Commercials that annoy me

I know, you probably thought we were heading towards feminism. This is a transition into that, because it does relate, and actually, it relates directly to the music too. Of the two commercials that have been annoying me recently, one has been running on Youtube, so I have had to listen to it before listening to many of the songs I was bringing up, both for the guitar list and for the teen stuff.

The other commercial, which we shall deal with first, comes to me courtesy of Frank Iero, guitarist in My Chemical Romance. Naturally, I am following him on Twitter, and one of his posts a couple of weeks back was “When people would mention Jamie Lee Curtis i used to think "oh you mean Laurie from halloween" but now i think "oh Pooyogurt for old ladies”. 

That probably just would have flown right by, except for two things. One is that Big Bang Theory has had a few jokes on that as well, and also, it started a little bit of an exchange for Frank, with snarky responses leading to the question, why do older ladies need the yogurt?

I started wondering about that myself. Is there something different about the aging female digestive system? The only thing I could really think of was poor nutrition, and doing some internet research seemed to confirm that. Even the Activia page recommends using their yogurt in combination with proper nutrition and exercise, in much the same way that I imagine a bowl of sugary cereal completes the breakfast of eggs, toast, and orange juice shown on the side of the cereal box.

The funny thing about this is that whether we are looking at people in general or we focus on the aging population, I would guess that women are more likely to be getting good nutrition than men (it’s a sexist stereotype, but I think it has some validity), so really the men should need the yogurt more, but it keeps getting pushed on the women. Why? I’m guessing it’s because they think we are stupid and insecure enough to fall for it, and not without reason.

I’m not accusing the advertising industry or their clients of trying to do anything other than make money—I’m not a conspiracy theorist yet—but I do think it is unfortunate how often the tactics relate to making something perfectly normal a flaw that you need a product to fix. You know what’s good for having a regular digestive system? A balanced diet containing whole grains and fruits and vegetables. This also gives you many other nutrients, and a wide variety of interesting flavors. Cost can vary, but it doesn’t have to be that bad.

I have blogged about this before, I think, a long time ago, but my all-time least favorite ad campaign was for DuraSoft colored contact lenses, which “give brown eyes a second chance”. That way you can have eyes as purple as the colors in a child’s imagination, or blue as ocean depths, or green, or anything other than brown as bark or shoes (said in a disgusted voice; after all, brown is the color of poo).

Now, if you want to sell colored contact lenses, it is reasonable to go after brown eyes. It might have been lower when the commercial was running, but currently probably about 95% of the population has brown eyes. There are a lot more customers there. You just also happen to be saying to 95% of the population “You have brown eyes? Ew!” And my brown eyes are gorgeous!

There are two things that I don’t like about the cultural mindset here. One is that the value of women has become so intrinsically linked with their appearance, and even as I type that I am thinking “Become? When has it not been that way?” So I guess my actual concern is that it hasn’t changed.

I know it’s not all there is. Certainly there have been times when I have been marginalized for my lack of attractiveness, and I marginalize myself for that, but at the same time I know that many people have learned to value me for my abilities and personality, and they do not define me that way. I do exist as an individual. My concern is for when I am not known—when I am merely an unattractive woman—and for what society thinks of women in general, and the value that is placed on appearance.

My other concern is for the level of competitiveness. As Jennie and I were exchanging messages leading up to lunch, on the topic of children and bullying and such, she mentioned something about the meanness level of a 6^th grade mutual acquaintance. (We knew her for more than 6^th grade, but Jennie meant the meanness witnessed that year.) I was surprised, because I didn’t remember her doing anything to me after 1^st grade, and that wasn’t even that mean—it was just stupid and caused the boy I liked and who was kind of my best friend to never speak to me again.

When we were talking in person, she explained that no, this person never did anything to her either, but she was awful to another girl, who was supposed to be her best friend, alternately freezing her out, then being nice again, then getting mad over something, in an awful cycle that Jennie got to observe over the course of the school year. That made a lot more sense, and I have read that it works this way. Boys are more likely to pick on outsiders, but girls use most of their meanness on their friends.

I honestly don’t get this. I never fought with the girls I hung out with, and I don’t really remember observing them fighting with each other. One girl had a friend who tried to get her to stop spending time with the rest of us, and she was really nasty about it, but I kind of thought she was the exception.

And I’m not saying that my not participating in this is because I was so sweet and even-tempered. I would sometimes carry jokes too far, and not realize it until I had hurt someone’s feelings, and sometimes I was thoughtless, and I hate remembering that. Also, I would often try giving boys who irritated me the silent treatment, but it was pointless because I have a hard time not talking and they just never noticed anyway, at least not soon enough. I’m only saying that I never felt a need to engage in that particular type of drama or to punish my friends for their misdeeds, and I don’t really remember any misdeeds.

So, I do not understand this dynamic in female relations, but it seems like we do have permission to be awful to each other, and I believe it is destructive on both a personal and societal level. I’m going to really take off on that tomorrow, but for now I am just going to mention that other commercial that bugs me.

If you spend a lot of time on Youtube, you may have seen it too. It is a Gatorade commercial, focusing on a female athlete who has been playing her heart out. “She is easy to spot” it says, and so you might think that it is going to be praise about her heart of champion, or the badge-of-honor mud stains, or something like that, but the language is vaguely insulting, focusing on how she depleted she is, leading up to “And water isn’t going to put it back.” And since she is not drinking Gatorade, you can destroy her! No, that’s not the exact wording. What it really says is “Yes, she is easy to spot. She is also easy to break.”

I admit that the amount of offense I take to this commercial is unreasonable. I’m taking it anyway. I don’t want to break anyone, and the story of any sports triumph of mine is going to be about me overcoming my own physical limitations, not exploiting someone else’s. And also, water is fine for most things, and the people you are trying to sell your Gatorade too would probably be better off with water most of the time too. So thank you, Gatorade. And if that “thank you” sounds more like “Screw you”, good! These connotations don’t always come through in print.