Mad World: The Most Sexist Ad in America

The best part of that disgusting bleach ad is that in the movie What Women Want, Mel Gibson considers a very similar ad for a lipstick and dismisses it, saying, "No, no, women will hate that."

If even chauvinist characters played by Mel "YOU'RE A PAIN IN MY ASS! STOP BEING THAT!" Gibson gets that this is offensive...

and not just for their nominated "Man's Last Stand" commercial. I give a dishonorable mention to the commercial for the Dodge Caravan that says it "literally gave birth" to other minivans. Uh, no it didn't. Way to trivialize the act of giving birth (something I can guarantee no ad execs who created that commercial have ever done). As a complete word nerd, I must add that I also despise when the word "literally" is used against its definition for effect.

the "last frontier" for gender equality. It seems like this is where the reinforcement of gender stereotypes is most salient. All the time we see images of women smiling while skipping around the house with their Swiffers and air fresheners and men acting clueless when it comes to handling their kids or expressing their feelings (because they just want to drink beer or watch football!)...isn't this 2010? I'm pretty sure there other representations of men and women in the world? It's kind of mind-boggling...

Im confused. How did the Axe body spray commercials not make the cut?

As a 17 year old female, the last car insurance add irritates me, but is still far from the most SEXIST ad, to me. If anything, i felt it was more..agist? I know it's proper to use Agist when speaking of the elderly, but does it work for youth too because it is sending negative messages about teenagers? Well, whatever the correct term is, I feel this ad is more that than it is sexist.
The two I'm really trying to decide over are Dodge's Man's Last Stand (oh, you poor, sad things, you. I'm sure you're the ONLY ones that have to do domestic work, go to a job, watch or participate in things you're not fond of just for your partner. I'm sure females in history or even common day have ANY idea what it's like to be silenced or condescended to.) This ad would be a GREAT ad if it were men and women saying the different dialogue, showing that everyone has these issues and it's part of being human and whatever product they're trying to sell you is a release from that. But because they made it all men, they are sending out a specific message and vibe that men get the shit end of absolutely everything and women are taking over, they are the bosses, and they don't have to put up with anything difficult in THEIR lives, and this product they're selling will make you more of a MAN if you buy it.
The second one is the Reeboks. Augh. They are literally turning a woman into two tits and an ass. It's the only thing that matters, and it's the only thing you see on the screen. She's a piece of meat. SHE doesn't even do the talking about- you know, her health, or how good she feels because of the product- the boobs say it all for her, naturally (how ELSE would anyone ever pay attention?
hmmm, I think I'll vote Reeboks.
The light beer and the clorox I didn't think were too bad. They were also definitely more sexist towards men though. The light beer shows men are dimwitted and incapable of displaying emotion and affection for other people because they don't want to be too sensitive. Clorox i guess kind of makes men look like sex-craved beings who can't go a few days on a business trip without getting some. But even that wasn't very strong.

Kelsey, it sounds like the only "Mayhem" All-State ad you paid attention to was the teenage girl one. If you've actually watched the other ones, you'll know that it's not exclusively attacking teenage girls or females in general. Each commercial shows the diffeent ways cars can be wrecked, whether through personal carelessness or arbitrary outside factors. This includes but not limited to: a loosened satellite dish falling onto an SUV, a deteriorated flag flying onto someone's windshield on the freeway, a tied-down Christmas tree falling off the top of an SUV, swerving out of the way to avoid a deer, hitting a tree branch, the list goes on. It should also be noted that the majority of these incidents involved men's carelessness instead of women (i.e., the usual stereotypical culprit of car accidents in our society). In fact, one of the more embarassing cases was a teenage male, who was hired to mow a person's lawn for $5, haphazardly wrecking the house because of his ineptitude and apathy. Perhaps the "Mayhem" commercials are a little biased against teens in general, but at least they're gender balanced. I can't say the same with the other choices here (especially "Man's Last Stand").

If you're curious about the other "Mayhem" ads, go here:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mayhem+allstate&aq=f

Personally, I didn't find the Allstate Mayhem ad sexist. It was stupid, but I thought it was ridiculing a kid of a certain age and demeanor, rather than women in general. The Clorox was mildly sexist. The Reebok and Miller Lite were pretty bad, but the Dodge Charger was just shocking. I can't believe something like that was even allowed to air in this century.

The Charger ad is beyond sexist; it is saying that a relationship between a man and a woman is really a war, a kind of Hegelian dialectic, a zero-sum game. Women get whatever they want outside of the bedroom because in it, they'll open their legs--or get on their knees. As such, man is constantly degraded and emasculated by the vicious woman whose only goal is to make him less of a man. (Why, exactly? What point does that serve?) This ad reinforces the most vicious, backlash misogynist imaginable. It really is unbelievable to me that it aired in the 2000s.