I have had a long-standing internal battle with the idea of "men's" products. Aside from shirts with room for boobs, and hormone injections, there isn't much of a difference to be had between the consumable needs of men and women. But, something has set me off. I will not mention it in specifics, and this is in direct protest. I'm aware a certain soda company is using the negative emotions of women as a demographic to create buzz.
I can bite my tongue about "men's" hair care products. "Men's" shampoo, body wash, even those ads for energy drinks that only include men. I am OK with it, just because. Just because it is playing the game, the game of civilization, with a sense of humility towards the standards it's exploiting. While I think it's ridiculous to use "being a woman" as a derogatory term (or "manly", in the female case), these subtler examples simply have to throw up their hands and say "well, men wouldn't buy our product if we didn't advertise this way". It's just the way our society moves.
The ad I am up in arms about is for a soda that many women enjoy. It is sweet, with not a bit of acidic bite, or other "manly" unpleasantness. Diet sodas have taken over, and to step over their competition, there have been new strains of minimal-caloried drinks cropping up all over the place. Y'know, just to be different.
Apparently, this has become a massive problem for the not-to-be-mentioned brand, as we all know, only women are capable or would have interest in dieting or reducing their sugar intake (wait, didn't I say it was a very sweet drink in the first place? What kind of MAN drinks sweet drinks, anyway?!) and thus drinking diet sodas. So, they have begun a very aggressive marketing campaign to recapture their male audience. Their moderately effective strategy is to accuse any man watching of the ultimate degradation of personhood:
being a woman.
The only remedy to this horrible curse, of course, is to drink their product.
I would just like to say... Only real women drink Mr. Pibb.
And fuck you.
Y'know, for a while there, I thought the country might not actually need feminism anymore. But apparently chauvinism and misogyny were only in remission. Time for another round of Femo-therapy.
I can bite my tongue about "men's" hair care products. "Men's" shampoo, body wash, even those ads for energy drinks that only include men. I am OK with it, just because. Just because it is playing the game, the game of civilization, with a sense of humility towards the standards it's exploiting. While I think it's ridiculous to use "being a woman" as a derogatory term (or "manly", in the female case), these subtler examples simply have to throw up their hands and say "well, men wouldn't buy our product if we didn't advertise this way". It's just the way our society moves.
The ad I am up in arms about is for a soda that many women enjoy. It is sweet, with not a bit of acidic bite, or other "manly" unpleasantness. Diet sodas have taken over, and to step over their competition, there have been new strains of minimal-caloried drinks cropping up all over the place. Y'know, just to be different.
Apparently, this has become a massive problem for the not-to-be-mentioned brand, as we all know, only women are capable or would have interest in dieting or reducing their sugar intake (wait, didn't I say it was a very sweet drink in the first place? What kind of MAN drinks sweet drinks, anyway?!) and thus drinking diet sodas. So, they have begun a very aggressive marketing campaign to recapture their male audience. Their moderately effective strategy is to accuse any man watching of the ultimate degradation of personhood:
being a woman.
The only remedy to this horrible curse, of course, is to drink their product.
I would just like to say... Only real women drink Mr. Pibb.
And fuck you.
Y'know, for a while there, I thought the country might not actually need feminism anymore. But apparently chauvinism and misogyny were only in remission. Time for another round of Femo-therapy.
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