I vividly remember walking into my high school the day after the Super Bowl to everyone referencing the best of the commercials from the night before (somehow the Budweiser frogs always seemed to trump chatter surrounding the actual game). However, had I been heading into Geometry class today after last night's Super Bowl commercials, there would have been little to discuss. All in all, last night's ads were a yawn-worthy disappointment -- especially when it came to spots that featured women.
The New York Times' Stuart Elliott put it well when he said: "Risk-taking, rule-breaking ideas were as hard to find among the more than 50 commercials as good taste in a GoDaddy ad." And while we've been programmed to expect nothing less than female objectification from GoDaddy -- and on that count last night's naked-model-being-painted spot delivered -- I was hoping for a little more creativity from other companies. Unfortunately, after seeing Adriana Lima's double feature as Kia's dream girl (if the dude in that spot can only dream as big as driving a Kia around a racetrack then our whole country is clearly in creativity slump) and as Teleflora's spokeswoman for men getting laid on Valentine's Day, I wasn't feeling very hopeful.
The surprise in this year's commercials wasn't the degree of sexism -- hot girls have been used to sell cars many times before -- but how few women appeared in the ads at all. As Nancy Schwartzman pointed out on Twitter, according to Budweiser, there were no women during prohibition.
Not a woman in sight post-Prohibition, eh boys? #notbuyingit
— Nancy Schwartzman (@fancynancynyc) February 6, 2012
The few standout ads (which included Honda's play on "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," MetLife's inclusion of classic cartoon characters, Toyota's riff on "reinvention" and Volkswagen's exercising dog) were predominantly genderless or gender neutral.
Is this an improvement on what used to be a slate of all buy-car-get-laid ads? Perhaps. But given how many women watch the Super Bowl, the really innovative thing to do at this point would be to run ads that target women -- the people who make nearly 85 percent of all brand purchases -- including decisions about which car to buy, what bank and blogging platform to use, and which insurance company to go with.
Next year let's hope at least one company will go out on a limb and advertise women-centric winter getaways or acknowledge that women do indeed drink beer. In the meantime, we'll just continue to dream of the day that young Riley Maida lands a spot with Volkswagen -- she may be even cuter than mini-Vader.
RELATED: Here's a slideshow of all 66 Super Bowl commercials that ran last night. Which ones did you love and which did you hate?
Follow Emma Gray on Twitter: www.twitter.com/emmaladyrose
You know, the one that shows John Stamos being head-butted by a woman?
Didn't you find the violence against a man by a woman "empowering"? Didn't you shout "You go girl!" when you saw a woman attack a man? Or did you find it amusing?
If you are so concerned about "sexism" in Superbowl ads, why didn't you call the advertiser out on this?
Or is it ok in your book to be sexist against men?
A group of us men watching the game just moaned in disbelief when we saw that ad - and wondered the sames things.
Women's violence against men is quite okay in our society - even feted.
Just kidding.
You might be surprised how much women are worth:
• Senior women age 50 and older control net worth of $19 trillion and own more than three-fourths of the nation’s financial wealth. – MassMutual Financial Group–2007
• Fifty-plus American women are the healthiest, wealthiest and most active generation of women in history. - Demographics by Mark Miller
• Of the 743 women of wealth interviewed with at least $3 million in investable assets, 61.2% accumulated their fortunes through corporate employment, their own or a family business or a professional practice. Only 38.8% of the women had married into or inherited their money. – Women of Wealth, 2004, by Russ Alan Prince and Hannah Shaw Grove
• High-net-worth women account for 39% of the country’s top wealth earners; 2.5 million of them have combined assets of $4.2 trillion. More than 1.3 million women professionals and executives earn in excess of $100,000 annually. 43% of Americans with more than $500,000 in assets are female – MassMutual Financial Group–2007
• Over the next decade, women will control two thirds of consumer wealth in the United States and be the beneficiaries of the largest transference of wealth in our country’s history. Estimates range from $12 to $40 trillion. Many Boomer women will experience a double inheritance windfall, from both parents and husband. – Claire Behar, Senior Partner and Director, New Business Development, Fleishman-Hillard New York
But seriously, I'm pretty sure your commercial ran at halftime.
Are there lots of commercials for straight men during the Westminister Dog Show or the finale of the Bachelor?
Or are you entitled to the whole world catering to you at all times?
(Sorry... I haven't even watched the Kia commercial)
I'm sure the media advertizing giants have not forgotten women, since you spend about 85 cents of every dollar spent in America.
Most advertizing is directed at females (hence all the ads featuring know-it-all wives and simpering, idiot husbands) but appear during TV shows other than sports, which are practically the only thing men watch on TV anymore (male television viewership is way down over the decades).
For a better perspective, Google: She-conomy.com and look at the buying habits and spending power of women. It is astounding.