There is little that works better at gauging society's views on any given topic than looking at the ways companies opt to advertise their products. Indeed, ad agencies spend a lot of time and money crafting advertisements that will reach their intended audiences and really deliver the message in a way that will appeal to the largest number of people.
The most popular ads tend to be ones designed to make you laugh. The entertainment value is said to rub off on you, giving you a good feeling about the product or service being offered. You might be more interested in car insurance after literally seeing a piggy go "wee wee wee" all the way home, or want after-shave when you see the latest antics of the man your man could smell like.
I'm not here to write about after-shave or car insurance: there are three other ads I want to discuss instead. While each is meant to do little but entertain – and help sell product – each also says a lot about the state of gender in our society today.
First, Flo TV wants you to buy a handheld portable television. Pretty much sounds like a product that will be outdated by the time you read this column, superseded by the latest smartphone. Can't blame Flo TV for trying.
Its commercial features CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz, and is called "Injury Report." In it, Nantz tells us the story of a young man being dragged along on a shopping trip with his female significant other. Nantz likens it to a spine removal, mocking this hapless fellow when he suggests a lavender-scented candle to his love, and tells him to "change out of that skirt." The upshot is that he could be watching football on his portable television instead of shopping for lingerie and house wares with his partner, and that would restore his masculinity.
Not to be outdone, Miller Lite gives us a series of commercials to advertise beer. The premise in each is the same. A man goes to the bar, where an attractive female bartender berates his lack of care over his light beer choice. In each case, the man also ends up being shown in a skirt, with a purse, with panties peeking out of his jeans, or with a lower back tattoo. The notion here is just as clear: if you don't care about the beer you drink – in this case, Miller Lite – then you are not a real man.
There's one more I'd like to talk about. It's not for a big name beer like Miller or even a product like Flo TV: it's for the RDCA Academy of Martial Arts in Key Biscayne, Florida. It's not a television spot, but a print ad.
In one ad, you see a young boy wearing a pair of shiny, red high heels, presumably borrowing the footwear from his parents' bedroom. Another has a young boy sitting on an adult's bed, applying bright red lipstick and admiring himself in an antique hand mirror. The only other things present in the ads are the RDCA logo and the tag line, "Karate Lessons."
The logo and tag line are small, and you'd miss them if you weren't looking for them. Yet the red lipstick and heels contrasts with the rest of the ad, drawing attention to itself and making it clear that these don't belong. One can infer that the message is that karate lessons will help keep your little boy from exploring his femininity.
The lessons will "make him a man," as it were.
Each of these ads seems geared at the male consumer. Each is telling you that your masculinity – or your child's masculinity – is threatened if you don't use their beer, television, or karate lessons.
Perhaps threatened isn't going far enough. Miller is telling you that you are a freak if you don't, that you deserve to be mocked, stared at, and treated as a lesser being simply because you are not man enough. Flo TV decides you are spineless, a freak who disgusts the narrator so much that he can't even look at him. It is clear that these people are somehow subhuman simply for not being "man enough."
The karate ads take it even further: your child may turn out to be a freak – or is a freak – and needs to learn to defend himself. Maybe karate – like Miller beer and Flo TV – will help him be a real man.
As I pointed out at the beginning, this is not happening in a vacuum. These companies are not advertising to offend a majority of their customer base. Rather, they want to advertise to those who may well feel they're not man enough – or who simply don't want their buddies to think they might be, shall we say, a little lavender.
Indeed, these products are being marketed to the Pedro Joneses of the world. He's the young man who allegedly beat a 17-month-old child in his care until the boy died from cardiac arrest, all because the kid was somehow not acting enough like a boy. These products are being sold to those who would mock transgender and others they view as effeminate, those who would point and laugh, who would be disgusted, and who may indeed mean worse harm.
This is what these ads are saying about our society: there is a majority of bullies out there who find these ads humorous, who want to yuk it up at our expense – when they're not worrying about themselves or their offspring not being man enough to avoid being a target.
It's sick, it's wrong, and it needs to change.
Gwen Smith does not endorse any of the above products or services. You can find her online at www.gwensmith.com.