As I write these words the Super Bowl halftime show has just
finished, along with my third glass of Sunkist and a packet of chocolate
covered cookie dough bites. The floor is littered with chips, dip, copious
amounts of soda, a half finished bowl of macaroni and cheese and an almost
blacked out game of bingo. The game of bingo is why I’ve invaded my neighbor’s
room. Since moving into a single I’ve learned the importance of saving space
and a television doesn’t save much space. At least not the monster my dad’s
been trying to find a home for. But the Super Bowl is about socializing, I
think. Or at least it’s about the ads.
I haven’t properly watched the Super Bowl since I was a kid,
and even then I was only sitting through the first half, as was the requirement
if I wanted a bowl of ice cream at halftime. That was the true excitement of
Super Bowl Sunday. A bowl of ice cream, maybe some slices of a banana, or
cherries, or even whip cream when Dad was actually excited about whoever was
playing. Otherwise there wasn’t much to hold my attention on that particular
Sunday.
As I got older I started to notice something else about the
Super Bowl. I started to notice the commercials. I noticed the funny
commercials with talking animals, and outlandish situations, and cartoonish
violence. And later I started noticing the more raunchy ads. Women in swimsuits
that looked painted on. Dripping wet women with heaps of makeup. Women bending
over. Women winking and blowing kisses and doing anything to sell their
product.
To this day I don’t remember an actual commercial. Just the
blur of overly sexualized women.
It wasn’t just women who were the victim of the Super Bowl
ads. Men were usually reduced to grunting apes, only concerned with beer and
sex. Oh, and being manly. One commercial that stuck out while I was preparing for
this post was the Snickers commercial which, because I’m that awesome, I’ve
included for you.
For those reading this on the run the commercial features
two men working on a car, the most noble of manly hobbies, when one whips out a
Snickers bar. In a “Lady and the Tramp” moment the other man begins to eat the
free end of the bar until their lips touch for all of three seconds. Obviously
they must do something manly to reclaim their…manliness, I guess. They opt for
ripping out a chunk of chest hair.
Awesome.
Actually when I was younger I remember really liking that
commercial. I thought it was funny that two guys would overreact to an
accidental kiss and then I went on with my life. Some people complained. A lot
of people complained, some of them straight and some of them gay. I don’t
remember all the complaints, but I do remember there weren’t as many gay jokes
in ads after that. At least slightly less.
The only company I remember as being a repeat offender in
terms of offensive or just stupid would be GoDaddy, a company which relies so
heavily on hyper sexualized women that I don’t even know what they sell. No,
honestly. I didn’t know what they sold until I looked it up. Lately they’ve
improved as far as having their actresses talk about what the company does
between ripping off their clothes. So, it’s a start?
But really, they’re some of the worst. And because I don’t
like suffering alone I’ve included some for you.
GoDaddy, your one stop shop for objectifying women. At least
they’ve toned down on fetishizing lesbianism. Slightly.
So what’s this about bingo I mentioned forever ago? Our
lovely Graci (she who can make anything possible and is too awesome for shoes)
sent out bingo cards in which Super Bowl commercials were used in areas like “violence,”
“portraying women as stupid,” “bad parenting,” “sexualized lyrics,” and a whole
host of other categories. For the record I got a blackout.
But here’s my good news. I only got a blackout near the very
end of the game. It was actually kind of hard. So while this may be a case of
premature celebration, I’d like to think advertisers are starting to realize stereotyping,
sexism, and homophobia are cheap marketing tools. Which means we may be
returning to a more simple time. A better time. A time in which all products
are sold by cute animals doing silly things.
And I for one am excited for that day.
Also before I go I’ve got two commercials from this Super
Bowl. My personal two favorites, if only because A) I love the song “Sexy and I
Know It” and B) because time traveling babies are awesome. Though the second one does make me think twice about this whole "we're moving forward" thing.
Your snack loving Intercultural Educator,
Izzy