This is conformation of what I've known for a long time now. From the Sydney Morning Herald:
"I have no doubt that women have historical and ongoing problems about their portrayal in advertising, particularly being sexually objectified. I remember such scandals as the sexist Windsor Smith shoe ads (pictured below), which showed women placed close to men's crotches as if about to perform a lewd act.
But along with the creeping sexualisation of women has come the creeping moronification of men. If the default position in advertising for women is sex object, then the default position for men is that of imbecile.
Men used to be depicted as heroic characters in ads, products being the rewards for their manly efforts. "You got to work it hard, to be a Solo man. You're gonna take the lead and let the others follow," crowed the voice-over as our champion braved rapids in a canoe to be rewarded with a frosty, refreshing Solo at the end. "You can get it walkin'! You can get it talkin! You can get it working a plough! Matter o' fact I've got it now! Victoria Bitter! . . ." went the beer ad, run along with images of hard-working men engaged in back-breaking, yet satisfying, endeavours, the VB being the prize for their labours.
Today's ads don't seem to give a tinker's cuss about the nobility of men's endeavours. Men are no longer heroes but consumers. Worse, they're idiots. They might as well be saying, "Hey, dickhead! We don't care about your job and who you are! You're a worthless, interchangeable cog in the capitalist system! Catch!" as a six-pack is hurtled towards some poor bloke's melon.
Just as the soul-destroying messages in women's magazines are crafted by their female staff, so too are the negative messages about men crafted overwhelming by men in advertising agencies. For some reason, they have deduced that delivering a psychic kick to men's testicles is the best way to sell a whole host of products.
"Darwin was right," our faceless adman might say, "men are descended from apes! APES!"
"So let's treat them as the knuckledraggers they are," his pony-tailed sidekick might respond.
So it goes. The evidence is everywhere."
A great example of this misandry is the latest round of Miller Lite beer commercials. I get more angry watching those than if a player on the team I'm rooting for makes a bad play. Way to insult your customers, especially since men consume 72.8% of beer in this country.
Background Intel:
Sydney Morning Herald: Welcome to adland, where all men are morons
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