Where to even begin?
I guest first of all, as a person who has come to eat meat
fairly infrequently, the food in this commercial doesn’t even look appealing to
me anymore. It looks greasy and sloppy
and heavy. I can easily picture gas and
nausea following it’s consumption in short order.
As for content… wow.
Just… wow. Do I even need to say
that people who eat like that do not
actually look like that? Talk about reinforcing the stereotypical, unattainable (for most) beauty ideal while simultaneously lying to you about how to achieve it. Way to go. The two girls
in this commercial undoubtedly worked extremely hard for their physiques
and followed nutrition plans that do not include a sandwich that packs in 1,260 calories, 21 grams of saturated fat and
3,010 milligrams of sodium.
Getting through the making of this thing had to be torture for them. I’d be very surprised if they didn’t spit out
each bite of the sandwiches they had to take.
I realize that sex sells, okay? However, if I were a man I would even find
this offensive. My husband is the one
who located this spot and he was
offended by the idea that he could be led around by his libido like a dog chasing
a bone. He was also appalled by how old
these girls look. I don’t know how old
they are in reality, but we figured the blonde looks about fifteen and the
brunette maybe seventeen. Look closely
at the faces and you’ll see what I mean.
When he dragged me to the living room to see this thing, he was irritated and told me we would never be eating there.
Granted, for me it’s all a moot point, since I don’t eat fast food
anyway – but he and my son are fairly regular consumers of it.
Believe it or not, a lot of men are tired of being treated
like stupid animals who conveniently hemorrhage cash whenever someone waves a
little T&A in their direction. I know that
my husband is not alone in this.
And two last notes to advertisers:
women’s sole purpose for existing isn’t for men’s titillation, and exploitation
of lesbians like this is extremely offensive. Exactly how long is it
going to take for the guys who write this drivel to figure out that lesbians
are not actually interested in sexually stimulating men? Is that really so hard to understand?
I have a headache now.
I don't think Ted is the only one.
ReplyDeleteBusinessweek: At Abercrombie & Fitch, Sex No Longer Sells
I've got an automatic negative reaction ("she's blatantly trying to play me") to this kind of advertising that I think is probably much stronger than the automatic "she's hot" positive reaction, due to so much overuse.
I caught a "behind the scenes" video about this commercial and the frat-boy director stated that they're about, "giving young hungry guys more of what they want."
DeleteI don't even know what to make of that except that he must believe the customer base is tremendously easy to manipulate.
Lisa's right by the way, your comments always rock!
First off Charles, I love you. I ALWAYS enjoy your comments as they are thoughtful, insightful and never a knee jerk reaction or one written for the purpose of calling attention to yourself.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I agree with you all, Carl's Jr is prone to this type of ad. (Remember the soft porn burger commercial set in the drive in?) This ad is so full of faulty stereo types it's hard to know where to begin.
While it may be true that "sex no longer sells" to the thinking crowd, you know those of us who make it a point to be aware of those ploys designed to manipulate us, I'm not so sure it isn't still somewhat effective on the masses.
We know that hot and ready babes aren't really eating this crap, nor are you any more likely to snag a hottie if you eat at their establishment. However, by providing the stimulating images, once seen they are permanently embedded in our brains. We (an inclusive term used for those non discerning types) will eventually forget about it and move on to the important things in life but the stimulating (and positive) feelings will remain and when we pass that restaurant we may pull in. At least that is what they are hoping for.
I actually hadn't seen the porny solo burger commercial until after this one, I blundered over it recently and holy crap - it's even worse.
DeleteIronically I used a picture from it on my blog before, a few years back with the joking title of, "Truth in advertising?" As always I find it at best misleading and at worse hilarious when they depict women who obviously follow a very strict dietary plan as getting anywhere near eating these grease bombs.
I see your point about how it works. Although for me and Ted personally the commercial has lodged a permanent bad affiliation with us that will likely crop up if we ever pass by one of these joints. Not that I ever have... there must not be very many of them in PA?