Here I was, all set to write my little heart out about this fascinating (seriously) study about exercise I just came across when I was blindsided with this:
Is this not one of the most offensive ads you have ever seen? And I saw it on a “women’s” website! What my low-tech screen capture doesn’t show is that the “fat man” is jumping up and down on, I can only assume, an invisible trampoline while your mouse controls the cake-throwing hand. Let us go over the indignities in detail.
1. They gave him boobs. And not man boobs. He has Victoria Beckham cantaloupe halves.
2. Is he wearing one of those empathy bellies that they make men wear in childbirth classes to try and approximate but never actually come close to the discomfort their pregnant wives experience? And if so, why? (This is off topic but one of my fave stories ever was Leslie’s description of what happened when she wore an empathy belly to the gym. HILARIOUS! You must read it.)
3. What’s up with throwing cake at fat people? Do they think that if you are overweight you deserve to be humiliated by having fattening desserts thrown at you? Do they think that fat people want so much cake they just can’t get enough so you have to chuck it them like an animal?
4. Why is he smiling?
5. He’s bald.
Let’s tally up the offended parties: men, women, overweight men, overweight women, bakers, pregnant women, men with man-boobs, women with ridiculous implants, people who like cake, graphic designers with actual talent and anyone who can read. That’s pretty much the entire planet.
How does offending every single person except possibly soulless teenagers sell RINGTONES?? Which might just be their point. That I suppose I am reinforcing by putting their horrific ad on my site. I’m assuaging my conscience by not including the link.
I really need an ad blocker. You’ve seen my Worst Offender Diet Ad List. What’s the worst ad you’ve ever seen? (pics welcome, if you’ve got ’em!)
PS> That research post IS coming ASAP, I promise.
Um, i think we all know how I feel about this adhttp://www.jeanspassion.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/dolce-gabbana.jpg
this one too http://i.ivillage.com/gurl/react/clips/mag_051503.jpg
Leslie http://theweightinggame.ivillage.com
I ran into this article yesterday.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=567254&in_page_id=1770
Can you imagine women growing male body parts, and I don’t mean beards! Then they could show them jumping up and down.
I see young males almost daily with feminizing effects. Society will not make the changes needed to stop this. Sorry! If your partner still looks appropriate to their sex, I guess we just need to be grateful!
Dr. J
This is the ad that I had a nice rant about the other day on my blog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2bXDegq_hM
What’s with all of the offensive ads lately? Have we suddenly become more tolerant and find it acceptable now to offend as many people as possible?
Ads need to capture our attention, because we are exposed to so many on a daily basis that we’ve become numb. So ad agencies will stoop to just about anything if it gets attention, ANY kind of attention.
It’s a slippery slope, though, because if they offend too many people, it backfires. Like the one here. Or the Diesel jeans gang-rape ad.
*ugh* I think I need a detox from these ads. Mind you, I spent over 13 years in marketing/advertising.
It’s not even funny. I’m willing to put up with much more obnoxiousness in advertising if the ad makes me giggle despite myself. This one is just mean and dumb!
This is about 2 years too late to post a comment, but I just found your blog and have been so riveted by it so much that I've been spending the last few extremley slow work days going through the archives. I don't usually post comments (I'm sort of a blog stalker that way) but this post had me laughing to the point of tears and then trying to explain to my co worker what appeared to look like me crying and having a seizure at the same time. Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for the great laugh and the awesome blog.