We recently commented on the inanity of the Dodge Charger "Man's Last Stand" Super Bowl ad, which depicts men as hapless victims to their nagging, obnoxious wives:
Now, MacKenzie Fegan has created a spot-on parody. And it's hilarious:
-Naomi
Friday, February 19, 2010
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2 comments:
Fegan's version is brilliant, but many of the statements made in the Dodge ad could have been used almost word-for-word in the parody. E.g. this whole part: "I will shave. I will clean the sink after I shave. I will be at work at 8am. I will sit through two-hour meetings. I will say 'yes' when you want me to say 'yes.' I will be quiet when you don't want to hear me say 'no.' I will take your call. I will listen to your opinion of my friends. I will listen to your friends' opinions of my friends." Change "sink" to "bathtub" and it describes pretty much every relationship I've had with a man. Listening to his friends' opinions of my friends usually meant whether or not they were hot/bangable, which sucks at least as much as whatever situation the guy in the commercial is referring to. It's not just that it depicts women as nags and men as heroically sacrificing their need to be a sloppy, lazy jerk, but totally disregards reality. Women don't sit through two-hour meetings? Really? I know I've had to carry lip balm for several boyfriends because for them to do so would have been effeminate.
This is why I love that Fegan replaced "I will eat some fruit as part of my breakfast" with "I will eat half a grapefruit for breakfast." The Dodge ad writers really couldn't come up with any sacrifice that (stereotypical) hetero men make that (stereotypical) hetero women don't, and usually to a greater degree.
The Dodge people could have kept the same script and cut back and forth between men and women making the statements. Everyone in relationships makes sacrifices, after all. I guess that would have gone against the whole theme of the Super Bowl commercials this year.
I have heard this year's Superbowl referred to the year of the beta male ads. The beta male, unlike the alpha male, is a whimpering, emasculated guy, run over by his boss and his wife. It sucks that men are being depicted this way, but I think it sucks more for women, who are depicted in these and other ads as aggressive and domineering and victimizing. This whole 'I'm the victim!' trope is very strange and I wonder if it is connected to the recession, which has stripped many men of their breadwinner roles.
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