Background: TV often portrays men and fathers as idiots–to watch some videos of “dad as idiot” TV commercials, click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, or here.
 As Bill Maher says, “Look at television…the wife is always brilliant and ethereal and right about everything and the husband is always just a dumb jerk who’s lucky to have found her.”
We’ve done two campaigns against these types of commercials–to learn more, click here and here.
The National Organization for Women/NOW Foundation has launched a new campaign around ads which they label “Offensive to Women.” The campaign involved Love Your Body Day 2007, which was October 18. In this series, I’m reprinting some of the ads which NOW tells us are “Offensive to Women,” giving my own humble opinion on the matter and soliciting yours.
In You Be the Judge–NOW Claims This Ad Is ‘Offensive to Women’–Is It? (Part I), I agreed with NOW in their criticism of a Maker’s Mark whiskey ad.
NOW pairs the two ads above together, one for Calvin Klein (left), the other by Ralph Lauren Polo (right). NOW writes:
“Calvin Klein: Does this dress make me look fat? Exhibit A in why women think they can never be thin enough.”
and
“Ralph Lauren Polo: Not to be outdone, Ralph offers that perfect look to wear while scratching your back on a tree while waiting for, um…the stableboy?”
NOW believes that ads which hold up thin women as examples of beauty are “Offensive to Women.” I would disagree in general, but can agree in extreme cases. The picture on the left seems like an extreme case to me–she looks like she just got out of Auschwitz. The woman on the right is a little too thin, too, but is very attractive. Granted that it’s a subjective judgment, I’d give NOW a split, agreeing with them about Calvin Klein but disagreeing about Ralph Lauren Polo.
That brings NOW’s score, in my book, to 2 out of 3 correct.
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