The 2013 Super Bowl ads are shaping up to be as sexist and racist as ever, but it's also revenge of the nerds year
I hope you've got your six-packs and snacks ready because this Sunday is National Testosterone Appreciation Day.
It's when people from all over America gather to watch muscly men fondle each other, touchdown balls, and slap each other's bums in a way that is in absolutely no way homoerotic. And while the guys on the pitch are recovering from their exertions, the other main attraction is the ads; in fact 39% of people prefer Superbowl commercials to the game itself.
This year roughly 30 advertisers will air around 50 ads that cost roughly $3.8m per slot. It's the most expensive media money can buy and, quite often, it's also the most offensive.
Over the years, Super Bowl ads have managed to insult everything from chimpanzees to Tibet, but they have made a specialty out of sexism.
Now that record numbers of women are watching the Super Bowl, it seems strange that female objectification is still considered an effective marketing technique. But while it may be anachronistic, it is not that surprising: 97% of creative directors are men, and in a lot of creative departments "boobs" still seems to count as a "Big Idea".
So what fresh outrages will the ads this Sunday unveil? While Superbowl commercials used to be kept under wraps until game day, premature release has become an industry norm as marketers strain to get more bang for their buck.
According to YouTube statistics, this strategy works: ads that ran online before the Super Bowl last year got 600% more views than those that waited. But this also means they get around 600% more accusations of racism, sexism, and vegetablism: Taco Bell has already had to pull an ad deemed offensive to carrot sticks. They've replaced it with a spot in which an old man attempts to hasten death by recklessly racing his mobility scooter. To ward off further controversy, a disclaimer at the bottom of the ad warns "Do not do this".
While Taco Bell may have touched a raw nerve amongst some, it is Volkwagen who really kicked off this year's game of offence and defence. In a spot that cost an impressive $10m, the power of German engineering provokes spontaneous fits of Patois in a white office-worker called Dave. According to Volkswagen, 100 Jamaicans were involved in the making of this commercial, but this hasn't stopped a New York Times columnist from dubbing it "blackface with voices".
Mediapost.com's Barbara Lippert told the Today Show that the ad was racist because it was "just saying that black people are happy". But I'd argue the opposite: the ad's just saying that white people, particularly white American men, are pretty unhappy. The ad is a rather bleak look at a corporate America in which those lucky enough to be employed are in unfulfilling jobs so they can afford 10 days in the Caribbean. And a Volkswagen.
We've ticked the racism box, now what about sexism? While there have been no major controversies so far, the pre-released ads demonstrate a disturbing strain of sexual-revenge-of-the-nerds. GoDaddy's spot, for example, consists of an extreme close-up of supermodel Bar Refaeli making out with a computer geek. When sexy meets smart, your small business scores, reads the endline. With techstars being the new rockstars, we're seeing more and more examples of "geek gets the girl" in popular culture, from programs like Beauty and the Geek to the story of Facebook.
Before computers came along, cars were seen as an extension of a guy's penis, and some of the ads this year stick to this motif. In Audi's effort, for example, a boy is going to prom alone, which, by the rules of high school, means he is a total loser. Lo and behold, however, the boy steps into his dad's Audi and, grrr, the boy is a man. He revvs the engine, strides into prom, grabs the prom queen and kisses her face off. Some people might call this sexual assault; Audi calls it "bravery".
While this year's Super Bowl will no doubt provoke the traditional slew of columns about female objectification, what is most interesting so far is the anxiety the ads demonstrate about how to represent modern American masculinity.
Back in the day, male bravery used to be encapsulated in the image of the cowboy. With space the final frontier, it seems that the astronaut has replaced the cowboy in modern models of masculinity. Astronauts figure in at least three of this year's ads, most notably in Axe's Super Bowl debut.
The major advantage of this for mankind is that, while you need rippling muscles and a bit of stubble to carry off a cowboy outfit, under that space suit, nobody knows you're a nerd. Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.
I hope you've got your six-packs and snacks ready because this Sunday is National Testosterone Appreciation Day.
It's when people from all over America gather to watch muscly men fondle each other, touchdown balls, and slap each other's bums in a way that is in absolutely no way homoerotic. And while the guys on the pitch are recovering from their exertions, the other main attraction is the ads; in fact 39% of people prefer Superbowl commercials to the game itself.
This year roughly 30 advertisers will air around 50 ads that cost roughly $3.8m per slot. It's the most expensive media money can buy and, quite often, it's also the most offensive.
Over the years, Super Bowl ads have managed to insult everything from chimpanzees to Tibet, but they have made a specialty out of sexism.
Now that record numbers of women are watching the Super Bowl, it seems strange that female objectification is still considered an effective marketing technique. But while it may be anachronistic, it is not that surprising: 97% of creative directors are men, and in a lot of creative departments "boobs" still seems to count as a "Big Idea".
So what fresh outrages will the ads this Sunday unveil? While Superbowl commercials used to be kept under wraps until game day, premature release has become an industry norm as marketers strain to get more bang for their buck.
According to YouTube statistics, this strategy works: ads that ran online before the Super Bowl last year got 600% more views than those that waited. But this also means they get around 600% more accusations of racism, sexism, and vegetablism: Taco Bell has already had to pull an ad deemed offensive to carrot sticks. They've replaced it with a spot in which an old man attempts to hasten death by recklessly racing his mobility scooter. To ward off further controversy, a disclaimer at the bottom of the ad warns "Do not do this".
While Taco Bell may have touched a raw nerve amongst some, it is Volkwagen who really kicked off this year's game of offence and defence. In a spot that cost an impressive $10m, the power of German engineering provokes spontaneous fits of Patois in a white office-worker called Dave. According to Volkswagen, 100 Jamaicans were involved in the making of this commercial, but this hasn't stopped a New York Times columnist from dubbing it "blackface with voices".
Mediapost.com's Barbara Lippert told the Today Show that the ad was racist because it was "just saying that black people are happy". But I'd argue the opposite: the ad's just saying that white people, particularly white American men, are pretty unhappy. The ad is a rather bleak look at a corporate America in which those lucky enough to be employed are in unfulfilling jobs so they can afford 10 days in the Caribbean. And a Volkswagen.
We've ticked the racism box, now what about sexism? While there have been no major controversies so far, the pre-released ads demonstrate a disturbing strain of sexual-revenge-of-the-nerds. GoDaddy's spot, for example, consists of an extreme close-up of supermodel Bar Refaeli making out with a computer geek. When sexy meets smart, your small business scores, reads the endline. With techstars being the new rockstars, we're seeing more and more examples of "geek gets the girl" in popular culture, from programs like Beauty and the Geek to the story of Facebook.
Before computers came along, cars were seen as an extension of a guy's penis, and some of the ads this year stick to this motif. In Audi's effort, for example, a boy is going to prom alone, which, by the rules of high school, means he is a total loser. Lo and behold, however, the boy steps into his dad's Audi and, grrr, the boy is a man. He revvs the engine, strides into prom, grabs the prom queen and kisses her face off. Some people might call this sexual assault; Audi calls it "bravery".
While this year's Super Bowl will no doubt provoke the traditional slew of columns about female objectification, what is most interesting so far is the anxiety the ads demonstrate about how to represent modern American masculinity.
Back in the day, male bravery used to be encapsulated in the image of the cowboy. With space the final frontier, it seems that the astronaut has replaced the cowboy in modern models of masculinity. Astronauts figure in at least three of this year's ads, most notably in Axe's Super Bowl debut.
The major advantage of this for mankind is that, while you need rippling muscles and a bit of stubble to carry off a cowboy outfit, under that space suit, nobody knows you're a nerd. Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.