The marketing masterminds employed by LG to sell their Kompressor Plus vacuum are coming up short with this commercial attempting to showcase the superior suction properties of their product: [media url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biym0whZK4A”] This clip rates high in the shock-value department, but the benefits highlighted in it are not those one would typically associate with a household… Continue Reading →
Rihanna’s “We Found Love” video draws a dangerous line between love and violence
Let’s be honest, people — as delicious as pop music is, it has some serious sexist potential. There are only so many times I can hear about “pimps” and “hos” and “smacking that” and other musical vulgarities without getting thoroughly sick of it all. Don’t get me wrong. Hating on pop stars isn’t my cup… Continue Reading →
Kellogg’s Special K tells women their lives could be better, if only they were thin
Given that Kellogg’s Special K basically markets itself as a diet food, my expectations for their advertising campaigns were already low. However, they have really outdone themselves with their new campaign, based around the question: “What will you gain when you lose?” In the commercials, women stand on bathroom scales that reflect buzzwords back at them:… Continue Reading →
Fotoshop by Adobé will solve ALL your beauty problems.
Back when I was an editor at a tech magazine in San Francisco and Adobe representatives would come to demo the newest version of Photoshop, I found myself thinking, “Wow, women just Photoshop themselves every day — except it’s called makeup and cosmetic surgery.” In short, tech was imitating life. The maker of this satirical… Continue Reading →
Does eating Dove chocolate really have to involve “confession”?
On rare occasion, the media isn’t blatantly in-your-face sexist, racist, or ageist. In fact, it’s the more subtle messages, especially those which appear to be about female empowerment, that are harder to scrutinize. Take this Dove® chocolate commercial, for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUBchloHPmM
Lady Gaga’s “Marry the Night” video makes the psych ward seem hot
By now, Lady Gaga fans have probably already seen her latest: a fourteen-minute opus that is allegedly a music video for her song “Marry the Night”. I say “allegedly” because the song itself doesn’t even start until nearly nine minutes in, after an extended sequence where Gaga narrates about trauma and we get to witness her… Continue Reading →
Kelly Clarkson bucks the trends, and the media circus
Given their ubiquitous presence in the public eye, celebrities often end up being role models without even knowing it. Sometimes without understanding the impact they have on their fans, celebrities’ actions unduly influence us as we navigate the ever-evolving landscape of young adulthood. This can be both good and bad. In the case of Kelly… Continue Reading →
Miller revokes ‘man cards’ for men lite on manliness
The sexism of beer and other alcohol commercials has been well-documented by About-Face. So, I can’t say I was terribly surprised to see the line of the latest Miller Lite commercials. I’m referring to, of course, the series of advertisements that the company has been promoting as part of their “Un-Manly” campaign. I’m sure you’ve… Continue Reading →
We can all learn something from “Jessica’s Daily Affirmations”
You know how self-help gurus, Oprah, and basically any teen magazine will advise you to, in moments of insecurity and lags of confidence, look at yourself in the mirror and reaffirm all the things you love about yourself? Well, my roommate passed a YouTube video to me of a little toddler doing just that while… Continue Reading →