Not
only is it fun to denigrate men in ads, it’s even more fun to beat the shit out of them.
One study recently published in the Journal of Advertising examined trends in Super Bowl ads and ads for the top five most
advertised brands in the U.S. In addition to the obvious trend of denigrating
males, they found that the hot, new trend in advertising humour was women
committing acts of violence against men.
It turns out that there are two
distinct types of ads. In the “general” category, the man gets the shit beat
out of him for no apparent reason, as in the ad for Dodge Ram pickup truck
depicting a wedding scene. Instead of saying “I do” as part of the normal
wedding vows, the bride head butts the groom unconscious and tosses him in the
back of the truck. Guess they’re targeting female drivers – just a guess.
In
the second category, the ad shows the man as deserving the beating based on his
actions. My favourite is an ad for the Burger King Steakhouse Burger, where a
female teacher asks a male colleague what he has done to deserve the burger he
is feasting on. When he replies “I was “just hungry”, she slaps his face,
calling him a “self-important, narcissistic bas...” just before the fade out to
the voice over.
