Are you turned on by this ice cream commercial?

[Armadox]

The only ice cream you are supposed to get turned on by is Little Baby's Ice Cream.

 

[McElroy]

A very Korean way to picture strawberry ice-cream. I could imagine pedos getting the wrong idea. I will answer with a no. She might grow up to be sexy, though.

Or hideous... Which would be fixed with surgery. It's Korea after all.

 

[Baffle]

Probably not, but that's because there are still a few stubborn enclaves of outdated and heretical thought out there that believe boys and girls are different.

In relation to how much they like ice-cream?

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Probably not, but that's because there are still a few stubborn enclaves of outdated and heretical thought out there that believe boys and girls are different.

In relation to how much they like ice-cream?

The only commercials I have seen where they put women's lipstick on young boys is when they show that they got into their mother's makeup case and made a mess all over the place, not put on meticulously and focus on making "eyes" at the camera.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Quick question: would a boy be used in the same way in this advert?

Not sure exactly what you mean by "same way" but this does have an emphasis on the lips and mouth of the boy and his pleasurable expression.




(Also he kinda looks like a childhood friend of mine which made this a hilarious video to watch.)



But yeah, it's an ice cream ad, you'll have the people in it eating the ice cream and be pleased. Eating is pleasure. Not all expressions of pleasure are sexual to normal people.

Ok, I watched those both with the sound off, but the second looks more sexual than the first. In both case, not much, though, just people getting excited about ice cream.

So we can conclude that a boy would also be used in the same way. Sounds logical to me.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

So I've tried to find anyone defending that this is a problem but in English language media, the only people writing about it seem rather defensive about the whole thing. Some people seem to have an issue with the way lipstick is applied and the way the lips are zoomed in on (focusing on the mouth is understandable though, in an ice cream commercial).

The only direct quote I found were some tweets:

Decorating a child like an adult woman makes real girls exposed to crime. This is obviously disgusting and you must take steps to delete this video.

Some scenes like this have more serious problems. Closing up makeup lips is typical sexual apeal in ads. She is 11-year-old!!! It is sooo wierd and disgusting. You must delete this video and @BaskinrobbinsKR has to explain about this video.

Look, I don't think this commercial is sexualizing this girl, and the upper tweet seems like a rather serious claim to me with not nearly enough to back it up, but the reaction to the reaction to the video has all the patterns of the outrage machine. Crucially, nobody in the English-language media seems to have done the legwork to get any of the commercials detractors to state why they think this video has a problem in any detail, beyond a tweet and an unsourced reference to a blogpost somewhere. Instead we have speculation as seen above about how they are probably prudish repressed pedophiles.

The only people who have put out any sort of serious statement about it are the girls mother, who is pissed of about the response to the commercial and the company who think they have done nothing wrong, but are playing it as safe as possible with their commercials, so they have taken it down anyway.

The issue of young girls wearing makeup is the same one many have taken issues with in with "Toddlers in tiaras" in that they see it as sexualizing young girls to have them wear women's makeup to make them appear " sexier", as per the history of women's makeup. In addition, strawberries and ice cream are also considered "romantic foods" often used to shift to romance on a date ( ever fed strawberries to a love interest), or have been popularly used sexually in actual porn (all you need do is search strawberries and porn if you are not aware already). Strawberries are a go to "seductive food" and if you just google "strawberries sexy", you see plenty of women's lipstick painted lips enticing the viewers with strawberries, which seems to be what they are discussing in terms of the girls lips and strawberries in the same manner. Who can forget the strawberries dipped into the whipped cream bikini? Creamed lips are not really helping the situation either.

https://timeline.com/makeup-sex-history-59758c23e50d
https://www.eatsomethingsexy.com/aphrodisiac-foods/strawberry/
https://grasmickproduce.com/2017/02/14/strawberries-the-food-of-love-and-romance/
https://okramagazine.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/how-sexy-are-strawberries-the-centerfold/
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4wqbz9/question-of-the-day-whats-the-sexiest-fruit
https://www.storenvy.com/products/19488517-eat-my-strawberry-g-string-custom-lingerie-sexy-underwear-underwear-ven

Quick question: would a boy be used in the same way in this advert?

And that is exactly the point here. Would they put so much focus on boy's lips like that and making eyes at the camera as is common with women? With the romantic history of strawberries, sex and women's lips, it can be seen as sexualizing the girl, which sadly yes there is a pedo market for that that has shown to be an issue as they found out from toddlers in tiara pedo attraction issues, so while yes they are likely accurate that this makes her a pedo target, as also happened with Lazy Town, but I also do not think that this should be considered sexualized to the point that it should be considered kiddy porn. Though I do wish they would refrain from putting makeup on young girls in advertisements, not necessarily for the sexualized reason, but primarily due to how it impacts how impressionable young girls view themselves. Instead they should show that a girl is beautiful the way she is, and doe snot need to make herself appear more mature with cosmetics in order to be beautiful. I feel bad for the girl to have been put through this and to have had her advertisement, which I am sure she was very proud of taken down and hope it does not discourage her from doing more ads, hopefully with less focus on her lips and seductive fruits.

https://torontosun.com/2016/04/05/kids-beauty-pageant-show-eye-candy--perv/wcm/abd7c3ec-4cc1-4954-93f7-df3f72484aa3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ALazyTown%2FArchive_2

Young girls are impressionable. After watching a burlesque feather dance at the age of 4, I wanted to be a stripper when I grew up. You should have seen the look on my dad's face when I told him that... What they view at a young age shapes how they view beauty and themselves.

You forgot the part where strawberries happen to look like the head of a penis, and therefore cannot be used non-sexually because reasons.

Am I being sarcastic? Fuck I don't even know anymore.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Eggplant, mushroom, cucumber, carrot...now strawberry too? Isn't it the issue that penises like all body parts come in various shapes more so than things looking like them? I don't think non-degenerates really make these sort of associations with common food products. Especially not in a context involving kids.

It's a little popmusic video-esque in its editing and tone, which can give it a tinge of sex appeal. It also doesn't help that the first four or five shots feature no hint of the product and is just the little girl posing like a model.

Whether it it was meant sexual or not, this ice cream commercial does seem very eager in showing just how pretty this little girl is.

The girl is a professional model, apparently. So she's posing like herself; a child model.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

The only ice cream you are supposed to get turned on by is Little Baby's Ice Cream.

Theres also Halo Top


Humans require ice cream.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

No. But I got a better question.

Why do people insert sex into everything? I'm speaking as your run of the mill cis-gendered heterosexual male.

I'm tired of sex everywhere. I'm tired of people seeing sex everywhere. I'm tired of fearing hugging a female friend or making sure people see my hands every time a young child is near me.

I'm tired of not thinking like sickos but having to live my life to such extremes so I won't be confused for a pervert.

 

[Casual Shinji]

It's a little popmusic video-esque in its editing and tone, which can give it a tinge of sex appeal. It also doesn't help that the first four or five shots feature no hint of the product and is just the little girl posing like a model.

Whether it it was meant sexual or not, this ice cream commercial does seem very eager in showing just how pretty this little girl is.

The girl is a professional model, apparently. So she's posing like herself; a child model.

Yeah, but why would it be necessary to pose as a model in an ice cream commercial? The whole thing doesn't feel shot like an ice cream commercial, but more like a make-up or fashion add. Maybe that's what South-Korea tends to do with everything, I don't know.

 

[Chewster]

Yeah, that doesn't come across as sexual to me.

I am a bit puzzled by the mixture of English and Korean in the commercial though. Imagine being an elderly Korean person watching television and half of the commercials are in a language you don't understand.

Most people, at least those not in the boondocks, have a rudimentary understanding of English and I don't really think this commercial is directed at the elderly anyway. In my experience, most don't go to Baskin Robbins for ice cream, they buy the cheapo Korean brands at the 7/11 or whatever.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Yeah, but why would it be necessary to pose as a model in an ice cream commercial? The whole thing doesn't feel shot like an ice cream commercial, but more like a make-up or fashion add. Maybe that's what South-Korea tends to do with everything, I don't know.

I was just wondering, maybe she's relatively well known in SK? If they are trying to use star power to shift ice cream it does make a bit more sense that they shift the advert towards what she's known for. I did find the feel of the advert a bit weird for marketing ice cream (presumably) to kids, but that might explain the decision.

 

[Terminal Blue]

The girl is a professional model, apparently. So she's posing like herself; a child model.

She's posing like a child fashion model, and those don't exist. They don't exist for a reason, because fashion modelling has traditionally been considered too sexualized for children.

There's more to sexualizing children than putting them in obviously sexual situations. Sexualized image of children, for the most part, are driven by a desire to appeal to children by presenting children as "cool" and "mature". Children often like adult things, without necessarily understanding the sexual connotations of adult things. Little girls want to wear lipstick and pose like fashion models because they see these things as cool and adult. They're not doing it to attract men or elicit sexual feelings, and as children are increasingly recognized as consumers in their own right, media targeting them has adopted a more sexualized aesthetic.

However, while there is nothing inherently wrong with children wanting to look or act like adults or play around with the sexualized portions of adult culture, there are two consequences which people are concerned about.

1) It can lead to increasingly young children developing self-esteem and body image issues, as children start to judge their own appearance at a younger age and measure themselves against the "idealised" images which are being sold to them.
2) It is hugely, hugely enabling to predatory adults, who can use a child's need for validation and willingness to sexualize themselves against them by presenting actually sexual situations as normal. There are numerous examples of internet predators targeting children by exploiting environments in which the sexualization of children is normal.

In short, don't worry. Noone is coming to take away your ice cream adverts. But there are real issues with children being pressured or encouraged to look, behave or act like sexualized adults. We live in an age where children are exceptionally exposed to, and also increasingly present in media, and that's a good thing, but it has real dangerous consequences. Children today are under a unique pressure to put themselves out there and "self-brand", and there are many, many real life examples of people preying on that.

 

[CaitSeith]

The only ice cream you are supposed to get turned on by is Little Baby's Ice Cream.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[CaitSeith]

Oh... So it's a real life situation of something like this:


I'm just kidding.

 

[Batou667]

In relation to how much they like ice-cream?

No, but that's surely missing the point. If all they needed was footage of somebody enjoying ice cream, they could have taken camcorder footage of the dessert station at a buffet diner.

I imagine - and hope - the target audience of this particular advert was young girls. They're not selling a product, they're selling the corresponding lifestyle.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Objection. Leading question designed to lure the witness into a trap, your honour.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

No. But I got a better question.

Why do people insert sex into everything? I'm speaking as your run of the mill cis-gendered heterosexual male.

I'm tired of sex everywhere. I'm tired of people seeing sex everywhere. I'm tired of fearing hugging a female friend or making sure people see my hands every time a young child is near me.

I'm tired of not thinking like sickos but having to live my life to such extremes so I won't be confused for a pervert.

I'm fairly sure your run of the mill straight dude wouldn't refer to themselves as that lmao. But yeah I agree with your main point. People are either terribly immature or degenerates and have only ever seen interactions like hugging a female friend or really enjoying your damn ice cream during porn (and feel guilty about it) so that's where their mind goes.

My approach is to embrace that someone will inadvertently think I'm some form of perv no matter what I do or don't do (there's things like "abandonment play" too which make inaction sexual just as much, you can't win) and to just stop caring, to just see that person as someone whose judgement is fine to disregard. I'm not a puritan and will not be controlled by these repressed neopuritans.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

No. But I got a better question.

Why do people insert sex into everything? I'm speaking as your run of the mill cis-gendered heterosexual male.

I'm tired of sex everywhere. I'm tired of people seeing sex everywhere. I'm tired of fearing hugging a female friend or making sure people see my hands every time a young child is near me.

I'm tired of not thinking like sickos but having to live my life to such extremes so I won't be confused for a pervert.

Blame Freud.

Everyone wants to look for subtext everywhere and push and push to find more and more to keep feeling smart for spotting it. (Hello Sarkeesian!)

 

[Asita]

"Also, whoever is making this be sexual is imo the real pederast here"

Oh yes...and the only people who read romantic overtones in Folgers' Brother and Sister commercial are those involved in incest, right? I mean, what, are they saying that a brother and sister can't be close? That no non-incestuous pair of siblings would spend time together literal minutes after one of them came back after a who-knows-how-long absence? Sickos, I tells ya. Next thing you know, they'll be saying that Korra and Asami got together at the end of Legend of Korra, because clearly they don't know that there are platonic ways to hold hands...

Is my sarcasm coming through all right? I don't know, I may have been a little subtle in my disdain for that logic.