Shh. Don’t tell Paul, but I managed to get away from the deepest darkest recesses of the sammich mines for a while today. Of course I couldn’t slip away entirely, as the compound is quite secure, but I had a bit of time to myself. Kittens were all nicely minced and the faulty beer thermometer has been replaced, so I headed for the red velvet appointed Honey Badgers’ lounge to plop down in front of the TV for a while. I never watch the thing (it’s old anyway – the men always get the new equipment so we Honey Badgers make do with their rejects) and I thought it might make for a relaxing change of pace. Big Mistake. What is the first thing that I saw? O. M. G.
This commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=u9HMhSvnbmk
Nasty, isn’t it? All joking aside, and at least it wasn’t mocking male suicide, but that was appalling. It has caused quite a stir around the ‘sphere, and I decided to join the chorus. Samsung clearly has no shame whatsoever, and certainly won’t be getting any of my money anytime soon.
Apparently a “fantasy” husband is a slave to his wife’s every whim. He is handsome and well dressed, and he does not only his chores, but his wife’s chores as well. While a “fantasy” wife files her nails, waiting to be waited upon. A “Real life” husband, on the other hand, is a useless, filthy, empty eyed pig, an utterly defective sub-human being whose “real life” wife is cute, clever, long suffering, and of course the one who is tech-savvy. You just friggin’ GO GRRL!
So to further trash the notion that all we do is whine, I spent about ten minutes doing some impromptu activism. I sent an email to Samsung. Here it is:
Dear Sir,
I am disgusted by your recent misandrist commercial. To whom are you pandering by showing a smug “superior” woman who fantasizes about using a male-invented product (which operates in conjunction with other male-invented products, using still other male-invented technologies) to transform a stereotypically “defective” man into a slave-like servant? Let me guess. You are trying to sell your product to useless “empowered” women who consider themselves naturally entitled to pampering and unqualified dominion over the men in their lives.
May I suggest that this is a misguided marketing strategy? The purchasing power of your targeted demographic will soon be dwindling, as the tightening economy will eventually result in drastically reduced monies to fund their cushy careers in HR, Non-Profits, and as do-nothing government clerks. If you were to hire an adverting agency that has the foresight to reject the current cultural trend of man-bashing (good luck with that, but it’s worth a try) you might be pleasantly surprised by the public response from millions of real live men and women who don’t find that crap cute.
In the meantime I refuse to spend even a dime on Samsung products. I will also use my platforms in the Men’s Human Rights Movement to recommend that males and the women who respect males boycott your company.
Sincerely,
Suzanne McCarley
Senior Editor, http://www.avoiceformen.com/
