A call to boycott Slim-Jim and ConAgra Foods

[WhyTravisFelt]

Aside from the fact that ConAgra Foods has just about the worst quality control team in years of snack foods (Slim Jim to David's to Orville Redenbacher), their recent Slim Jim Dare commercials are blatantly misandrist and misogynist. I'm sure you've seen them since they start-up on most of the videos on this website. I am a father of a two-year old, and seeing a scene where a man is deemed "unmanly" by trading in his sportscar for a mini-van riles me up every time. A man who puts his family's needs above his own desire to ride around in a sexy vehicle is bad, "unmanly" even? What decade is this? A man who finally expresses his emotions at a lost love needs to be carried away via helicopter? And then you have the "manbulance" commercial where a guy gets pulled over for having the audacity to sit behind a woman on a motorcycle. This is so sexist in both ways that it is frankly nauseating: a real man doesn't care about his family, would never express his emotions, and would never let a woman drive. Absolutely sickening stuff; I have personally never been so angry at dumb, poorly-thought out commercials in my life, and I'm not letting ConAgra get away with this. Please join me in boycotting their products; from Jack Links to Planters to Pop-Secret, there's a higher quality product out there anyway.

 

[Phlakes]

No. First, go watch the Jimquisition on boycotts. Second, it's just fucking adertisements, it's not like they're infringing on your human rights or anything. You can see things thousands of times worse everywhere. Take a chillaxative.

 

[EvanJO]

Congratulations, people like you are the reason we have whole swathes of the populations turning into whiny, celery eating girlymen because they don't have the sense god gave a potato and have skin as thin as a piece of notebook paper after it was used to soak up hamburger grease.

Grow a pair.

alternatively, stop trolling.

protip: The freedom of expression applies to advertisements, and said freedom does not come screeching to a halt because someone is offended.

 

[daemon37]

i agree with your reasoning, but i don't buy their products in the first place so I can't really boycott them any more than I have been.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Stop confusing a harmless joke with sexism. Calm the hell down.

 

[MrMixelPixel]

Boycotting is a bit far in my opinion... 0_0'

It's just a joke , a bad joke... but still. I don't think it is effecting (affecting?) anyone. If it makes you feel any better... I don't eat the food because of how stupid I think the advertisement is... ^^'

 

[Agayek]

-snip-

Congratulations. You are entirely too thin-skinned to be allowed to breed, yet you've managed it anyway. Thank you for diluting the gene pool. Future generations will thank you.

On a slightly less sarcastic note, you need to do the exact same thing everyone else who gets offended should do. Take a deep breath, count to ten and brace yourself for performing the most difficult act in the history of mankind. Don't watch it.

No one is forcing you to watch it, Clockwork Orange style. If you find it objectionable, go walk away and make a sandwich while the ad plays, then come back and move the playback timer on the video back to the beginning if necessary.

Go ahead and refuse to buy their products, that's your prerogative. Nobody else wants or needs to hear about it though.

 

[Salad Is Murder]

I like that new Caribbean jerk flavor, but it could stand to be a little spicier...a little jerkier perhaps.

Dammit, now I have that Billy Ocean song stuck in my head.

 

[Kunzer]

Well, all I have to say is that I only let a woman drive me somewhere if I am physically unable to operate said vehicle myself.

Such situations arise either when I've had too much to drink, and she would be my designated driver or if I've just undergone a surgical procedure involving general anesthesia.

On Topic: No. I won't be "boycotting" anything.

 

[Demyx26]

I'm pretty tired of these white trash commercials boasting manliness through doing certain things, it's disheartening that we live in a world where advertising has come down to insults at peoples interests and the propriety of gender roles. It insults acceptance.

 

[spartan231490]

Aside from the fact that ConAgra Foods has just about the worst quality control team in years of snack foods (Slim Jim to David's to Orville Redenbacher), their recent Slim Jim Dare commercials are blatantly misandrist and misogynist. I'm sure you've seen them since they start-up on most of the videos on this website. I am a father of a two-year old, and seeing a scene where a man is deemed "unmanly" by trading in his sportscar for a mini-van riles me up every time. A man who puts his family's needs above his own desire to ride around in a sexy vehicle is bad, "unmanly" even? What decade is this? A man who finally expresses his emotions at a lost love needs to be carried away via helicopter? And then you have the "manbulance" commercial where a guy gets pulled over for having the audacity to sit behind a woman on a motorcycle. This is so sexist in both ways that it is frankly nauseating: a real man doesn't care about his family, would never express his emotions, and would never let a woman drive. Absolutely sickening stuff; I have personally never been so angry at dumb, poorly-thought out commercials in my life, and I'm not letting ConAgra get away with this. Please join me in boycotting their products; from Jack Links to Planters to Pop-Secret, there's a higher quality product out there anyway.

One note, I'm pretty sure the "motorcycle" one that your referencing, is more about the fact that he is riding a moped.

as for the topic in general, it's supposed to be funny, you know, a joke. Do you also think that sprinkling doritos in your grandfather's urn will bring him back to life? Or that drinking Perrier will save you if it gets so hot out that your building starts melting?

Most commercials aren't meant to be taken seriously, they just try to shock you and catch your attention so the product remains in your subconscious and conscious mind. These commercials obviously worked.

Also, on a note about the practicality of such a boycott, it's very likely that they own a great deal more than just those three products. If you really looked, I bet they have stakes in just about everything, most corporations do these days. Hell, kraft foods and Marboro(I think, i know it's a cigarette company) along with 3 or 4 dozen other big brand names are all owned by the same corporation.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Aside from the fact that ConAgra Foods has just about the worst quality control team in years of snack foods (Slim Jim to David's to Orville Redenbacher), their recent Slim Jim Dare commercials are blatantly misandrist and misogynist. I'm sure you've seen them since they start-up on most of the videos on this website. I am a father of a two-year old, and seeing a scene where a man is deemed "unmanly" by trading in his sportscar for a mini-van riles me up every time. A man who puts his family's needs above his own desire to ride around in a sexy vehicle is bad, "unmanly" even? What decade is this? A man who finally expresses his emotions at a lost love needs to be carried away via helicopter? And then you have the "manbulance" commercial where a guy gets pulled over for having the audacity to sit behind a woman on a motorcycle. This is so sexist in both ways that it is frankly nauseating: a real man doesn't care about his family, would never express his emotions, and would never let a woman drive. Absolutely sickening stuff; I have personally never been so angry at dumb, poorly-thought out commercials in my life, and I'm not letting ConAgra get away with this. Please join me in boycotting their products; from Jack Links to Planters to Pop-Secret, there's a higher quality product out there anyway.

Well, I don't much hold for boycotts, and I'd never heard of the product before someone else pointed out much the same as you, but yeah, that's just embarassing.

But, as you'll notice, many men buy into this macho bullshit. However, as this seems to be a desperate scramble to avoid anything female, once it's noticed that women tend to avoid jumping off cliffs, as a rule, the problem will soon disappear.

 

[Dr.A]

Boycotting is a bit far in my opinion... 0_0'

It's just a joke , a bad joke... but still. I don't think it is effecting (affecting?) anyone. If it makes you feel any better... I don't eat the food because of how stupid I think the advertisement is... ^^'

It's "affecting." "Affect" is a verb, "effect" is a...noun, I believe.



OP: They're pandering to classic notions of manliness, being a tough, cool, doesn't care what anyone says about him kind of man. They're not trying to say that all those things the commercial said were unmanly are "wrong," they're just acknowledging the fact that society DOES have these similar visions of "manliness" and they're making fun of it.

I'm sorry it offends you but I thought it was funny and quite memorable.

 

[WhyTravisFelt]

I, for one, am annoyed at the emasculation of man that's been going on since I was in grade school. I hate the idea that aggression, anger, and self-confidence have been turned into negative "inhuman" character traits. But conveying the concept that a real man doesn't care about his family, doesn't understand sadness, and should be embarrassed by allowing a woman to "wear the pants" isn't just a "harmless joke," it's misandry, and it's sad that my fellow males just want to let it go. Popeye's isn't going to come out with a commercial that says "real black people eat here" let alone get into other racial topics like depicting a black man getting frowned upon because he doesn't have sneakers to match his shirt and shorts; Maybelline isn't going to come out with a commercial that says "real women need make-up to attract important, rich men" let alone have a commercial that shows a woman getting marked disapproval for walking out of a department store without bags of clothing. These are awful racist and sexist things to do. We make those of the XY-persuasion look like terrible human beings in these commercials, and ConAgra knows they'll get away with it because they know men don't care enough to mention that this is misandry and it isn't acceptable.