Like a noodle needs a motorcyle
NS April 23rd, 2008
I don’t know about you, but I just adore being compared to a food product or inanimate object and looooove it when companies make advertisements filled with negative stereotypes and hatred in an attempt to be funny and hip. ‘Cause yeah, misogyny is hil-frickin’-arious. Even my husband was offended by these adverts and he’s not easily riled. Watch for yourself and decide.
Do these advertising execs have mental illnesses? I hope to find out because I have scouted out the phone numbers for their marketing departments and have left messages, along with filing complaints with the Advertising Standards Authority. Honda apparently is claiming that this video is not an official release, which very well could just mean that they paid for it and came up with it but let it ‘leak’ because they knew it would generate press and they could get away with their disgusting behaviour without consequence. And Pot Noodle? Well, they’ll have no such excuse since I saw it live on telly last night while watching a football game with TNH. I guess they didn’t think any womenfolk would be watching sports of all things. I suppose it was after 9pm so I should’ve been cleaning something or giving my man a blowjob.
Bastards.
- Feminist Fury , In The News
- Comments(15)
WTF?? That Honda advert really pissed me off…..what sorta f**ked up advert is that? Who thinks of these stupid things? What’s even worse is someone actually approved of them. *shakes head in disbelief*
I’m off to do some complaining.
same shit, different day.
The Pot Noodle one is just a bit sad, misses badly, as an ex marketing exec to me it’s borderline and would squeak through if it was funny. Unfortunately it’s just shit. I can see what they are trying to do but my eleven year old nephew could do better than that script.
The Honda one is the kind of thing that makes me incandescent with rage, the sort of shit that would make me go into the office and fire some random male employee on a whim to make me feel better. I especially detested the arse shot.
Pure thrust? Oh fuck off! It’s not even like you get a decent shot of the bike but then presumably the viewers are too busy jerking themselves off to notice it anyway.
Incidentally I had a lengthy correspondence with Lynn hi-fi over something similar in the early 90s. I’d saved up one and a half grand to buy one of their record decks and then I saw an ad which basically implied that some bloke had shagged a pair of twins but married the one with the Lynn hi-fi. The implication was that it was only the hi-fi that made the difference between the two women and it fucked me off beyond belief. I got a 3 page justifciation by return of post proof positive to me that they were just doing it to make waves, as I suspect, Honda are. At no point did they apologise, show any humility or display any remorse that it might be offensive to some people or appear to make any effort to appreciate my point of view. They reacted defensively like I was some kind of femnazi! Their reaction made the original transgression far worse for me.
Even 15 years on, my husband can buy all the Lynn Hi Fi he likes but I never will. Back in the 90s, I spent that one and a half grand on a sports car. Then I wrote to their MD explaining what I had done and why.
Cheers
BC
Oh yeh and it puts all their happy friendly eco bollocks into perspective doesn’t it.
“Honda. The Power of Dreams”
I didn’t realise they meant wet ones. Phnark.
Tossers.
Cheers (again)
BC
I normally agree with you on everything, NS, but not this time. In the case of Pot Noodle it’s crass tongue-in-cheek humour which I think does more to send up the chauvinist attitude of simple menfolk than it does to belittle women (not to mention it’s sideswipe at 80′s ballads). As for Honda, I suspect this is a clever little bit of viral marketing which you have just fuelled by posting here. Both ads designed to get a reaction and free publicity – both boxes ticked there then!
WPB — I know that the Honda ad was viral marketing and that in theory I should just ignore it, but it’s disgusting what these companies come up with to try to sell their products. I’d hate to be their consciences at night!
And as for the Pot Noodle advert…well, we’ll just have to disagree that it was tongue-in-cheek and meant to be just a naughty little swipe at chauvinist men. Those chauvinist men of which you speak are the very consumers they are trying to reach (by their own admission — they seem to think that only priggish men buy instant noodles) so I somehow don’t believe that they would insult them as such. I think that’s what they WANT us to think, because Brits particularly are used to dismissing many derogatory things as merely ‘taking the piss’ when they are genuinely hurtful or harmful, all in the name of “fun.” While that’s all well and fine for those making the jokes and in the majority in our society, it’s not so funny to be on the receiving end of it all the time. It gets tiresome after awhile and I can’t honestly be expected to just keep my gob shut and shrug it off every time. It’s easy to tell someone to lighten up and take the high road when you don’t have to see it, hear it and live it every single day. And I’m not getting at you, just venting my frustration at what I see all around me.
My rule of thumb for offensiveness is: if you couldn’t make the same joke openly about a racial minority without getting lynched, it’s too offensive to say about (insert more acceptably derided social group here, like women, or gays).
The Pot Noodle advert was dumb, but that Honda advert was totally offensive. I didn’t expect the “Smack My Bitch Up” song. It was like icing on the misogynistic cake, although I shouldn’t have been surprised.
Don’t get me started on the whole “taking the piss” mentality or the “it’s just our British humor” excuse. I don’t buy it for one minute. Never will. It’s a silly way of holding onto the tiring domination mentality of those old Empire days.
Wow.
I’m not easily riled either and those both did a good job.I was almost ok with the Honda one until I heard the “Smack my bitch up” music and then I wasn’t so ok with it.
Yeah, I agree with you, NS. Total shit, both of them. The Honda one especially is completely offensive.
Sigh.
(oh, and I found your blog from MDC.commune forums…Hi!)
both advertisements are ridiculous and insulting. men and women alike should take offense to each of these commercials. men should be angered at being depicted as either moronic creatures who prefer women who don’t emote or communicate or as mysoginistists who view women as objects and would “smack their bitch up”. women have every right to view these ads as degrading depictions of men’s views on women and should be enraged that the actresses in both commercials agreed to put themselves in that type of role where women are clearly not shown any respect.
we, as women, must stop helping to perpetuate these images in order for men to sit up and take notice that we do not actually enjoy being objectified. until then, voicing our opinions to the creators of such offensive media is an action that we can all take, whether we’re men or women, and maybe we’ll start to see a change.
Tabitha, what do you reckon misogynistic cake tastes like?
Birdie — Hello! Thanks for dropping by.
andrea — yup.
perhaps this is an inappropriate venue, but bump pics, please!
also, a friend of mine was over looking at myspace the other day (i don’t have an account) and i found maurice on there. it kinda gave me heartburn.
love you.
Man,and to think it’s been almost 20 years since the original “Killing Us Softly” was released, a documentary that ought to be mandatory viewing for anyone in the advertising industry. How sad to see how little we’ve progressed in that 20 years.
I think they’ve moved on to other things since then, if you can bear to access the following link, but make sure you’ve taken any blood pressure meds before you do:
http://www.slipperybrick.com/2008/03/bitchcruiser-bike-ebay/
I do have to despair that with all of the untapped wealth of human talent we get this sort of stuff.
Ugh, I’ve seen that one before Brinkster. Appalling, isn’t it? Yeah, disembodied women as objects is soooo funny. *rolls eyes*