This instalment of SCREAMING IN ALL CAPS will seem like it’s about a really old ad campaign — but mostly, I was just waiting for it to die. But then a friend saw it for the first time on TV last night, so it seems it’s still lurking around, being sexist and making me angry all over again.
The campaign in question comes to us courtesy of Molson which, in January, rolled out Molson 67 — a 67-calorie beer aimed at dudes who want the beer but not the beer belly. Fine. No problem. The problem lies in the advertising, which I’m sure you’ve probably seen. Molson 67, you see, can be consumed as part of a complete ‘Guyet’ — or “working out to justify the foods you love.”
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I guess Everything in Moderation wasn’t sexist enough. 😐
See, a Guyet is basically just a diet, but without all those gross, deeply emasculating girly connotations! Men can diet and have their cheeseburgers, too. Women get to laugh alone with salad. What a world.
The fact that DIET = FEMALE is already a sad comment on society and, of course, is by no means a new thing; those charmingly damaging needlepoint pillow phrases — “a moment on the lips, forever on the hips” and “you can never be too rich or too thin” or “nothing tastes as good as thin feels” — are STILL trotted out by your well-meaning great aunt whose been on a diet for, like, 40 years. This just in: being thin and beautiful is still incredibly important. I know this because I was recently in a grocery store check out. FLAT BELLY FAST! WORST BIKINI BODIES! DANGEROUSLY THIN! BABY WEIGHT! It made me want to eat all the Snickers.
What I find equally sad, sadder than DIET = FEMALE, is that FEMALE = WORST POSSIBLE THING YOU CAN BE, which is the message Molson is effectively sending via this type of advertising. REAL men don’t diet because diets are for women and EWWW! Apparently grabbing a Diet-whatever shakes one’s manhood to its very core.
At least, that’s what Dr. Pepper actively worries about. You remember its delighful Dr. Pepper 10 ad with the slogan IT’S NOT FOR WOMEN. Subtle!
The TV spots are even less so. One features a bunch o’ muscular dudes battling snakes and shooting lasers in the jungle (LOL, K). “Hey ladies. Enjoying the film? Of course not. Because this is our movie and this is our soda. You can keep the romantic comedies and lady drinks. We’re good.”
Get it? NO GIRLZ ALLOWED IN OUR MAN CAVE. Heh heh heh.
The response to women who took issue with the ad — aka humourless feminists — was almost worse than the ad itself. As reported by Feministing, one official PR response to a woman who wrote in to complain took the whole “I’m a woman who isn’t offended, so you shouldn’t be, either” track and patronizingly informed her the ads were “tongue-in-cheek.” NOPE. TRY AGAIN.
How about we just stop making sexist ads instead of trying to justify them? And, while we’re at it, drink some WATER.
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Jen Zoratti is a freelance music journo and a Spectator Tribute columnist. Follow her on Twitter @JenZoratti and look for SCREAMINGINALLCAPS.com, arriving to the Internetz in early June.