More evidence has emerged that sullen, hackneyed misogyny wasn’t a particularly winning strategy for last Sunday’s Super Bowl commercials.
Essentially confirming the existing data on viewer preferences and overall engagement, the definitive Nielsen/IAG study of the most-liked and most-recalled ads featured Snickers’ Betty White commercial and myriad Doritos spots (idiotic, sure, but not particularly hateful). Budweiser also scored several spots in the top ten most liked, although not the spot in which a couple of doofuses crashed the girly book club. Denny’s chicken commercials also scored highly in both top tens.
What, no assertion of crushed masculinity via the purchase of cars, pants, tires, or personal television devices? The only truly offensive ad to crack either top ten was GoDaddy, which had the ninth most-recalled spot (“Newscaster shows Danica Patrick ‘how hot is too hot'”) but didn’t make the top ten most liked. That may be because everyone remembered how unimaginatively irritating it was.
So let’s reiterate. America loves Doritos and Bud, hates sexism. We hope?
Meanwhile, the drumbeat of mainstream commentators against the lazy crassness and sexism of the ads continues, this time with satirist Joe Queenan in The Wall Street Journal. It started strong:
People who don’t like sports tend to dismiss professional football players as crass, sexist and stupid. Well, take a look at the ads that appeared on this year’s Super Bowl, and decide who’s crass, sexist and stupid. It seems the “creatives” on Madison Avenue have our professional athletes beat in all three departments.
Yeah! He had us until this:
Very few of the smurfs and hobbits in these ads looked like they had ever played football, or even watched football. So maybe the FloTV ad that had the brassiere draped over the gelded male’s shoulder was appropriate, if not especially tasteful.
Get it? No football prowess = he’s a chick. Now there’s a fresh joke.
Joe, you’re welcome over at our house. But let’s have a little chat about gender normativity first, okay?
Super Bowl: Top Ten Most-Liked, Most-Recalled Ads [AdAge]
Doritos “Gym” Is Most-Watched Ad Of All Time [AdWeek]
Super Game, Stupid Ads [WSJ, sub. req’d]
Earlier: Does Sexism Sell? With Super Bowl Commercials, Not Really
The Critics On The Super Bowl: Boring, Misogynistic
Woes Of Bros: Super Bowl Ads Star Pathetic Men – And The Women Who Ruined Them
Focus On The Family’s End Run Around The Pro-Choice Movement