Stupid sexist advert

[Fai57]

God, I hate those too. Even if it's supposed to be a joke, it's just further reinforcing stupid male stereotypes. The other one that circulates on this site is the one where they move through a hospital ward prescribing different strength Slim Jims to men who are not being manly enough. Such horrific things as trading in an impractical sports car for a van, presumably because he and his family needs it. Or, the most heinous offense, showing sadness that someone that he loves is marrying someone else.

It's not the end of the world or anything, but this sort of thing shows up everywhere, and it shows an undercurrent of thought that actually agrees wholeheartedly with these commercials. And when you have to keep seeing the same stupid commercial for weeks at a time, it gets really obnoxious.

 

[maninahat]

To an extent you are right, but it's more about the embarrassment of a man rather than a negative depiction of a woman as having to "be in her place", since two accepted cultural norms are that men should avoid being passengers as we are meant to be the leader in any given situation as well as the fact that it's a man riding a scooter, what is considered by the more masculine oriented grouping of men to be a motorbike for women, meaning that the depiction of that man on his girlfriends scooter is reliant on showing him as both forfeiting his inherent responsibility to lead and control, a somewhat sexist but forgivable goal and forfeiting that right by riding what is considered one of the most emasculating vehicles in existence.

This is based on your description, I possibly get different ads to you (Australian) but from what you're saying the ad is just following that "BE MANLY BY DOING MAN STUFF" method that a lot of ads are moving towards when targeting younger men. It is somewhat old fashioned, but as an ideal men riding as a passenger on a scooter can, in a modern society, still be seen as an emasculating experience, and an acceptable way to highlight the implied masculinity of the product through showing who, according to the product, needs it.

So overall, no matter the context of the ad, most men would recognize being a passenger on a scooter to be embarrassing through it's depiction of power in the relationship (woman in control) so while a little sexist in that way, it's mostly harmless and childish.

Thanks, that seems like a plausible explanation.

Still bothers me that someone thought this 90s, FHM-esque message would make a good advert. I've seen similar adverts for Yorkie bars and chrisps, but they often talk about being mannish in a more vague, general way, rather than saying something as strangely obtuse as "it is unmanly to let your girlfriend take you somewhere on her scooter".

 

[BeanDelphiki]

am I just being neurotic about this shit?

yes, and im assuming also that you arent from america because you referred to them as spicy meat stick things. slim jims are supposed to be synonymous with manliness so they make their commercials over the top. the reason i think youre just being neurotic is because the commercial isnt sexist at all actually. in no way does it demean women. what it does do is strengthen gender roles and social "order," it doesnt talk about the women at all. essentially it is homophobic in nature.

Homophobia is largely based on sexism and misogyny, so this argument doesn't make sense.

 

[zehydra]

Those Slim Jim ads are stupid and annoying, but not sexist or offensive in any way (unless you count being so dumb that it's offensive to intelligent people).

They ARE sexist, but nobody gets offended.

 

[intheweeds]

So overall, no matter the context of the ad, most men would recognize being a passenger on a scooter to be embarrassing through it's depiction of power in the relationship (woman in control) so while a little sexist in that way, it's mostly harmless and childish.

It's not a 'little sexist' in that way, it's completely sexist and not harmless at all. It's the whole 'men should be in the power position' mentality. The more society encourages men to want to be in the 'power position' when next to a woman, the less equal everyone becomes.

It suggests men should be embarrassed for allowing a woman the position of driving the vehicle, suggesting that men should make fun of each other for allowing themselves to be in the weaker position. Hey guys, use peer pressure to make sure your fellow men aren't turning into stupid weak ladies! Whatever that means, the whole point of what I'm saying is that it enforces the fact that one side is weaker than the other when in fact, who is sitting where on a motorcycle is completely irrelevant..

 

[Echo Delta]

God, I hate those too. Even if it's supposed to be a joke, it's just further reinforcing stupid male stereotypes. The other one that circulates on this site is the one where they move through a hospital ward prescribing different strength Slim Jims to men who are not being manly enough. Such horrific things as trading in an impractical sports car for a van, presumably because he and his family needs it. Or, the most heinous offense, showing sadness that someone that he loves is marrying someone else.

It's not the end of the world or anything, but this sort of thing shows up everywhere, and it shows an undercurrent of thought that actually agrees wholeheartedly with these commercials. And when you have to keep seeing the same stupid commercial for weeks at a time, it gets really obnoxious.

These are my thoughts exactly. I find it funny how they say it's "made from stuff guys need". Does anyone actually know what the hell goes into a slim jim? LOL.

Can't we go back to the stupid ass duke nukem adverts? At least those were relevant! For the sake of all that isn't holy, you're trying to market something about macho, jerk-ass fratboy stereotypes to bronies (or you know, people that have emotions and shit)... at least try to address your target market.

 

[miketehmage]

A scooter isn't manly. Like at all. It's saying nothing against women driving, but let's think about it, a man could not play the role of the women as it would come across as homophobic (i.e making fun of 2 men riding on a scooter together, which is undeniably as gay as gay gets) instead of poking fun at feminine men, which is much more acceptable. Hence, woman driver.

 

[Aikayai]

Its not sexist to be a gentleman these days is it? Damn I must have missed the memo.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I think you're being a little neurotic, it's ok to make jokes about 'manliness' so long as you stay clear of 'kitchen' jokes. I direct you to Foster's and McCoy's for more examples.

Spoiler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhm3sIZiaz4&feature=player_detailpage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU1RQRXGH9U&feature=player_detailpage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGw-bJ_MUV8&feature=player_detailpage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92FvsoJp3QM&feature=player_detailpage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WygyfuJ1Xe0&feature=player_detailpage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1yuMk7FFRo&feature=player_detailpage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeBcQk9JMHM&feature=player_detailpage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwP1JSmVDSA&feature=player_profilepage

Spoiler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3_nj4-mN90&feature=player_detailpage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO2-VO8b-ns&feature=player_detailpage

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

And here I thought it was a stupid commercial for slim jims about some dudes in an ambulance disapproving a guy on a scooter, silly me.

You must excuse me for not thinking 'sexist' when I saw it.

 

[Orange Lazarus]

It's because it's a SCOOTER. It doesn't matter if there was two supermodels on that thing and the guy himself was freakin' Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, or hell, even Sean Connery. It just isn't manly to be on a Scooter.
Ever.

Coming from a superb judge of manliness, someone whose avatar is the vampire from Buffy.

 

[Dr Snakeman]

Every time I see that I can't help but think that I would rather on the back of the scooter with my arms around a woman than in the ambulance with two scruffy guys trying to offer me their meat sticks.

Okay, that was pretty funny. Kudos.

And as for the OP? It's unmanly because A) He's "riding *****", on the back of the thing, which is viewed as wimpy, and B) HE'S ON A DAMN SCOOTER! That's just really sad.

His need to man up has nothing to do with the fact that a woman is driving; if it were a car, it would be fine. It's the fact that he is riding on the back of a scooter that makes him... need a Slim Jim?

Yeah, those commercials are still stupid.

 

[Mandalore_15]

I'm borrowing someone's apple laptop, so naturally I'm using the Safari and not able to block ads. This is a big problem, because my Escapist videos are all preceded by stupid, unstoppable adverts.

You know that using adblockers can get you a suspension on this site, right?

I didn't technically admit to using ad blockers, if it is really an issue.

PS, why is it an issue? I've never heard of it before.

You were complaining that you can't block ads on your friend's laptop, which implies you do block them on your own. It is an admission really.

It's an issue for the escapist because ads are their main source of revenue. If people block them they don't get paid, so the take a hard line with people that use them.

 

[HandsomeJack]

The joke is that the term for the way he is riding the scooter is "Riding *****," a term that derrives from bikers. Typically the bikers (often seen as manly men) ride the motorcycle, while thier girlfriends (who they refer to as thier "*****") ride my holding thier arms around then since motorcycles arent ideal for passenges without a sidecar. So the implication is that he is her "*****"

 

[Reaperman Wompa]

It's not a 'little sexist' in that way, it's completely sexist and not harmless at all. It's the whole 'men should be in the power position' mentality. The more society encourages men to want to be in the 'power position' when next to a woman, the less equal everyone becomes.

It suggests men should be embarrassed for allowing a woman the position of driving the vehicle, suggesting that men should make fun of each other for allowing themselves to be in the weaker position. Hey guys, use peer pressure to make sure your fellow men aren't turning into stupid weak ladies! Whatever that means, the whole point of what I'm saying is that it enforces the fact that one side is weaker than the other when in fact, who is sitting where on a motorcycle is completely irrelevant..

Arguably true, but I think the context as an ad justifies it. Ads rely on entertainment value and in a completely egalitarian society there is no allowance for gender based jokes, which is a large segment of comedy, so ads have to fall back on supposed gender roles to be entertaining and gain brand awareness through being recognizable as those guys with the funny ads. I think taking the ad to be depicting a man on a scooter as a "stupid weak lady" is a bit much, but the point is still relevant, namely that we are meant to see the man as less manly for his situation. Still though, I don't think the ad is about the relationship between women and men and is certainly not encouraging the denigration of women, it's more playing off the relationship between men, that whole "Bro' thing which, while sexist, still can be considered inoffensive as while gender roles can be considered outdated they do really help the individual form their own identity and grow into a responsible person, so the encouragement of gender roles can be allowed, as long as we understand the context outside of the advertisement, namely that the whole men do men things and women do women things is allowable when used in a simplistic manner but is not relevant to modern society.

Simply put, we see the sexism in the ad, laugh at it because it is sexist, then exit that mentality into the real world where, while pressure to conform to those roles exists, we are all still completely in agreement that such ideas of acceptable roles and the ideas of who wears the pants in a relationship are no longer as relevant as they were.

The interesting thing to remember is that this is a food ad. If the product was so inherently "MANLY", as it claims to be, then only men could eat it. Since I assume women also partake of the product, the ideas of masculinity of the product are refuted every time someone with ovaries has one.

 

[Muphin_Mann]

I believe I'm seeing an addmittance to add blockers. That's against forum rules.

You were the kid who told the teacher when he saw classmates passing notes wernt you?

To the OP: It is a bit sexist, but not very. The idea is that a scooter isnt a "mans vehicle" I find it more offensive to men (implying more of that machismo redneck crap) than women since the issue is the scooter and how hes riding, not the girl driver.

to the people decrying the OPs implied use of ad blockers: Really? You LIKE being forced to watch garbage ads that slow down your computer and, in my opinion, are a sign of the sharp decline of the quality of this site? You LIKE that? Because he said he cant use them on the borrowed one, which implies he normaly does, but isnt an admittance by a long shot. You attempting to twist someones words AND, even if he did use blockers, isnt it the mods jobs to deal with it, not yours?