Has anyone else caught this Canadian Club print ad that’s been showing up in newspapers lately? Not that alcohol marketing has ever been a haven for good taste or feminist values, but I have to say the idea that my dad was a womanizer who got a lot of phone numbers doesn’t exactly make me want to run out and buy some CC. Honestly, I prefer to live in a dreamland where my mom was my dad’s first, but maybe that’s just naive me. Adrants comments:
Hauling out imagery 60’s and 70’s imagery from actual Beam Global employees and positioning Dad as a once cool manly man, ads state “Your Mom Wasn’t Your Dad’s First,” “Your Dad Was Not a Metrosexual” and “Your Dad Never Got a Pedicure…” Are we seeing a full-on return to the glory days of the hard liquor cocktail when beer was for factory workers and wine was for sissies?
Okay, so your dad was a real man who got a lot of action, not a sensitive girlie sissy man who indulged in grooming activities, a man who drank whisky? Liquor and beer ads are not just bikini clad beach babes and snow bunnies anymore. Their reinforcement of appalling gender stereotypes has gotten a lot more creative. See after the jump to see what I mean.
How about a scantily clad smiling robot lady (better known as “Technophonic Minnie Draughter”) who dispenses beer?:
Digg
Facebook
del.icio.us
11 comments
I heard the radio version of these ads a while ago, but was generally just too puzzled by them to know what to say. I have no need to think of my parents as virginal and pure until they met each other (like, yuck), and I think realising that our parents had complex life histories before we came along is healthy. At the same time:
1) I don't want to know what my dad did, and why does CC think I do?
2) As you said, I don't see how the fact that my dad was a ho is supposed to make me want to drink CC - like, why is that a good thing?
3) If you flip it, people would be horrified if this ad said "your dad wasn't your mom's first." Because essentially the worst insults in our culture are ones that iterate that either your mother is a slut, or a sexual being, for e.g. "bastard" or that word that rhymes with brotherpucker.
One of the more sickatating aspects of our cultural take on sexuality is the idea that our mothers' ahem, swimsuit areas, are supposed to be a sacred space. As if that wasn't gross and twisted enough, now while we're supposed to be rooting for our mothers' purity, we're also supposed to be cheering on our dad's slut factor? The whole thing is just too weird.
Also, I know this is such an obvious point, but why oh why does the alcohol industry always behave as if women - or rather, anyone other than very hetero, middle class, white or white-washed men - don't exist by almost never making ads that could appeal to anyone regardless of gender? Working in the alcohol industry for several years is what actually turned me into a feminist.
Posted by Thea
November 27, 2007, 5:02 PM
I really love that you just invented a word: "sickatating." I'm gonna be using that all the time now.
Posted by Stacey May
November 27, 2007, 5:25 PM
Actually, I think Grade 6 gets credit for sickatating. Though props to Thea for bringing it back. Also grossatating, gnarly, gnar gnar. Bring it all back.
Posted by Anna
November 27, 2007, 5:51 PM
It feels like all of the media is reverting back to this 1950s era of male chauvinism and female objectification and/or domestication. They don't even pretend anymore that females have feminist values. This trend is sick.
Posted by Brynne
November 28, 2007, 5:47 AM
I hadn't seen this yet. Hey Canadian Club: as a (gasp!) woman who (double gasp!) drinks hard liquor and (this is not so gasp-worthy) loves vintage design aesthetics, you could've totally appealed to me with this ad... if it weren't sexist tripe.
It's definitely frustrating how gendered (and heteronormative, misogynist, etc.) alcohol advertising continues to be. Obviously this campaign is trying to fight some sort of stigma about CC being an old man's drink but, eesh, they could've gone another route.
(Oh, and I agree with Anna: Grade 6 totally gets credit for sickatating. But for some reason, I've found myself saying it a lot lately, too.)
Posted by melinda
November 28, 2007, 4:28 PM
I completely agree with you guys about the alcohol companies forgetting about women. I don't know that I have EVER seen a liquor ad that targets women (not made women the target).
If there was a commercial that featured women knocking back some JD or enjoying a cold beer, I would be rushing to the LCBO.
Posted by Laurel
December 20, 2007, 3:26 PM
I agree...I want to see an ad that has "Your mom had groupies" as its tag-line with scantily clad good looking guys swarming around the background...(instead of the CC 'your dad had groupies...")
Posted by a.p
February 14, 2008, 2:31 PM
My first thought:
Whaaa?!
Second:
Father stalkers, much?
Third:
Well, this is just an outright...sickitation.
I'm rendered nearly speechless.
Posted by Brianne
April 9, 2008, 7:06 PM
Ah, and I bet you that even more people would frown upon the ad if it were "Your mom slept with as many people as possible".
-__- Totally horrible.
Posted by Brianne
April 9, 2008, 7:08 PM
The ads seem toungue in cheek, even quaint.
Maybe it's time to get over 1970s chauvanism and address how our teenage girls view boys and sexuality rather than get worked up over this bogey-man.
Posted by marticats
April 19, 2008, 7:12 PM
I'm totally torn on the ads- I love the vintage (or mock vintage?) photos but I hate that the ad rehashes the old heteronormative and sexist standards in alcohol ads and basically alienates women drinkers. My less serious side, however, wants to believe the ads are just a little cheesy and have that retro kitsch factor and knows fully that the ads are playing on old gender stereotypes.
Posted by sgt.peppermint
May 6, 2008, 1:59 PM
Leave a comment
This blog post is older than 90 days old. All comments submitted regarding this post will be automatically held for review by the editors before posting. Your comment will not appear on the site until it has been approved.
Our comment policy
Shameless prides itself on the diversity of opinions expressed by our writers, and we encourage and appreciate different points of view. Our intention at Shameless is to foster community and to maintain a safe and positive blogging environment; we do not consider it our duty to give a voice to anybody with an opinion.
Discussion on this site is moderated. We will delete comments that:
(We get to decide what's discriminatory, hateful, attacking, or inflammatory).
In some cases, we will cap off comments on a discussion when we feel they are spiralling out of control and fostering an unwelcoming space for bloggers and readers. Comments will be closed by the Web Editor, unless the post is by the Web Editor, in which case the Editor in Chief will close them.
If your comments repeatedly make the same point, they may be deleted. This also applies to comments made by multiple members of the same organization.
Your comments should be about the topic of the post, not its writer—although we certainly encourage praise for our writers, if you want to say something nice.