I just saw a women's deodorant commercial, in which a female employee practices demanding a raise from her male manager. At the end of the advertisement, the woman confidently leaves the room as a female narrator announces the name of the product and adds "stress tested for women."
Nooooooooo, just no. I get that this ad is trying to depict women closing the wage gap and shattering the glass ceiling...... But their product *itself* markets on the idea that men and women are not the same. This deodorant is not only marketed for women, but most of their products are all sorts of pink and sparkly, further perpetuating the false notion that those colors indicate gender, and might as well be bundled with other inaccurate associations with women, such as being "dainty," "sweet" and "adorable."
So although they're attempting to portray women in a stronger light than most media, they're undermining their own message with their very product line itself.
This makes me worry that perhaps there's no real integrity in their message, and instead are simply targeting the demographic of women who do. Not because it matters to them, but because feminism happens to be "trendy" among women.
Because if they really wanted to make a difference in the way women are treated, they would change the notion that women should be treated differently than men by not marking a product as being only for women.
And ironically in trying to depict a feminist, they instead shed light on their non-feministic beliefs.
(And that's not even touching on the idea that women need special deodorants that can handle unusual levels of stress...)
No comments :
Post a Comment