I came across this post (full post quoted below, Original link of the post)
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Why do advertisers portray men as idiots?
A new survey has revealed that women are angry with the way men are depicted in TV adverts - so why aren't men complaining, asks Harry de Quetteville
2:37PM BST 25 Apr 2014
Comments
Have you ever seen a television advert supposed to represent a “bog-standard household”, which does not feature a mum who is competent and organised (possibly clutching a pencil, looking thoughtful, and then writing something down on a list) and a bumbling halfwit dad who looks game but has the skill-set and sheepish dependency of a puppy which hasn’t learned to control its bladder.
Nope. Me neither.
“TV ad mum” shoulders both the burden of bringing up her children and supporting a man who contributes zero – no housework, no childcare. “Tv ad dad”, meanwhile, can barely be trusted to look after the remote control. He is too busy drinking brightly coloured alco-yuk to help at home; if by some miracle he tries, he will screw things up so comprehensively that, for comic effect, he will be shown trailing a poo-filled nappy around stuck to his shoe.
Having opened the fridge to find it empty, he will then roll his eyes at his wife, who has just returned from the supermarket and is simultaneously juggling three children under three and 14 heavy shopping bags.
It is a total outrage. No wonder us men are fuming at these reductive, stereotypical gender-based images, which bear no relation to the complex reality of the care and responsibility we devote to our family duties. No wonder you’ve seen all those marches, and heard all those mid-morning Radio 4 talk-shows earnestly discussing the fact that we need a more accurate representation of the contribution of modern men to domestic life...
Oh… no you haven’t.
But don’t worry. Thankfully women have done it for us. Thank God. Yes.A recent Saatchi and Saatchi survey has revealed that while women rarely identified with the women portrayed in British advertising, what got them angriest – what got them really steamed up - was the way that adverts portray men.
“The suggestion that dads are clowns, or, worse, sideshows, is the final faux pas that marketers make,” it noted.
Us men. Honestly, eh? We are useless. I mean, there we are, being horribly traduced by the global marketing industry, being bandied around as incompetent, lazy halfwits. And what do we do about it? Naff all. Nothing. Nada. Do we even bother to lift a finger to get insulted or worked up? Nope. Can we be trusted to feel appropriately discriminated against? Of course not. We need women to do it for us. It’s the same old story.
Bloody Typical.
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It's not that men do not or have not protested against portrayal of men in a bad light, they definitely have, but those protests usually fall on deaf ears.... but it becomes grave enough to be noticed only when women protests against the same thing(against men being portrayed inappropriately in media)..... this is not a new phenomenon.. it's essentially what the term "Men are disposable" means!.
Here are some protests which men did, against inappropriate portrayal of men in advertisements/media
2) Other protests: In September 2008, Save Family Foundation sent a complaint against a Kitply plywood commercial(The DNA news report also quoted below) to the Advertising Standards Council of India. The ad showed a wife slapping her husband on her wedding day because of a creaking bed. The complaint alleged that the ad promoted violence against men by portraying it as funny. Swarup Sarkar of Save Family Foundation said that violence against women draws strong reactions, but violence against men on public television is ignored. In the same month, Suresh Ram of Chennai-based organization Indiya Kudumba Pathukappu Iyaakam, complained against a Pond's ad which portrayed men as wife-beaters and an ICICI Prudential Insurance commercial which portrayed verbal and economical abuse against men.
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DNA Article: Complaint against Kitply
Tuesday, 16 September 2008 - 3:06am IST
They have complained to the Advertising Standards Council of India asking it to ban the commercial.
NEW DELHI: The latest Kitply commercial, in which a wife slaps her husband on their wedding night because their bed made from ordinary plywood kept creaking, has not gone down well with men organisations, who feel that the ad and its likes promote domestic violence. They have complained to the Advertising Standards Council of India asking it to ban the commercial.
“It’s a derogatory commercial, which promotes physical, emotional and financial abuse of men. Kitply may consider it a joke, but violence is not funny; be it against a man or a woman. We are sure you would find the same commercial with reversed roles revolting and so, we urge you to revoke the commercial immediately and take strong legal actions against those who promote domestic violence,” said Save Family Foundation (SFF), an organisation for harassed men, in its complaint.
“It is evident corporates are also responsible for 56,000 married men committing suicides, as they encourage wives to hit their husbands and justify it as alright because it is telecast on the TV,” the complaint stated.
Said Swarup Sarkar of SFF, “There a big hue and cry if a wife is hurt by her husband, but a blind eye is turned when there’s a public display of a wife hitting her husband. Any sort of violence between the spouses is considered illegal and termed as domestic violence or gender violence across the world. Depicting violence on national TV is unacceptable.”
Some groups have also written to Kitply asking it to withdraw the commercial or face legal action and have also called to boycott any product whose ads talk or promote domestic violence. Some women organisations have also joined in the campaign.
Talking to DNA from Kolkata, a Kitply official acknowledged receiving complaints to withdraw the commercial. “We do not feel the ad is offensive. But since there are complaints, we will discuss it in the managing committee meeting this week. It will be difficult to withdraw the ad because we have already tied up with the TV channels. But the final decision will be taken in the meeting,” said Sandeep Sawalka, senior operations manager of Kitply.
Men groups have also protested against a Hindustan Lever Limited, Ponds commercial promoting a scar-removing fairness cream and an ICICI Prudential Insurance commercial.
“The Ponds ad terms husbands as wife beaters and the ICICI ad portrays verbal and economical abuse against men,” said Suresh Ram of Chennai-based organisation Indiya Kudumba Pathukappu Iyaakam.
p_vineeta@dnaindia.net
NEW DELHI: The latest Kitply commercial, in which a wife slaps her husband on their wedding night because their bed made from ordinary plywood kept creaking, has not gone down well with men organisations, who feel that the ad and its likes promote domestic violence. They have complained to the Advertising Standards Council of India asking it to ban the commercial.
“It’s a derogatory commercial, which promotes physical, emotional and financial abuse of men. Kitply may consider it a joke, but violence is not funny; be it against a man or a woman. We are sure you would find the same commercial with reversed roles revolting and so, we urge you to revoke the commercial immediately and take strong legal actions against those who promote domestic violence,” said Save Family Foundation (SFF), an organisation for harassed men, in its complaint.
“It is evident corporates are also responsible for 56,000 married men committing suicides, as they encourage wives to hit their husbands and justify it as alright because it is telecast on the TV,” the complaint stated.
Said Swarup Sarkar of SFF, “There a big hue and cry if a wife is hurt by her husband, but a blind eye is turned when there’s a public display of a wife hitting her husband. Any sort of violence between the spouses is considered illegal and termed as domestic violence or gender violence across the world. Depicting violence on national TV is unacceptable.”
Some groups have also written to Kitply asking it to withdraw the commercial or face legal action and have also called to boycott any product whose ads talk or promote domestic violence. Some women organisations have also joined in the campaign.
Talking to DNA from Kolkata, a Kitply official acknowledged receiving complaints to withdraw the commercial. “We do not feel the ad is offensive. But since there are complaints, we will discuss it in the managing committee meeting this week. It will be difficult to withdraw the ad because we have already tied up with the TV channels. But the final decision will be taken in the meeting,” said Sandeep Sawalka, senior operations manager of Kitply.
Men groups have also protested against a Hindustan Lever Limited, Ponds commercial promoting a scar-removing fairness cream and an ICICI Prudential Insurance commercial.
“The Ponds ad terms husbands as wife beaters and the ICICI ad portrays verbal and economical abuse against men,” said Suresh Ram of Chennai-based organisation Indiya Kudumba Pathukappu Iyaakam.
p_vineeta@dnaindia.net
