Wouldn't hamburgers fall apart in the shower?
Posted at 2:05 PM Dec 10, 2009
The holiday season is all about tradition. Christmas trees, caroling and lighting the menorah are all time-honored activities that families enjoy around the world. And then there's the venerated tradition of trying to sell fast food by objectifying women. Oh, how this new Burger King ad campaign from the U.K. warms my heart. It features a woman wearing a burger-kini, singing in the shower:
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Echidne Of The Snakes quotes an AdAge article which quotes a 'King spokesdude:
A Burger King spokesman explained the blatantly male bias of the campaign. He said, "Our research showed that breakfast is a male-centric audience for Burger King; it doesn't resonate as well with women -- we are targeting the people who are buying breakfast."I had no idea that, as a woman, I was not a target audience for breakfast. Here I've been eating breakfast every day, totally unaware that breakfast is for boys. I wonder if I can at least have brunch? I do love a Bloody Mary.
Feminist critics of this kind of burger-babe advertising have asked, again and again, to no avail: what is the connection between naked women and tasty burgers? Aren't men insulted that fast food companies expect them to eat their gross (and grossly awesome) food just because they dangled a naked woman in front of them? Or are men too preoccupied by OMGZ BOOBIEZ to be able to think critically about the base inanity of wearing a hamburger in the shower?
Comments
Well, if I had to guess, I'd say the thought process went something like, "Let's see... guys like pretty, almost naked girls. And guys like burgers. If we put them together, they'll like it even more. It's exponential! They'll flock to our doors!"
But it doesn't work in this case. At least, for me. Putting two awesome things together does work (see: Peppermint Patties, Peanut Butter Cups), but it can go horribly wrong as well (see: donut-hamburgers). This ad campaign fails. It doesn't even have the amusing bizarreness of the old Subservient Chicken web campaign.
I suppose we can be somewhat thankful that the creepy-ass King doesn't show up in her bathroom, though.
I was also unaware that breakfast was male-centric. It's usually my female coworkers that scold me for skipping breakfast. Or maybe they mean that artery-clogging breakfasts are for MEN. I'll bet they'd like that Dockers ad...
Posted 12/10/2009 at 02:43:10 PMI don't eat breakfast. Does this make me a woman?
Posted 12/10/2009 at 02:43:13 PM"Centric" doesn't mean "exclusive". Any reasonable person shoul be able to see "we are targeting the people who are buying breakfast" has an implicit "[the most]" on the end instead of taking it 100% literally like a robot.
Don't get me wrong, I think the ad's stupid and sexist as hell. But it got your attention didn't it?
Posted 12/10/2009 at 03:20:25 PMAndrea, when we bought McDonald's breakfast on the way home from the bar the other night...does that makes us lesbians??
Posted 12/11/2009 at 06:43:48 AMWhile I agree the ad is sexist and gross, maybe they're on to something. Women probably do tend to notice the fat litterally DRIPPING from their breakfast sandwiches a little more often than less-health concious men. And honestly, I'd prefer they didn't target me for their artery clogging, heart attack giving, diabetes inducing food. What? A massive corporation decided I'm not worth their money to try and kill slowly? Oh no! :)
Posted 12/11/2009 at 07:38:23 AMWhy not do a man in the shower too?
Posted 12/11/2009 at 12:59:02 PMUh... has the author of the post never seen any advertising before or something? Sex has been used to sell entirely unrelated products ever since Barney's Wheel Shop had Racquel Welsh in a bikini at their opening day around 30,000 B.C.
As a man who doesn't like Burger King, and who's idea of ideal womanhood has nothing to do with Bikinis, you'd think I at least would be able to look objectively at this and be aghast that they seem to think we are all slobbering trogolodytes.
But I'm not bothered by it in the least. It works for them, and the objectification of women is evident in far more negative, destructive ways than this. Once I'm done with being outraged about 12-year-olds being 'married' in Saudi Arabia, maybe then I'll care more about this.
Posted 12/19/2009 at 07:17:09 PM