Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Expensive Advertising

On Sunday, as I watched the super bowl, I was very disturbed by one of the many commercials that made its debut and which have become second in popularity only to the game itself. The offense came from a major car company which I will not name but I will now describe and point out my objections.

This young, nerdy boy goes to his prom in his father's hot car. The car gives him the confidence to march into his prom and walk right up to the prom queen and forcibly kiss her on the lips for an extended period of time. The next shot is of this new supercharged young man behind the wheel of the car with a big black eye and with an even bigger smile that radiates mega-ego from the car, from the stolen kiss, or from both.

Cute right? Wrong. I say it's sexist. With today's troubling world of death by rape in India, sexism in college sports programs and in military bases, young and old women being raped right here in NYC, a commercial like this is harmful. With puberty becoming younger and younger do we want an impressionable, adolescent boy watching the super bowl with his dad and viewing a young man robbing an unwanted kiss from a young girl? Is that cool? What if he pinches her ass does he then have rock star status? This million dollar display of sexist behavior is suggestive, sexist, and alarming.

When women and girls all over the world are being murdered for seeking education, safety, and equality we must help and protect them. We must not make them the victims of our demands and desires. As a father of four daughters I will not stand for this. This commercial should be destroyed and the production costs should be placed with some of the many women's rights groups to compensate for some of the damage that's already been done. We must, as a civilized nation, stop violence against women and not promote it (no matter how innocent it may seem).

TSG

SAVALOOO

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