New Advert
June 18th, 2007 at 17:40
One thing I forgot to write about in my post that vaguely resembles a review of the new Fantastic 4 film was one of the adverts beforehand.
It was really cleverly made – two groups of men and women opposing each other and then going into battle using their gender stereotypes as weapons. For example, you see the men kick footballs at the women, and then the women retaliate by throwing their handbags. After trying to defend themselves with electric guitars and flat screen TVs, the men retaliate by sending remote control cars in the female direction, who then counter by setting their little chihuahuas on them. The battle is ended when they crack open crates of… the Mail on Sunday’s supplementary magazines.
I should have put some spoiler tags around that, as that’s essentially the storyline for the entire advert. You can watch it yourself here.
I feel conflicted as I really like the advert, and think its really clever, but at the same time I really hate the Mail on Sunday. I imagine this feeling is similar to what repressed gay people feel when they find themselves liking something they are so, in theory, diametrically opposed to.
I think the reason I like it is because its not what you’d expect from the MoS – the advert is full of young aspirational people who presumably live in the big city, use their mobile phone to text people and listen to the Kaiser Chiefs, or whoever the “in” indie band is at the moment. Y’know, the sort of people who wouldn’t be seen dead with the Daily Mail. This is in contrast with the Mail reader stereotype of Countryside Alliance twats and racists (these groups are not mutually exclusive).
Its perhaps the most obvious case of trying to reposition your product since ITV gave in to their lowest common denominator image and literally broadcast a pile of shit, uninterrupted, for three hours whilst the BBC were showing the World Cup final last year. No one was watching at the time, so nobody noticed.
But yeah, I think the advert is clever. I’m trying my best to decide to hate it on principle, but it is cleverly done – watch it and you’ll see. Here is a list of reasons I have so far as to why I should dislike the advert, if you can think of any more, please drop me a comment:
- Its just perpetuated tired gender stereotypes, such as men liking football and women liking fashion. Typical Daily Mail.
- The stars of the advert are the almost equally reprehensible aspirational people who everyone hates anyway.
- Its not as good as the car made of cake advert.
- Young people? Ethnic minorities? It’s political correctness gone mad!
Categories: Television |
