Sexist Ad Lands EB Games Australia In Trouble

[Vrex360]

I think there has been a problem with the quotes. I only said the second quoted paragraph, not the first.

Eep, yes just noticed that too.
My computer must have screwed up (I was trying to quote two people at once)

All you are doing is reading into the ads what you want to read into them. I could do the same thing with this ad. I could say that this ad portrays men in the stereotypical role of a bad husband who thinks more about his own gaming needs than of his wife. Whereas, the wife is seen as the more sensible of the two, thinking about their long-term future rather than some short-term luxury item.

Well, one can sort of address the fact that the man is never actually questioned or challenged by his seemingly sexist and obnoxious behavior (like it's never pointed out to him to actually pay attention to the woman talking to him) and while I admit that abscence of condemnation isn't evidence of approval, I can't help but think the ad would be mocking him more if this were the case.

Also it's worth noting that the wife complains about him spending $100 on a videogame for himself, but not for him spending the same amount for a decandent meal for her. Which in turn makes her come across, to me at least, as a bit shallow and hypocritical.

Therefore, I could say the ad is saying that women are smarter than men because all men are just obnoxious douches who do nothing but play games.

But of course it's advertising games, so that interpretation doesn't really make any sense.

Also, we're clearly talking about different kinds of ads, though they are slightly similar. This is what I mean:

I'm sorry, not trying to sound like a jerk here but what do you mean by this?

 

[Eccentric_Jon]

"47% of gamers are female"

LMFAO.
Facebook doesn't count, neither does Google+.

Female gamers are out there, but still a lot rarer than the statistics suggest.

 

[Eccentric_Jon]

It certainly lacks tact, but isn't as bad as that new Dr. Pepper ad. I noticed the "Man's Guide To Trading" at the start. It is just as bad. The creators should be canned/reprimanded for the poor ad.

What Dr. Pepper ad? Is it that bad?

Yeah, alienating half of their consumer base. Brilliant move.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=yorkie+not+for+girls&aq=f

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

It doesn't reinforce the idea that 'women don't like games', it reinforces the fact that a guy is typically more likely to want to buy an Xbox game whereas the wife will remind him of how costly it is. This is stupid.

 

[MasochisticAvenger]

I think there has been a problem with the quotes. I only said the second quoted paragraph, not the first.

Eep, yes just noticed that too.
My computer must have screwed up (I was trying to quote two people at once)

All you are doing is reading into the ads what you want to read into them. I could do the same thing with this ad. I could say that this ad portrays men in the stereotypical role of a bad husband who thinks more about his own gaming needs than of his wife. Whereas, the wife is seen as the more sensible of the two, thinking about their long-term future rather than some short-term luxury item.

Well, one can sort of address the fact that the man is never actually questioned or challenged by his seemingly sexist and obnoxious behavior (like it's never pointed out to him to actually pay attention to the woman talking to him) and while I admit that abscence of condemnation isn't evidence of approval, I can't help but think the ad would be mocking him more if this were the case.

Also it's worth noting that the wife complains about him spending $100 on a videogame for himself, but not for him spending the same amount for a decandent meal for her. Which in turn makes her come across, to me at least, as a bit shallow and hypocritical.

Therefore, I could say the ad is saying that women are smarter than men because all men are just obnoxious douches who do nothing but play games.

But of course it's advertising games, so that interpretation doesn't really make any sense.

Also, we're clearly talking about different kinds of ads, though they are slightly similar. This is what I mean:

I'm sorry, not trying to sound like a jerk here but what do you mean by this?

That ad shows a bunch of women in the workforce performing the same job as a man far better than he could ever hope to. The man, Jason, responds to this revelation by childishly mocking the women and coming across as a douchebag. Can you really tell me that this EBgames ad is really any worse than that RACV ad?

However, I will agree that the woman having no problem with the dinner does make her come across as shallow and selfish - finding the man's hobby stupid, but having no issue when it is something she wants.

My point is not that the ad isn't sexist, because it is. My point is, and always will be, that there are far bigger things to worry about... seriously! This ad isn't going to set the women's rights movement back any... now women coming across as childish and immature by bitching about something that ultimately doesn't matter might, but that's a discussion for another time.

 

[Vrex360]

That ad shows a bunch of women in the workforce performing the same job as a man far better than he could ever hope to. The man, Jason, responds to this revelation by childishly mocking the women and coming across as a douchebag. Can you really tell me that this EBgames ad is really any worse than that RACV ad?

It should be worth noting that in that ad, everyone is competing with everyone.
First a man says 'call me' then the guy Jason says 'no call me I've helped some lady save one hundred dollars' to which it's met by a woman challenging him then another woman challenges that woman and then another woman challenges all of them and then they throw paper balls at each other.
I didn't honestly get the impression of a 'battle of the sexes' when I looked at it, and while I agree that it can be viewed as that way, I honestly think the gender stereotypes are a lot less blatant here.

 

[Baby Tea]

As a copywriter, I'd say this is a TERRIBLE commercial.
The dialogue, the VO work, everything about it screams 'Made by a highschool student'.
Just disgusting.

As for sexism, however, I think if it's offensive to any sex, it's offensive to both.
For women, it's offensive because you've got the nagging housewife, who dusts while the husband lays about. Not even mentioned that the wife doesn't want to play, despite, as is suggested in the article, women make up half the gaming community.

But it's also sexist towards men. As a husband, I actually LISTEN to my wife, not just zone out and hear a 'Charlie brown' noise. I help my wife around the house, too. And I try to treat my wife to a night out, or a 'date night', just because I love her. Not because I traded games in (At shitty shitty value). So the MAN is offensive, because he's a 'doesn't listen' douche who tries to manipulate his wife to get him to play more video games. What is this, a sitcom?

This was not written by a woman. something tells me that if we ever actually 'meet' this 'woman' who wrote this, we'll be shaking her hand from under the bus where she was thrown.

 

[MasochisticAvenger]

That ad shows a bunch of women in the workforce performing the same job as a man far better than he could ever hope to. The man, Jason, responds to this revelation by childishly mocking the women and coming across as a douchebag. Can you really tell me that this EBgames ad is really any worse than that RACV ad?

It should be worth noting that in that ad, everyone is competing with everyone.
First a man says 'call me' then the guy Jason says 'no call me I've helped some lady save one hundred dollars' to which it's met by a woman challenging him then another woman challenges that woman and then another woman challenges all of them and then they throw paper balls at each other.
I didn't honestly get the impression of a 'battle of the sexes' when I looked at it, and while I agree that it can be viewed as that way, I honestly think the gender stereotypes are a lot less blatant here.

Three points

1.) The first guy exists purely to be interrupted by Jason, because having one of the girls be interrupted by him would have given the impression that what Jason had to say was more important than what the women had to say. Notice how the guy says nothing after that moment, and has no imput on how much money he is saving customers compared to the others.

2.) While they might all be in competition, Jason is the only one acting like an immature child when the women tell him they are saving people more money than he is.

3.) Watch the ad again... they're only throwing papers at Jason...

 

[Vrex360]

Snip

I think we are getting a little bit off topic. And I have to go now anyway, so I'm prepared to let this debate stop for a little while.

 

[Funkysandwich]

You know what?

All of this debate is not important anway, and you want to know why? Because Advertising is not important. If we allow our culture to be defined by advertsinging, then we really are just as dumb and shallow as these terrible, terrible ads.

We don't watch advertising to learn something about ourselves, and we certainly shouldn't emulate things we see in ads in our daily lives.

 

[MrNickster]

That is not sexist and anyone who thinks it is is too sensitive. It's making a joke about games and stereotyped, traditional gender roles in the gaming and popular culture. Sure, it's not very funny, but calling it sexist is just dumb.

 

[MasochisticAvenger]

Snip

I think we are getting a little bit off topic. And I have to go now anyway, so I'm prepared to let this debate stop for a little while.

Yeah, I'm getting a little bored with this whole debate as well. For me, the shitty quality of the ad far outweighs the negative stereotypes, and any sexism the ad portrays is more likely the result of poor-planning and not thinking things through than it is some kind of message EB is trying to send out to its female audience.

Can we all just agree the ad is stupid, and we should all just be offended the ad was made in the first place? The ad doesn't really potray either gender in any real positive light.

Still, I would have loved to be a fly on the wall during that meeting...

 

[Daveman]

"The single worst part of the ad was at the end when the guy is playing games and his wife is dusting around him like some sort of terrible advertisement from the 50s,"

Yeah, the impression I got was that it was joking with that theme, I mean it even had the typical 50s advert music. It's shit and unfunny, yes. But is it really that offensive? I mean the guy is clearly painted as some kind of retard who's never heard of trade-ins.

 

[SaunaKalja]

While I'm really bad at this whole sexism stuff, I can say I'm glad I now know that my country isn't the only one with horribly shitty ads on TV.

 

[Zoe Castillo]

---

 

[Phisi]

If they are making a another one for the stereotypical female demographic then I think it would have been okay and actually funny if THEY HAD AIRED THEM AT THE SAME TIME and exagerated the humor a bit but I think they are just saying that to manage PR fallout. I would not say it is sexist though, just stereotypical which can be correct in some cases but the joke is lost on the majority of gamers who I assume they are appealing to who don't think that the ad is tht funny as I am sure we can see here.

 

[Misho-]

What the hell did he owned at the end? Because he traded 3 crap Xbox to take home a Batman Arkham City for PS3?

 

[Sansha]

This is about as sexist as I am female.

[small][sup]You see, it's funny because the topic is about sexism. No? Anybody? Not even a giggle?[/sup][/small]

Anyway. Yeah, really not seeing the issue here. If it was the other way around, with a woman buying the game and the bloke moaning, would anyone care? Seems like whining for the sake of whining to me.

As a game-playing male, I'd be offended by that, and I'm actually offended by this ad. It's not so much sexist, just a really pathetic step backward.

That and the animation is shit, the voice actors are retarded and the whole thing looks like it was banged together like a 10-year-old's school project.
It has about that level of education, come to think of it.

 

[Arakasi]

Terrible ad, but who didn't already know EB games was sexist?

Well, not specifically them, but their employees.
My friend actually gets females to buy him games because they almost always get something extra from the (normally male) seller.

They really need better policy.

 

[Saltyk]

That ad was terrible. No, not because it was sexist. It was just a bad advertisement. It was boring, slow, and all around made me want to forget that it existed as soon as I started watching it. The only reason I watched it at all was because it was here, otherwise I would have forgotten about it instantly. And I'll forget about it as soon as I finish this comment.

Also, it looked like a sub-par Newgrounds flash. Terrible.