Watch this Folgers “Mountain Grown” commercial labeled as an “Old Sexist Coffee Ad” to understand what I write below:
While watching various television ads and labeling them with my impression of whether or not they are manipulative, informative, effective, or not effective, there is something that has been bothering me for the past week. This disconcerting feeling started when I viewed the video labeled “Old Sexist Coffee Ad”. The first time I watched it, I said, “What’s sexist about this?” I thought that maybe there was something wrong with me because I was unable to see it, so I watched it again. Then I noticed how close the husband’s pointer finger is to his wife’s face (How rude!), and I thought maybe that had something to do with it because it does appear supercilious. Still, I found him saying, “Then you admit it, your coffee really is murder!” more hilarious than anything else. Spouses often make fun of their significant others who cannot cook, so I didn’t find this inherently sexist. I watched the video a few more times (eight more times, to be honest). The only other thing I could come up with is that the coffee was referred to as “her” coffee as if she’s the only one in the home who makes coffee.
This is where I try not to superimpose my 21st-century lens onto the past. This ad was made in an era where there were set gender roles. I say this knowing what I have inherited from my mother and grandmother’s generations. I’m glad that I have more options than being relegated to the kitchen, after all, I grew up in an era where Beyoncé sings about “Independent Women”, yet I’m sad to report that I also live in a time where ads and political conversations are far more sexist than this old coffee commercial. Today’s sexist ads make the “Old Sexist Coffee Ad” seem rather quaint. Commercials today would have people believe that women over the age of 22 don’t exist and that it is proper etiquette to expose a significant amount of skin in a restaurant or other public venue! Women are exploited in many ways, both inside and outside the home nowadays. I would also like to point out that advertisers have been harsh on men as well, particularly in how they portray the modern dad as some hapless boob. In this way, we’ve hardly made any progress. I’m reminded of that old saying by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
To see some sexist vintage print ads in comparison to modern ones, check out the following link from Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/these-modern-ads-are-even-more-sexist-than-their-mad-men-era-counterparts-2012-4#
P.S. Don’t think I wasn’t tempted to label this “Old Sexist Covfefe Ad”. ;-)