anyone remember the miller light catfight ad? well, that ad won the grand ugly award from awny as the piece of marketing most demeaning to women. miller took a lot of heat for that one.
recently, they shot a pair of followup ads, somewhat apologetic, one featuring two guys tearing each other to pieces in a mudpit brawl. (this is the other.) and surprise: cbs and the ncaa declined to run it. why? according to the ncaa’s myles brand, “there has to be some sense of decorum.”
hmm. two babes in wet cement homoerotically catfighting: dandy. two guys homoerotically fighting in mud, as set up by an opening fantasy from a woman: too racy. i can’t decide if this one stinks more of sexism or homophobia. or maybe both.
my own opinion on the pieces: i didn't find the catfight ad particularly sexist, but only through a clever loophole set up in the ad itself: after the catfight, the ad cuts to a scene of two dorks in a bar saying, "yeah, that'd be a great ad." it was clearly from their own imagination. come to think of it, the ad makes men look terrible.
the followup ad is staged exactly the same way...but it casts the women fantasizing about the ad as "hot guys expressing their emotions." what?
that, i thought was more demeaning. it's almost as if women aren't allowed to be sexual creatures, only emotive ones. bogus.
On Apr.10.2003 at 06:41 AM