so disturbing that I'm not quite sure where to start. Victoria's Secret having been pushing the boundaries of television and advertising for several years now making the sexualisation and objectification of women's bodies mainstream in a way Hugh Hefner tried but didn't quite get. They used to air the annual Victoria Secrets Fashion show on TV in the US; a program full of nearly nude women with angel wings conflating sexuality with religious iconography. I have no idea if they still do and I really don't want to google it to find out. 

These interactive billboards bring Victoria Secret's misogyny to a whole new level. Granted we all know that if you click on the bar code, the pictures of the model sent to your phone won't actually be naked [although it won't be long before the violent pornographers join in with this] but the idea itself is just horrific. It further reduces women's bodies into parts for titillation. Its the 21st century version of the peep show on a bus stop for small children. That way we indoctrinate boys into believing women are nothing but fucktoys and teach girls they have no value except as fucktoys. 

The fact that women's bodies are a game, a puzzle to be solved in the view of children demonstrates just how little value we have. 

The fact that these ads, which are pornographic, are in the view of children and children are invited to play the game shows how little respect we have for our children. Instead of allowing them to grow up and discover their sexuality safely, we have constructed and constrained sexuality. We have narrowed it to women as object; men as subject.

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Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: Sheba. You Know, The Cat Food.

First of all, Eva Longoria should NOT be dancing in a cat food commercial. She's a talented actress and this is a pile of misogynistic pooh. But, seriously, who thought this up? She's basically doing a strip tease for her cat. I mean, I love my cat but I don't strip for her as a pre-dinner show. She's a cat. She just wants to eat. At no point, did she sign up for a lap dance. But, hey, if we can't objectify women's bodies during a cat food commercial, when can we? 

Welcome to the Patriarchy: where even cats deserve the right to objectify and dehumanise the bodies of women. 

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Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: @BittyLabs "Reclaim Your Wife" Awfulness

It's a company that sells baby bottles by telling men that women's breast belong to men. Because, God forbid, a woman use her breasts to feed her child. You know, like every other freaking mammal does. Nope, even in the first few precious months [or years!] women are expected to remain nothing more than fucktoys for their husbands. It's the one time in your life that you should feel proud and beautiful about your body which gestated a child for 40 odd weeks and then birthed that baby. No women should be made to feel worthless for not passing the Patriarchal Fuckability Test but targeting a new mother is just pathetic.

Alright, it was "just" a twitter campaign, but, come on, who actually thinks this shit is appropriate? Who thinks men are this stupid? And, if you do happen to run into a man who thinks this is funny, you probably shouldn't be reproducing with him. Jealous, infantile arsewipes do not make good men. Nor do they make good fathers. I can pretty much guarantee you any man that finds this funny will be out the door within a few years, won't pay any maintenance but will feel the need to ruin your child's life by pissing about with access visits.

These are the actual tweets Bitty Labs sent out:





Just in case you've missed the obvious "women are nothing more than fucktoys" reference in the first tweet, they conveniently sent out a second one to appeal to that subsection of extremely stupid arsewipes. This is such an epic social media failure that I genuinely can't get up the energy to email them to complain. Anyone who can tweet this wouldn't be bright enough to understand my critique of the capitalist-patriarchal anti-woman bullshit they are propogating.

So,they've made a half-hearted attempt at an apology but, let's face it, this is still a piece of misogynistic twaddle:

Ladies, We’re really sorry about the twitter campaign run last week. It was a huge miss understood [sic] and resulted in offensive messages. It was taken down yesterday. The messages had nothing to do with putting a husband needs before the baby’s needs, it was more about having a little extra time for the rest of the family. Obviously the whole campaign was poorly executed. We apologize deeply for this miss understanding and assure you, from now on the campaigns will be closely monitored before they go out. Thank you for a second chance.

Really, if you aren't going to bother apologising properly, there's really no point in bothering. It just makes you look like an even bigger nincompoop.

Oh, and not to put to fine a point on it, but the name Bitty Lab itself is pretty much the definition of misogynistic nastiness.

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Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: Domino's Pizza Now Served with a Rape Joke

Rape jokes are never funny; unless you're a rapist. Rape jokes simply continue to perpetuate our rape culture. It doesn't matter if you aren't a rapist. If you laugh at a rape joke, you are telling a rapist that rape is okay. That rape is funny and totally normal. Like pornography, and to seriously badly paraphrase a famous feminist quote, laughing at rape jokes is the theory and rape is the practise. This blog is precisely why rape jokes are harmful and the comedians who make them are just stupid, vile misogynists.

So, I'm adding Dominoes to the Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame for their "No is the New Yes" campaign for their new range of "artisan pizzas" [which in and of itself is a pretty stupid campaign for multi-national fast food company]. Using a very well-known anti-rape campaign to sell pizzas is just fucking despicable. Dominoes and the advertising company they hired should be ashamed of themselves. They can not undo the harm they have caused by approving this campaign and I, for one, will be boycotting them. Permanently.

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Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: Aquafresh's Stupid Fecking Nurdle World

I took Small [aka my youngest child] to see Stockholm Syndrome: The Movie [aka Disney's Beauty and the Beast] the other day. It was pissing with rain. We have run out of soft plays, swimming pools and museums to visit with the several thousand other families struggling to entertain small children during school holidays when it hasn't stopped raining. In what feels like forever. So, I'm making excuses for taking her to see a Disney Princess film. She likes them and it gives me a chance to rant about them. I think my objections to Beauty and the Beast are the routine feminist critiques: violent, abusive man who "heals" through the loving, kindness of a beautiful, sweet woman. Even better, Belle can read. And, she turns down a proposal from the village violent abuser to marry the rich abusive prince. Cus, that's a good thing right, especially if you ignore the subtext of rape throughout most of the first half of the movie? #facepalm

As if it weren't bad enough sitting through the twaddle of Beauty and the Beast, I also had to sit through Aquafresh's oh so subtle attempts at marketing toothpaste to children via the pretence of being educational. It's a short "film" called Nurdle World. It was patronising and the actress hosting it was, frankly, appalling. Really, the whole thing was appalling. But, they surpassed the appalling shit with their reinforcing of some seriously stupid, offensive and damaging stereotypes. Turns out, girls talk too much and boys are cool because they solve problems and fly spaceships. But girls, they just talk too much and do nothing. Just like Disney Princesses who have to be rescued constantly from "real men", Nurdle World girls [and sisters in real life] just sit around yakking and missing out on all the fun.

Just how fucking stupid was the marketing team that came up with this patronising shit? We are so boycotting Aquafresh now.

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Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: Sweetie Gets a Manicure

So, we were driving down the road and lo and behold we pass advertising on a lamppost with the lovely image of Sweetie leaving a manicurist. Sweetie the fucking Panda gets a manicure. You know, that panda which the BBC named as one of the most important (women's) Faces of 2011 "accidentally" leaving out three women who won the Nobel fucking Peace Prize. So, not only do real women not make the BBC's list of important newsmakers of 2011 (and Pippa Middleton was nominated for being the most sexually harassed women in April) but we now require female pandas conform to the Patriarchal Fuckability Test. And, advertise manicures. She's a fucking panda; an endangered species. I think Sweetie's got enough to worry about with half of the UK watching her reproductive parts to worry about whether or not her nails look good. Plus, her name is Sweetie.

Oh, and for those interested, the three women who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 were Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymay Gbowee, and Tawakkol Karman. They won "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work." Slightly more important than a panda.

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Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: Tampax Pearl's Mother Nature Twaddle

There's a whole stack of these stupid, misogynistic ads where "Mother Nature" tries to punish women with their periods for DARING to have a social life. Thankfully, Tampax, the Great Feminist Hero, is on hand to humiliate Mother Nature with their "pearls". Because, obviously, without Tampax no woman could possibly ever go out in public for fear of accidentally spilling some menstrual blood and possibly poisoning every man in their vicinity.

I can't even describe how angry the whole "Mother Nature as an evil bitch who hates women" theme makes me. That's patriarchal arsehattery at its finest. Making a natural part of women's lives bad and yucky and then blaming it on a woman. Because women need to be punished with their periods. Or, protected from them or something else that's all kinds of stupid.

Boycotting this shit too.

Bring on the Matriarchal Revolution by reclaiming our bodies and our mooncups [or washable linens].

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Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: Always and their Seriously Stupid "Have a Happy Period" Shite

The Always ads are stupid. They have always been stupid. They will always be stupid. And, they are so clearly designed by men because no women would think up "Have a Happy Period" as a slogan. I don't care about their dry-weave or pretty patterns on something designed to collect my blood. I'm not planning on displaying my used pads on youtube. I just want something practical to deal with the blood. Periods may be natural but they ain't an afternoon tea party. At least, I've never been to a tea party involving diarrhea, cramps, heavy bleeding, bloating, migraines and mood swings. I may be leading a somewhat sheltered life though.

I did try to find a link to one of these ads on youtube but mostly I found pisstakes of the "Have a Happy Period" bullshit. I didn't quite feel the need to watch any but it was enough to make me not bother searching further. Frankly, if you're desperate to see it, the ad runs on TV constantly.

The only thing I can say that is positive is that Always finally made me take the plunge into buying a mooncup. Probably not their intention but its made me happier. No more monthly purchases supporting the ultra-stupid P&G and their utterly bizarre "P&G is Proud to Sponsors Mums" crapola which just makes me want to vomit.

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Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: Pepsi Max's End of the World Pro-Rape Bullshit

This is an old advertising campaign for Pepsi Max and one that I complained to the ASA about. Needless to say, the ASA didn't see the misogyny inherent in "tricking" a woman into a sexual relationship by "pretending" the world is about to be destroyed by a giant meteor. But, then, the ASA isn't exactly renown for understanding or spotting misogyny even when its handed to them on a platter.

I think Pepsi Max crossed the line with this ad. Simply put, it encourages rape culture wherein a woman's consent is nothing more than a game. With the rape of a woman's body as a prize. The fact that Pepsi Max used this as part of a viral campaign entitled "Tell Us Your Max Experience" just makes it worse. Women's bodies are only for male pleasure and men get to use a woman's body even after she has said "no". Because women aren't allowed to say "no".

So, thank you Pepsi Max for reminding women, once again, that bodily autonomy isn't a privilege women have. In a capitalist-Patriarchy, we are simply fucktoys. And, rape, just another marketing tool.

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Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: Durex uses Sexual Violence to Sell Condoms

A dear friend tweeted me to suggest that Durex needed to be added to the Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame because of an image of sexual violence they used on their FB page. Since I started writing this blog post for its usual Monday morning slot, it appears that Durex has realised the massive PR mistake it made in allowing the photo to be used in the first place. Whilst this is a positive response to the massive criticism they received, its not actually good enough. Sexual advertising is harmful and destructive. It reduces 50% of the consumer base to nothing more than plastic blow-up dolls which is actually a pretty stupid business practise since women make up the vast majority of consumers in terms of household items and groceries. Purchasing condoms ends up "wifework" simply because its a chore. And, we all know women are the ones who do chores.

Taking down the photo also doesn't excuse Durex's reply to my friend Kim's letter of complaint:

Dear Kim,Thank you for your comment on the Durex UK Facebook wall. We appreciate you feel strongly about us removing the image but this will delete all the comments as well and we feel it is important for the conversation trail to remain visible. We don’t want our fans to feel their voices have been hidden.We hope you understand and please take our sincere apologies once again.Kind regards,Durex UK

Kim replied to their obvious bullshit with this:

Firstly, thank you for the email. However, I feel the decision to leave the content standing is a misinformed one. Durex has a public image, which is reflected in the content it posts on it’s public profiles, including its Facebook and Twitter feeds. It is not silencing to remove posts which offend a large number of people because of a strong link to sexual violence against women. It wouldn’t be silencing to remove it, and follow this up with a further apology. It would be showing that Durex hold a zero tolerance policy against sexual violence, and are committed to upholding their promotion of safe sex; safe sex doesn’t stop with using condoms. It extends to promoting healthy, consensual sexual relationships. By allowing this image to stand, you’re telling numerous survivors of sexual violence and their allies that their pleas not to see offensive media promoting violence against women, from a brand that is supposed to promote sex in a positive light, are unimportant, and unworthy of being responded to in a sensitive manner. You are allowing yourselves to further be associated with violence against women. As a result, I shall be boycotting Durex until the offending image is removed. I shall also be encouraging my friends to do the same. It may be time that Durex reconsider how “safe” their view on safe sex is.

Even though Durex has apparently pulled the ad, I will be joining Kim's boycott because, as she says far more eloquently than I, "My money will be going to condom brands who recognise that safe sex doesn’t stop at the use of a condom". We need to start holding more companies accountable for lazy sexist advertising so that ads which use sexual violence simply don't get made. Ever again.

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Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: National Homebuyers

Okay, so the National Homebuyers Ad is animated but seriously a male superhero/ football surrounded by half-naked cheerleaders is so utterly, pathetically obvious that I can't even get angry about it. It's the same derivative bullshit as normal with the added bonus of a seriously shit song.

So, I'm adding them to the boycott and hoping someone fires whoever is responsible for their theme-song.

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