| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/13/2008 6:58:58 AM | Although this has been going on for a while now, I have just gotten to where it really BUGS me. I am talking about the modern role of the man in TV commercials. I guess we have to make up for all those years when the woman was subservient or quiet or just not as smart. So now in every commercial she is the smart one? NO, it's WORSE. The husband/boyfriend/Dad has turned into an idiot! He can't bring home the right food. He can't even pick out the right laxative. Apparently he has morphed into a 10 year old. If executive advertisers think these commercials paint the woman in a good light, consider this: How smart can we women be for picking to be with a man as stupid as that?
Has anyone else noticed how men and women are unevenly portrayed in commercials? | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/13/2008 8:04:29 AM | I would agree, they do make men out to be morons. This country loves to scapegoat, I think some of the commercials are hysterical but I think at the same time it could be supporting poor behavior roles at home. They generally make men out to be lazy, fat, dumb and childish. The commercial industry uses humor in just about every commercial, so they need someone to pick on and stupify, because stupidity is pretty funny. If they made women stupid and fat and lazy they would have the womens movement groups on their butts the next day. Men just dont get offended the same way, if something funny we laugh. Lifes too short not to.
The best question is which TV Dad do you think is stereotyped as the classic dumb fat, childish bozo. Id give it to homer or Peter from family guy, I love em both. Peters laugh is creepy and absolutely hysterical!!!!!!!!!! | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/13/2008 8:32:10 AM | TV Commercials are bad enough. It's the dumb males in TV sitcoms that *really* get to me. Sure, sometimes it's funny. But after awhile, don't you get tired of every freakin' husband on a tv show being a moron? Raymond, King of Queens, um... (those are the 2 shows I last watched)... seems like an awful lot of them. Bet you can think of more. Heck, even the boys on Boy Meets World - the boys were the idiots, the girls had the wisdom.
Personally, I like Men In Trees...hot guys and they aren't always the stupid ones. :)
Of course, I don't watch much tv anymore...I still like ER though. Of course, Grey's Anatomy is done for me....too much "drama" and not enough learning from their mistakes....like a freakin' soap opera. @@
Kaylie | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/13/2008 9:31:37 AM | for comercial purposes it makes sense just think about it. Who does the shopping? who is usually the one who makes the everyday purchasing descions? Well the answer is mainly women. They are more likley to be the stay at home parent or the ones tradetionally selected to do the grocery shopping. So those commercials are targeted to women to give them a sense of empowerment. Its all psychology.
Now I am not talking about single guys or guys who do the shopping for thier familiy . I am talking about there being a greater number of single women doing their own shopping and married women doing the family shopping so it makes a buisness sense to fluff their ego. | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/13/2008 10:40:10 AM | I'm afraid that the portrayal of men (and women) on TV and in the media in general was bugging me long before it became popular to be bugged by it...lol!
Everything from seeing near orgasmic women from having the whitest laundry/cleanest floor/smoothest hands to seeing men portrayed as bubbling fools who can't cook/clean/or change a diaper ... it all eventually lead me to turn my TV off completely and permanently.
Oh I'm still being blasted by the media...it's screaming at me from every newsstands and every magazine covers adorning each and every check-out counters I go to...it's on my computer screen...it's on the radio...arghh...in fact there's a few new ones on the local station I listen to that are driving me crazy...and don't worry...they're about equal in number in portraying either women or men in a bad light.
And don't even get me started on the multi million industry known as big pharma that is forever trying to sell us happiness in their latest version of a "happy pill" and all those adds trying to convince us to lose /gain/add/remove/tuck/nip/increase/decrease/firm/tone/ beautify/youth-ify (new word lol!) our bodies/face/legs/waist/hands/hair.... etc...ETC!!!!
Rant/off
Issues? Me??
Haha.
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/13/2008 9:42:53 PM | It's a Global Conspiracy of those Lefty Feminists, they've infiltrated all the light truck manufacturing plants; that "new truck" scent they spray into new pickups is heavily laced with volatile organic hydrocarbons that are known to cause excessive production of testosterone, and stimulate the "stupid male" gene on the Y chromosome.
Tim Allen was an early, unsuspecting victim of this. | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/14/2008 6:46:38 AM | LOL...
Going along with the OP....
Ever consider the movies?? When a pissed off woman kicks her boyfriend in the family jewels for something he may have done, everyone gets a laugh.... ha ha ha
But if a pissed off boyfriend slaps the piss out of his girlfriend?? That is advocating violence against women... And cannot be shown!
Yeah, its slanted... We the Male side of the species are the root of all evil. Feminisms role has gone from a good idea on paper.... to the destruction of the family unit, the male figure, and fatherhood...
Something for the feminists to be proud of.... And they wonder why so many single mothers exist today... I think the wacko socialogists like to come up with catch phrase terms to keep thier jobs... "bi-nucleous families" and stupid crap like that.
Oh... but then again, I may be considered "old fashioned" ..... phooey... Equality stops when the check comes, then chivalry is supposed to take over... | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/14/2008 7:36:31 AM | There most assuredly has been a paradigm shift in how the respective gender roles are portrayed and it's not limited to commercials. It's sickening to me and I fail to find anything remotely attractive or engaging about demeaning either gender role. Those products I boycott with deliberate intent.
Apparently he has morphed into a 10 year old.
Yep, or so they would have the public believe. Speaking of a 10-year old, notice the paradigm shift in advertising as it pertains to teens vs. parents? Same sort of approach, make the parents look like bumbling idiots.
However, it's a psychological marketing technique. Remember the offense and "you" remember the product. | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/14/2008 11:15:39 AM | i fail to see why people are agast as to t.v wrongfully portraying something.lol.ITS T.V.
its not like it just started happening.my suggestion would be to stop watching it. | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/14/2008 11:22:29 AM | Yeah I also feel there is some conspiracy, it seems that way anyway. It is nothing short of oppresion and hate against a gender and groups of people who have some disorder or disability and imperfections etc. It's sad how much hatred there is in the world over silly things. Even on here, so many people I've noticed talk down to eachother and bash eachother and treat one another with no or little respect. With all the double standards and hypocrisy going on, things are getting more and more hopeless and bad.
There seems to be a very inrrational hatred , discrimination, oppression and suppresion of people who are classified as "different" or "unattractive" to what society considers "attractive", and people with disablities or some imperfections and so forth. It seems it started of as just apathy and has excalated to anger and hatred against certain groups of people based on their roles, backgrounds, looks/appearance and position etc.
In a way it's kind of like a rape, or an attempt to control and in many ways put down the dignity or worth of a gender or certain groups of people that some people see, for whatever unfortunate and sad reason, as lower class or unattractive. In a way, thats how it feels. Now as a result ,many of these people who are the victums of these kinds of stereotyping are being degraded in real life and being constantly discriminated against and put down and seen as inferior.
It's very sad that society has come to this. | |
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| Dumbing down
Posted: 6/14/2008 12:26:40 PM | | You get what you pay for. | |
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| Dumbing down
Posted: 6/14/2008 12:47:31 PM | Every individual has control over how much they allow themselves to be influenced by an outside force or person.
If you want to read something enlightening, research the demographics that said offensive programs and ads are shooting for.
Media appeal to the masses in any given demographic, it's totally a numbers game. Those that are influenced are the sheep, there are a lot more sheep than those that think for themselves. | |
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| Dumbing down
Posted: 6/14/2008 3:18:08 PM | grilledsalmon, I wouldn't be surprised if the media in your country is run by people hoping to aggravate and escalate what they consider to be weakness of mind in order for it to stick out like a sore thumb and rally others into seeking the weaknesses' demise.
A machine partially designed to bring out the worst in people in order to get them to kill each other off. Damn what a pessimistic way to think. Just be tolerant of the media for now, it'll eventually change once the majority demands it. | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/14/2008 3:29:06 PM | Has anyone else noticed how men and women are unevenly portrayed in commercials?
I don't like the way anything is portrayed nowadays on TV, which is one of the reasons I never watch it, except for news and sports. Personally, if we all lived without a television, (and computers) maybe we'd actually be communicating a little better, and excercising more...lol
As far as the original question..
I really never thought of it, but it is disturbing that anyone needs to be dumbed down in order to have a laugh. Although I do believe men are portrayed in this manner, in alot of these commercials because of this..
for comercial purposes it makes sense just think about it. Who does the shopping? | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/14/2008 4:03:37 PM | Fox's portrayal of family fathers is probably the best.
They are portrayed as stupid, excessive and indulgent, yet their traits are woven into stories that manage to allow them to persevere in the end.
What a message, eh? | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/14/2008 4:14:15 PM | I remember when I was a kid my dad would always mute the commercials. It would bug me because we would always end up missing the first second or two of the show when it came back on. Now that I’m grown and the TV is mine. I do the same thing.
I have know idea if the commercials have gotten worse I just don’t listen to them. | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/14/2008 5:01:44 PM | | I can't bring to mind commercials that this applies to (I tend to do the remote flip up and down the dial thing during commercials), but the sit-com examples people sometimes use in this kind of discussion are a bit off the mark, in my opinion. Yes, the male characters are often portrayed as goofy (not necessarily stupid), but they're also often quite good-natured and funny. The women characters are often portrayed as also quite dim but with horrible personalities. (Really, in real life, I wouldn't want to spend five minutes with either the wife or mother in the Raymond show or the wife in the King of Queens show; who in their right mind would?) They're just low-brow comedy foils for one another. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/15/2008 9:03:52 AM | I think the problem is more general than just men. Advertising companies use extremely sophisticated methods of communication and persuasion (based on current research by psychologists and social scientists) to try and convince people to act in a certain way or to consume a certain product or service. The idea of trying to persuade someone by communicating a message to them is not new; a lot of techniques used today by advertisers (and also lawyers) are the same as they were in ancient Greece and Rome.
Sometimes men may be portrayed negatively, and other times it may be women or children. What is more concerning is sometimes the images or behaviours communicated by advertising, or which advertisers encourage or approve, can be harmful. Junk food advertising to children, or advertisments which convince teenage girls they must be slim to be beautiful, are just two examples.
Ultimately because we live in a capitalist society, we must bear some responsibility because of the choices we make as consumers. If we want advertisers to clean up their act, we have to vote by what we choose to buy. | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/18/2008 1:18:39 PM | I have no idea what a Mc d'd is...
I buy coke...
But I think Angelheart has a point... complacency is one of our biggest issues. Many of us have way too much involved within our lives to follow all the nuances of the political landscape we have today. And when you have a bunch of people who DONT have anything else to do except make that political lifestyle the center of their lives, that is when things like Political Correctness seep in, and suddenly they are experts at telling everyone else how to live their lives.. | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/18/2008 2:32:39 PM |
Actually, I don't make my decisions what I buy based on any advertising claims. Some of us actually do recognize it for the bunk it is. But, then I am more independent-minded in my buying decisions than the average person.
Even so... Spumoni is right about voting with your dollars.
Even if you never ever ever watch commercials and just buy what you want based on the value of that product to you... the company still sees your purchase as a Yes vote.
If they're getting good market share they assume the current ad campaign is working... maybe crank it up a notch...
Silent boycotts have no affect on them at all, they just assume the other guys ad campaign is working better or that their product sucks.
They have some kind of logorythm and some market surveys to help them sort out the data and figure out when it's time to upgrade the product. But it's cheaper to fiddle with the ad campaign first. | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/18/2008 4:16:57 PM | I don't watch television at all. I am forced to listen to the radio at work however. Every time I hear yet another one of these denigrating commercials , I immediately choose to boycott the business in question. That doesn't stop anybody else from heading down there though and I'm not going to get on a soap-box every time the commercial aires. It's a personal decision and the only way anybody else is going to follow my lead is if they realize that there's a problem in the first place.
The advertisers aren't responding to anything. They're creating the situation. They don't have to put down men just to sell to women after all. The simple fact is that they know they can advertise this way because there aren't any powerful lobby groups around to do anything about it anyway. | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/18/2008 6:22:14 PM | Well, apart from advertisers using collected data... I dont see how that justifies some of the commercials that portray parents as complete idiots.... or as it seems to be the case, men as complete dolts!
Ive said it before, but it bears it again... Comedy holds more truth to it than people want to aknowlege...
There is a joke about kids... "Teens, get out now, while you still know everything!"
I mean come on.
Lately its been getting worse. Look at the popular show "Family Guy"
People actually think this is reality! | |
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| the dummying-down of the American man
Posted: 6/20/2008 10:02:29 AM | ROFL....
Wow... huggies pulled an ad for TRUTH IN ADVERTISING... Imagine that...
Because the public didnt like the term "Messy BM Leak" when... hold on now.. THATS WHAT IT WAS!
Oh boy....
Whats the world coming to when you call a duck a duck... ????
Land of the perpetually offended...
Stupid Soccer Mom Mentality... Cant talk about the TRUTH of things... it may damage someones psyche....
Isnt that the same thing as back in the 30's when no one could talk about sex???? Or women type things???
ROFL... | |
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