Misandry on Madison Avenue
by Marc H. RudovMoronizing & Marginalizing Men
Your spellchecker doesn’t recognize misandry, the hatred of men, because the developers at Microsoft, when creating Word, weren’t conscious of it. But, they sure knew about misogyny, right? HR sensitivity programs ensured that. Bashing women is so verboten in Corporate America that people can lose their jobs over it. Excoriating men, on the other hand, is so infused — and apparently profitable — that, like breathing, most people accept it without question. And, nowhere is misandry practiced more than on Madison Avenue, the advertising capital of the world, the source of the male-bashing TV commercial.
Today’s TV spots are moronizing and marginalizing men, with impunity. Why do they persist? Quite simply, most Americans — including a lot of self-hating men — approve. The genesis of every TV campaign begins by matching an advertiser’s sales objectives with an assumption about the zeitgeist. The advertiser bets that a TV campaign’s message will resonate with its targeted customers, who, hopefully, will respond by purchasing the promoted products or services. When earning my MBA at Boston University, I obviously missed the lecture on how to boost revenues of cameras and mutual funds by alienating men and fathers.
Sony & Fidelity Investments
That explains why I was incredulous when Sony aired its “Father Is a Horse’s Ass Commercial,” believing that insulting men would boost sales of the Cyber-shot® camera. The campaign didn’t last long, but I have yet to read about any Sony marketing execs or any BBDO advertising execs who lost their jobs over it. Imagine what those child actors thought about their own fathers as they were learning their lines, reciting them on camera, and watching the finished commercial. What were the impressions on their young minds and souls?
In another misandry-for-profit example, Fidelity Investments and Arnold Worldwide, both of Boston, teamed up to produce four spots designed to lure female investors by denigrating men. When you watch them, ask yourself this question: Why would women feel good about doing business with a company that trashes men?
- Fidelity’s Moron: Misusing the Leafblower
- Fidelity’s Moron: Parking the Car with Wife
- Fidelity’s Moron: Playing with Child’s Toys
- Fidelity’s Moron: Playing Pingpong with Daughter
How do you feel when you watch Fidelity’s spots? Are you enraged? Are you indifferent? Are you amused? Are you motivated to send a check to Fidelity? Your answer reveals a lot about you and your attitudes about men.
Fidelity’s Advertising Assembly Line
For Fidelity’s misandrist TV spots to have seen the light of day, they had to move through an assembly line of steps and associated approvals:
- VP of marketing has a “vision”: portraying men as marginalized morons will successfully lure female investors without alienating male investors. Time to convert this “vision” into a TV campaign
- VP of marketing gets funding approval from superiors and chooses staff members to execute vision — all are “mad about misandry”
- VP of marketing and team meet with Fidelity’s ad agency, Arnold Worldwide (AW). AW’s creative staff and execs love the man-as-moron angle, pitch their ideas, and can’t wait to begin
- Combined Fidelity/AW team conceives, writes, storyboards, staffs, funds, shoots, produces, post-produces, and greenlights four male-bashing spots
- AW buys time on TV networks to run man-as-moron spots. Network execs don’t object to or even notice spots’ misandrist content. The spots air as scheduled.
The NoNonsense Bottom Line
Numerous people — men and women — on the aforementioned advertising assembly line participated in, condoned, and approved the moronizing and marginalizing of men. Worse, the American public — men and women — gave it a giant thumbs-up. Corporate America, emboldened by this direct and tacit approval, takes the cue and runs with a new trend in advertising.
As a test, imagine the Sony commercial airing with the mother as a horse’s ass, or the Fidelity spot on primetime TV featuring a woman playing with toys in a doctor’s waiting room. You know as well as I do that such an “equality” test wouldn’t pass the first step in the assembly line above. Furthermore, we also know that anyone even suggesting equality in advertising would be summarily fired.
Boys seeing men and fathers constantly portrayed as morons cannot possibly look forward to marriage and parenthood — or even manhood. Moreover, frequent male denigration is encouraging girls to develop a deep disrespect of boys and men, and false senses of superiority. Alas, when these boys and girls become parents, they will repeat and continue this cycle of misandry.
Whether at home or at work, women who trash men to gain self-worth and profits are worthless. And, likewise, men who trash themselves and their fellow men to gain female approval and profits are as well worthless — and pathetic.
Men will make people conscious of, and utlimately end, misandry by refusing to tolerate it: from advertisers, ad agencies, and the women and self-hating men in their lives. Misandry on Madison Avenue will continue only as long as it does on Main Street.
About the Author
Marc H. Rudov is an internationally recognized radio/TV personality and author of 70+ articles and the books Under the Clitoral Hood: How to Crank Her Engine Without Cash, Booze, or Jumper Cables (ISBN 9780974501727), and The Man’s No-Nonsense Guide to Women: How to Succeed in Romance on Planet Earth (ISBN 0974501719). Mr. Rudov is a regular guest on Fox News Channel’s Your World with Neil Cavuto.
Rudov’s books, articles, blog, and podcasts are available at TheNoNonsenseMan.com.
Copyright © 2007 by Marc H. Rudov. All rights reserved.
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:08 am
Hey Marc can you point me toward some of the more egregious examples of currently running commercials or commercials that were very popular that are portray(ed) men in a negative fashion?
A girl in my communications class is doing a presentation on how women are portrayed in the media. Her claim is that male advertisers portray women in a negative fashion. There will be a Q&A session and I would love to throw a monkey wrench into her presentation.
December 3rd, 2007 at 4:18 pm
mike hunter…She can get her women as victim hysteria facts, and you can research some facts of youre own!!
..I know a women bar owner that has the most raunchiest women advertisements i’ve ever seen!!
..women use sex sells more than men!!
…They problem lies in the fact that no money is being granted to study anything unless it passes the women as victim test!!
If you look at university level research, anything that could possibly show men have it worse than women, is simply disregarded!!
It doesn’t fit the women as victim script, women groups would march into the deans office!!!
December 4th, 2007 at 2:25 am
interestingly, marc left what’s perhaps the most egregious anti-male fidelity ad off his list. this was a commercial in which a man and his wife were sitting outside discussing investments; the woman was sensibly discussing mutual funds, etc., while the man popped off with thoughts about ‘investing’ in a fast car. as usual, she was rolling her eyes and making condescending facial expressions as he prattled on about the car.
this commercial was especially offensive because it’s at such odds with the reality of the situation (i.e., women’s impulse purchases >> men’s impulse purchases). can you imagine the reaction to an ad showing a man suggesting real investments while his wife talks about ‘investing’ in prada and gucci?
disgusting.
December 10th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
I’m a woman and I find the Fidelity commercials nauseating. I detest any portrayal of a married couple where one partner shames and embarasses the other. This type of emotional abuse is, unfortunately, all too common in many relationships. And it’s NOT funny.
January 1st, 2008 at 9:55 am
[…] now that it is clear how we all work, let’s take a look at what we have been doing to men. Marc H. Rudov, one month ago, wrote up some observations on how advertising is done in early 21st-century […]