Sexist Advertising

1. Rhys
   November 29th, 2007 at 2:04 pm

   Ah typical Daily Mail article! They often believe that women should be in the kitchen making food and babies.

2. Joanne
   November 29th, 2007 at 2:56 pm

   ...I think she's reaching for a knife!

3. The Opinionated Blogger
   November 29th, 2007 at 3:05 pm

   It was a different time. Honestly, how many women were abused and read this add and just wanted to buy some coffee if it prevented them from getting slapped around.

4. Zandt K
   November 29th, 2007 at 3:16 pm

   I think she is laughing.

5. A
   November 29th, 2007 at 4:26 pm

   It's suppose to be funny, do people really take offense to this?

6. Bob
   November 29th, 2007 at 4:36 pm

   I'm with you buddy ,It's funny -What's the point in overanalizing it.

7. k
   November 29th, 2007 at 4:40 pm

   well, if that's funny then their humor sucks.

8. Miss Cellania
   November 29th, 2007 at 4:41 pm

   These ads are funny NOW, but only because they are so weird. In the 60s, they just reflected a woman's place.

9. Weakly
   November 29th, 2007 at 5:06 pm

   More like SEXY advertising!

10. Anita
    November 29th, 2007 at 5:19 pm

    Hmmm ... looks like fun

11. graham!
    November 29th, 2007 at 5:21 pm

    Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... pornography

12. Ray
    November 29th, 2007 at 5:21 pm

    I still laugh if anyone takes offense at ads like this.

13. ted
    November 29th, 2007 at 5:24 pm

    Funny, but I would have described a lot of advertising these days as showing men as weak, stupid, and in need of a woman to lead them.

    Is this a genuine ad? This woman looks like she's enjoying it a little too much.

    (he's just testing her for freshness, I think)

14. achim
    November 29th, 2007 at 5:58 pm

    a german gasstation is nowadays running a radiospot with a woman ordering a coffee at their "bistro" in a tone so flirty that i could pass as a sexhotline commercial. in the spot, her friend comments on her being so flirty, the woman replies "maybe he is as good with other things as with making coffee ..."
    the times of sexist advertising are not over. is it the coffee?

15. Nora
    November 29th, 2007 at 6:00 pm

    I agree with Ted. Today's adverts have a lot of female to male sexism with women telling their Slow,Sluggish cave men how to do everything, so they don't get lost or confused. A lot of people don't even think about it, and just think its funny.
    If men say anything about such advertisements, they're "over-reacting" or are being "pu$$ys".

    But... thats humans for you. We do it with racial sensitive things as well. Black people can have exclusive clubs,orgs,tv channels, and make fun of white people (honkey, cracker,etc) ...but if a white person even looks at someone the wrong way... OMG RACIST.

    Why is it that we can never figure out the concept of "middle ground"?

16. Jess
    November 29th, 2007 at 6:08 pm

    Miss Cellania is right. The ad is offensive, not funny because at the time, it wasn't meant to be funny - it was presenting a woman in her place.

17. Adam Stanhope
    November 29th, 2007 at 6:19 pm

    Chase and Sanborn coffee?

    She should be spanking him!

18. Nicholas Dollak
    November 29th, 2007 at 7:15 pm

    Actually, while the ad does reflect a generally patronizing attitude toward women, it does not depict common practice. It was actually meant to be humorous and possibly even a little "naughty" (hence the conspiratorial smile on the woman's face).

    Yes, there have always been abusive spouses. But from what I've seen, a loutish husband is more likely to slap his wife around or punch her. Spanking was a punishment reserved for children (and that is what's being referred to here). If a man spanked his wife... more likely that was a "kinky" bit of sex play, not discussed in mixed company at the time. (If you were aware of this little bit of "deviant" behavior, it made the ad spicier; otherwise, the sexual connotation went right past you.) There was more of this raciness in women's magazines than a lot of people nowadays realize.

    We tend to have a rather distorted view of the 1950s, shaped by old TV shows and "stodgy" older relatives. Admittedly, today's TV shows and movies tend to be more explicit than those of the '50s, which were restricted by heavy censorship rules. However, a look at (usually print) media aimed specifically at adults reveals that there was already a lucrative market for sexually-oriented products and fiction directed at both men and women. The TV soap opera began in the 1950s as a means of entertaining hausfraus with stories of illicit affairs. Ladies' magazines included similar stories, but with greater detail. Their purpose was to entertain, and perhaps to provide some sort of gratification so these stuck-at-home-all-day ladies would be in fact LESS likely to cheat on their spouses (but still be "in the mood" when he got home). A perusal of magazines in the checkout lane at the local supermarket shows us that not much has changed except the language and amount of visible skin.

    As for whether it's funny or not, that's pretty subjective. Societal attitudes have changed enough that fewer people nowadays would find this as funny as it once was. More people today either misconstrue it, or need it explained, or "get" it but just don't personally find it funny (that would be me). My parents were both in their late teens when this ad was run. It's possible that, had they been a little older, they would have found it funny --- back then. Remember, just because someone was alive in the 1950s doesn't mean they're stuck there (and not everyone in the 1950s had the same attitude either); both supported the Women's Lib movement, and found corporal punishment vastly inferior to constructive communication. By the 1970s, they probably would have found it dated and rather embarrassing.

19. Abestar
    November 30th, 2007 at 5:23 am

    I'm with the 'its naughty/sexy' crowd but then not everyone likes it rough.

20. MoonCake
    November 30th, 2007 at 8:37 am

    nicholas-- what a great analysis. if nobody else commented on this, it would be ok because yours justifies the very essence of this post. kudos.

    this would have been perfect to bring in to my women's studies class last spring. they would have torn it APART! of course, they tore me apart when i said slutty girls have it coming... but that's an entirely different story.

21. Capella
    November 30th, 2007 at 8:41 am

    I dunno, she doesn't look too unhappy about this erm...predicament.
    "Please, honey, find out...!"

22. muenster
    November 30th, 2007 at 9:05 am

    How many times do I have to tell you, No man likes stale coffee !

23. matt
    November 30th, 2007 at 1:53 pm

    I'm glad genders are treated equal in today's media. Now I guess I'll go watch my favorite sitcom. It's that one where the husband is a stupid, overweight, alcoholic, blue-collar oaf and his wife is attractive, witty and holds everything together and he's lucky to have her. You know the one.

24. silencer
    November 30th, 2007 at 5:29 pm

    I can't tell you how many women I dated asked me to spank them. I don't do it, or get it.....

25. A
    December 3rd, 2007 at 11:38 am

    Thank you Nora, your so right on this!

26. John Francis
    February 14th, 2008 at 6:03 pm

    Miss Cellania and Jess are dead wrong. They are too young to understand this ad or the era in which it was produced. I was born in the early 1950s, and I can assure everyone that the ad WAS meant to be funny -- and not to convey the idea that it was OK or common for a husband to spank a wife. The ad was a sort of exaggeration/caricature. The fact is that, collectively speaking, men were MORE respectful of women prior to 1960 than they have been since that year. There is FAR MORE hatred and disdain and objectifying of women by men in our day than there was in the 1950s -- primarily because of the availability of (1) no-fault divorce, (2) hormonal birth control and abortion, and (3) a bad strain of "women's liberation" that masculinized many women.

27. Jenn
    May 29th, 2008 at 9:13 am

    These ads get me in the mood to go and buy some coffee and make my man a steam cuppa. LOL Very sexy advertising to me!!! Not offensive at all.

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