Yay Saints. Now, About Those Ads...
I will say yes when you want me to say yes. I will be quiet when you don’t want to hear me say no. I will take your call. I will listen to your opinion of my friends. I will listen to your friends opinions of my friends. I will be civil to your mother… Super Bowl car ad with the slogan “Charger. Man’s. Last. Stand."
"Change out of that skirt, Jason." Super Bowl car ad for Flo TV
That was the best Super Bowl game ever. Not only did both teams play hard and play well, but the Saints won. (And deserved to win, in spite of what dat canaille Troy Nelson wrote.)
Too bad about the ads, which I suspect, by halftime, had inspired a lot of perplexed reveries among women viewers.
I like a clever commercial. The Betty White/Abe Vigoda spot for Snickers was funny, and I enjoyed seeing Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo return as the Griswolds. I might even, in another context, have cracked a smile at the commercial in which a gorgeous wife is sacrificed to a bunch of futuristic uber-villians for a good set of tires, because I’m a sucker for parodies of bad science fiction.
But watching one commercial, and then another, and then another about how hapless men are being emasculated by women with our lavender scents and shopping and vampire shows and book clubs and requests not to leave the toilet seat up and by the way, here’s a website Tim Tebow and his mother want us to see… Let’s just say I detected a trend. Individually they might have been innocuous. Throw ‘em all together and it’s time for one of those talks - the kind a guy in a Super Bowl commercial abhors -- where the wife or girlfriend tells him to put away the football, sit down, and explain to her what the Hell is going on.
I only have a vague notion of how television ads are created and scheduled. Obviously, a cabal of advertising executives did not get together and say, “let’s write a bunch of commercials with castration as the subtext.” The idea just occurred to a bunch of them at roughly the same time. Combine that with the Tebow spot and CBS’ refusal to carry an ad for a gay dating site, and what comes through loud and clear is a state of widespread and sweaty anxiety among ad executives about masculinity, women and control.
Or the widespread perception among ad executives that sweaty anxiety about masculinity, women and control will be a good selling point this year.
Or the sweaty anxiety about masculinity, women and control of whatever CBS executive approved the ads.
Or all three. Who knows? Either way, something is afoot.
What guys often don’t realize is how counter-productive this exaggerated allegiance to masculinity can be. For an experienced woman, suspicion about a guy’s sexuality is likely to be aroused rather than allayed by an “icky-gurls” attitude combined with overt homophobia.
So, my dear, you prefer the company of men? Women make you uncomfortable? Uneasy? And references to men having sex with each other makes you break out in a nervous sweat?
Sorry to tear you away from your fascinated viewing of that game where broad-shouldered men with shiny tight butts hurl their magnificent physiques across a green field, often in slow motion. (I like watching that too.)
…but we need to talk.
"Change out of that skirt, Jason." Super Bowl car ad for Flo TV
That was the best Super Bowl game ever. Not only did both teams play hard and play well, but the Saints won. (And deserved to win, in spite of what dat canaille Troy Nelson wrote.)
Too bad about the ads, which I suspect, by halftime, had inspired a lot of perplexed reveries among women viewers.
I like a clever commercial. The Betty White/Abe Vigoda spot for Snickers was funny, and I enjoyed seeing Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo return as the Griswolds. I might even, in another context, have cracked a smile at the commercial in which a gorgeous wife is sacrificed to a bunch of futuristic uber-villians for a good set of tires, because I’m a sucker for parodies of bad science fiction.
But watching one commercial, and then another, and then another about how hapless men are being emasculated by women with our lavender scents and shopping and vampire shows and book clubs and requests not to leave the toilet seat up and by the way, here’s a website Tim Tebow and his mother want us to see… Let’s just say I detected a trend. Individually they might have been innocuous. Throw ‘em all together and it’s time for one of those talks - the kind a guy in a Super Bowl commercial abhors -- where the wife or girlfriend tells him to put away the football, sit down, and explain to her what the Hell is going on.
I only have a vague notion of how television ads are created and scheduled. Obviously, a cabal of advertising executives did not get together and say, “let’s write a bunch of commercials with castration as the subtext.” The idea just occurred to a bunch of them at roughly the same time. Combine that with the Tebow spot and CBS’ refusal to carry an ad for a gay dating site, and what comes through loud and clear is a state of widespread and sweaty anxiety among ad executives about masculinity, women and control.
Or the widespread perception among ad executives that sweaty anxiety about masculinity, women and control will be a good selling point this year.
Or the sweaty anxiety about masculinity, women and control of whatever CBS executive approved the ads.
Or all three. Who knows? Either way, something is afoot.
What guys often don’t realize is how counter-productive this exaggerated allegiance to masculinity can be. For an experienced woman, suspicion about a guy’s sexuality is likely to be aroused rather than allayed by an “icky-gurls” attitude combined with overt homophobia.
So, my dear, you prefer the company of men? Women make you uncomfortable? Uneasy? And references to men having sex with each other makes you break out in a nervous sweat?
Sorry to tear you away from your fascinated viewing of that game where broad-shouldered men with shiny tight butts hurl their magnificent physiques across a green field, often in slow motion. (I like watching that too.)
…but we need to talk.