Sexism?

[Foxfyre]

A new Dockers ad has come under fire from the politically correct police for an ad accused of blatant chauvenistic sexism. Dockers said it was intended to be tongue-in-cheek but some folks aren't looking at it that way.

Here is the ad

Or a larger version here: Dockers® Store Online - Live Khaki

The opening lines are:

"Once upon a time, men wore the pants, and wore them well. Women rarely had to open doors and little old ladies never crossed the street alone. Men took charge because that's what they did. But somewhere along the way, the world decided it no longer needed men."

So what do you think? Old fashioned propaganda? Intended humor? Sexist bull crap? What?

 

[hjmick]

Oh... I thought there was going to be a poll, for or against...





Just a humorous ad. Funny. I like it. Anyone who is offended needs to pull the corncob out of their ass.

 

[Darkwind]

A new Dockers ad has come under fire from the politically correct police for an ad accused of blatant chauvenistic sexism. Dockers said it was intended to be tongue-in-cheek but some folks aren't looking at it that way.

Here is the ad

Or a larger version here: Dockers® Store Online - Live Khaki

The opening lines are:

"Once upon a time, men wore the pants, and wore them well. Women rarely had to open doors and little old ladies never crossed the street alone. Men took charge because that's what they did. But somewhere along the way, the world decided it no longer needed men."

So what do you think? Old fashioned propaganda? Intended humor? Sexist bull crap? What?

I like that.

And if it pisses off the PC crowd, I like it even more!

Its a good ad. Some truth to it as well.

 

[Foxfyre]

Oh... I thought there was going to be a poll, for or against...

Just a humorous ad. Funny. I like it. Anyone who is offended needs to pull the corncob out of their ass.

An article on AOL here:
Ad Rant: Dockers ads claim "soft" khakis will make men more manly

Includes a poll that as of 11:15 pm Mountain Time agreed with you:

Do you think the Dockers ad campaign is sexist?
Yes 11889 (21.9%)
No 42424 (78.1%)

But the article accompanying the poll is scathing:

Excerpt:

Oh, goodie! A return to the grand old days when women weren't allowed to vote! It also sounds suspiciously like the successful media campaign after World War II that sought to convince women that it was more feminine (not to mention patriotic) to give up their jobs to men returning from war, and go back to doing more womanly things, like vacuuming the rug.

Just because the Docker ads are tongue in cheek does not mean they're not sexist. It's one thing to encourage men to man up, another to tell them to "wear the pants" -- an expression that taps directly into the old question: "Who wears the pants in this family?" There are only two possible answers: the man of the house, or the woman who has been stealing his thunder. "Wear the pants" is a call to arms, even when used jokingly, that says the only way to be a man is to put women in their place. That's right, women are too weak to open doors for themselves!

The ads also take an unnecessary swipe at gay men through the use of common wink-wink stereotypes. According to Dockers, a real man doesn't eat at salad bars or order non-fat lattes.

If Dockers is going to make he-men of their customers, they certainly have their work cut out for them. They have launched a new line of "soft khakis" to compete with runaway sales of jeans. They'll have to find a way of linking hot-blooded masculinity to "soft" fabrics "in a sophisticated palette of colors," including "Cottonwood" and "Oregano." (True, they also have "Marine" and "Leather," but it sounds as if "Oregano" is meant for the sap at the salad bar.)

 

[hjmick]

Oh... I thought there was going to be a poll, for or against...

Just a humorous ad. Funny. I like it. Anyone who is offended needs to pull the corncob out of their ass.

An article on AOL here:
Ad Rant: Dockers ads claim "soft" khakis will make men more manly

Includes a poll that as of 11:15 pm Mountain Time agreed with you:

Do you think the Dockers ad campaign is sexist?
Yes 11889 (21.9%)
No 42424 (78.1%)

But the article accompanying the poll is scathing:

Excerpt:

Oh, goodie! A return to the grand old days when women weren't allowed to vote! It also sounds suspiciously like the successful media campaign after World War II that sought to convince women that it was more feminine (not to mention patriotic) to give up their jobs to men returning from war, and go back to doing more womanly things, like vacuuming the rug.

Just because the Docker ads are tongue in cheek does not mean they're not sexist. It's one thing to encourage men to man up, another to tell them to "wear the pants" -- an expression that taps directly into the old question: "Who wears the pants in this family?" There are only two possible answers: the man of the house, or the woman who has been stealing his thunder. "Wear the pants" is a call to arms, even when used jokingly, that says the only way to be a man is to put women in their place. That's right, women are too weak to open doors for themselves!

The ads also take an unnecessary swipe at gay men through the use of common wink-wink stereotypes. According to Dockers, a real man doesn't eat at salad bars or order non-fat lattes.

If Dockers is going to make he-men of their customers, they certainly have their work cut out for them. They have launched a new line of "soft khakis" to compete with runaway sales of jeans. They'll have to find a way of linking hot-blooded masculinity to "soft" fabrics "in a sophisticated palette of colors," including "Cottonwood" and "Oregano." (True, they also have "Marine" and "Leather," but it sounds as if "Oregano" is meant for the sap at the salad bar.)

And 42 pages comments that seem to be, mostly, telling the author to get over it.

 

[Foxfyre]

]I like that.

And if it pisses off the PC crowd, I like it even more!

Its a good ad. Some truth to it as well.

Well, being an intentionally mostly politically incorrect person at heart, I tend to agree that I enjoy seeing certain ones of the PC crowd get their panties in a bunch and look even sillier than they usually do.

But then I think of some of those Calvin Kline ads that really hit me wrong because of the intense sexuality included in them that I thought inappropriate for billboards or the family hour on TV. I never wrote them to object as it wasn't that big a deal, but I can understand how some of this stuff does bother people.

Here's the C.K. billboard ad that caused quite a flurry of objections:

The Dockers ad, on the other hand, just made me chuckle.

 

[Foxfyre]

And 42 pages comments that seem to be, mostly, telling the author to get over it.

Yes. There was that too.

 

[JW Frogen]

Only lesbians and virgin men who still live with their mothers wear Dockers.

 

[AllieBaba]

I had a Basque friend, who dressed in jeans generally...then got a job at a bank. He wore dockers.

But I teased him about his "Dorkers".

 

[JW Frogen]

I had a Basque friend, who dressed in jeans generally...then got a job at a bank. He wore dockers..

Admit it, he was hired to work in a bank in Madrid and needed the big Dockers pockets for all the explosives.

 

[Foxfyre]

Only lesbians and virgin men who still live with their mothers wear Dockers.

Actually I think it was sort of exactly that image that Dockers was trying to overcome here.

 

[AllieBaba]

I had a Basque friend, who dressed in jeans generally...then got a job at a bank. He wore dockers..

Admit it, he was hired to work in a bank in Madrid and needed the big Dockers pockets for all the explosives.

He's Basque by breeding, but American. And quite fat. There was no room in his pockets for anything at all.

 

[Diuretic]

Great ad! As I was reading it I felt like jumping to my feet (no, not bouncing on the couch) and shouting it out!


I didn't though.


Just as well too, the Mrs is taking a nap and she would have been bloody angry if I'd woken her up......

 

[JW Frogen]

He's Basque by breeding, but American. And quite fat. There was no room in his pockets for anything at all.

All Basques have been fat and bull headed since Picasso rearranged their body parts in Guernica.

 

[Si modo]

I save the sexist word for more important battles. I wouldn't want to wear it out, especially on an ad for pants.

 

[Xenophon]

Reading that I had an urge to go fight the Kaiser.

Happily that passed quickly.