Television Ads

[Apposite]

Do you think that a lot of the ads on TV send a mean spirited message? Are the ads also becoming more uninhibitedly blatant in their portrayal of sexuality?

 

Example 1 - There is an ad where two male friends are on a chair lift and one start asking if he can show how his friend's ex really likes him and taunts his buddy with her e-mails until the buddy asks for his I-phone and hurls it off below them. (This ad seems cruel)

Example 2 - Another phone ad where the phone user is at a restaurant and makes the waitress wait until he is done taunting his friend over a bet he made with him. The waitress is standing there suffering this boor while he texts and then finally orders.

Sexuality - We are seeing ad where the bikini bottoms might as well not be covering the shapely derrieres of the various female actors. There are several like that. I am no prude and I can appreciate sexuality for what it is. It seems however that imagery is much much stronger in the last two or three months. I am not complaining:) so much as commenting at the unabashed in your face nature of this.

 

What do you think? Has you seen or felt these two trends in advertising?

[Stir Young]

As to Example 1, the dork on the right, to me, seems less cruel, and more clueless of the fact he's really guilty of breaking a major "guy code".....that of asking out a bro's ex.

The nerd on the left should have  called "guy code violation" right away, when the subject was first brought up.

As to Example 2, the waitress should have seen that there was good natured " goofball guy" bonding going on there.  IRL, she probably would have retreated until that horseplay was over.  No harm, no foul.

As to Example 3, well....uh, excuse me, I was just watching a commercial for "Girls Gone Wild"....um, what was the gist of your observation again?

 

[Apposite]

The gist of my observation was that there has always been a use of sexuality to sell a product. Now with some the ads you actually see the woman's fanny protruding out the sides of her scanty bottom piece. Okay, a bit of  - "nice!" (blink) - for a guy but it just seems a lot more heightened now - and it's not just one ad it's the general lot of them, whether car ads or fast food.

 

In the examples, what should have been is not the focus of the product marketing - in the phone ad it's "look at what a jerk I can be if I have this phone" that gets attention. I don't even know what the phone brand is. I remember another ad from a few years where a guy charged a whole round of beer on his buddies credit card and announced it to the crowd. In yet another a guy goes into a party and takes credit for bring both the beer and the cheese and basically poops on his friend in front of some women while taking the credit.

 

I mean these are mean ads; I don't see anything funny at all in them.

[Bob Stepp]

They got your attention.....they served their purpose. Don't think they were there as a window to humanity.

[Stir Young]

Perhaps my profile fits the target market.

[Jaylee53]

I thought the phone ad was funny.

I'm not impressed by tiny buttocks...just annoyed.

Sex sells...the ad people know this and we fall for it.  C'est la vie.

Sit coms...mostly aren't funny.  But, I do find "Raymond" amusing. 

There ya go...most all of it is just entertainment..or not. 

I don't take any of it under serious scrutiny.   

Well, maybe "houswives"...I seriously want to slap up somebody.

[Apposite]

Well I think advertising is a sign of the particular times and I wouldn't have noticed the progression of "expanded" boundaries particularly rudeness and meanness unless it went past my sense of what is common decency. As far as the "indecent" --- well I suppose there's nothing new outside of a more brazen "portrayal":) However, my wife did not seem amused and had to ask the product was; I didn't remember either, which didn't help a thing!

[Bob Stepp]

In example #1 the ex boyfriend should have thrown the phone guy out along with the phone.

[Apposite]

I don't watch those shows but I do see them promo-ed on the various sports contests I watch. There was one promo that actually showed a naked man walking into a room and they had to blurr out the sensitive part of his body. I wish they'd do one thing or another - either nudity or clothing without making implication and joking with it. Personally I think if it all just went nude we would desensitize and get over our American prudery. I just don't like all the dancing around it whether from humor or stretching the limits of what is considered the "standard" By the way, does anybody know what that standard is? (Well, we know the obvious of full nudity but(t) ...)

[Apposite]

dot: Some of the commercials I don't even know what they are advertising.

 

I know exactly what you are saying there. On quite a few they have you wondering where they are going until the last five seconds leaving you saying to your spouse - "Oh they were advertising paper towel???" or maybe even feminine products!:)

[Quinn]

The ads that annoy me the most are for cars and trucks and SUV's.

So many of them! And most of them are so boooooooooring!

 

When you decide to buy a car don't you already, mostly, know what you want? Do the commercials really factor in to someone' buying decision?

[Apposite]

I think advertising keeps the name brands in the public mind. I can see where TV ads influence especially where sales and specials on various happen.

[caseyjo]

Gotta have ying to have yang......I like it all as long as I have food & can stay out of the rain, the cold, & the hot sun...:)