In which Sam is tired of this bullshit
There's this new advert for a Samsung Galaxy Note (I think that's what it's called, it's a smartphone, in any case). Channel 4 on Demand are playing it over and over (they have about 3 ads they play on loop and change once every 2 weeks), so I've seen it a fair few times. And it's interesting to analyse who it's aimed at.
The ad shows a pair of unidentifiable hands showing off all the features, whilst a (male) voice explains what they are. It's all the usual stuff - adjust this graph, highlight this passage, and oh look, you can colour in this fish whilst you commute to your busy important job where you look at graphs and highlight papers.
And who is going to this job? Who is this phone for, this sophisticated phone to fit in with your sophisticated life? Why, a man of course. How do we know? The last image is of two blonde, smiling little girls with the words "We Miss You Daddy!", written all over.
So we see this phone belonging to a man. A white man, a young professional man, a man with 2.4 children, a man who wears a suit to work and a man who lives the typical perfect life that we all typically aspire to. People just like you and me, right?
Because it could never be a woman. Two reasons. One: Market a product to women and it becomes a woman's product. Men won't touch it. Market it to men and women will male-gaze their way into aspiring to it also. And two? Can you ever, EVER imagine a advert displaying a message from two sweet little innocents proclaiming "We miss you Mummy!"? Oh no no no. The FEELINGS that would produce. The anger, the guilt, the emotions of every woman who has ever had to make a decision to go to work, or WANTS to go to work, or doesn't even get to make the decision at all. It's perfectly acceptable for kids to miss their Daddy. But their Mummy? Goodness no. We can't have that. And all these issues that we are still NOWHERE NEAR resolving? Ain't gonna sell phones.
I'm not really going anywhere new with this. I just thought it was...relevant.
The ad shows a pair of unidentifiable hands showing off all the features, whilst a (male) voice explains what they are. It's all the usual stuff - adjust this graph, highlight this passage, and oh look, you can colour in this fish whilst you commute to your busy important job where you look at graphs and highlight papers.
And who is going to this job? Who is this phone for, this sophisticated phone to fit in with your sophisticated life? Why, a man of course. How do we know? The last image is of two blonde, smiling little girls with the words "We Miss You Daddy!", written all over.
So we see this phone belonging to a man. A white man, a young professional man, a man with 2.4 children, a man who wears a suit to work and a man who lives the typical perfect life that we all typically aspire to. People just like you and me, right?
Because it could never be a woman. Two reasons. One: Market a product to women and it becomes a woman's product. Men won't touch it. Market it to men and women will male-gaze their way into aspiring to it also. And two? Can you ever, EVER imagine a advert displaying a message from two sweet little innocents proclaiming "We miss you Mummy!"? Oh no no no. The FEELINGS that would produce. The anger, the guilt, the emotions of every woman who has ever had to make a decision to go to work, or WANTS to go to work, or doesn't even get to make the decision at all. It's perfectly acceptable for kids to miss their Daddy. But their Mummy? Goodness no. We can't have that. And all these issues that we are still NOWHERE NEAR resolving? Ain't gonna sell phones.
I'm not really going anywhere new with this. I just thought it was...relevant.