[CherylNYC]

ACH! Why am I doing this? I probably shouldn't even LOOK at this thread! I'm signing up anyway. Sigh. I guess I'm an even bigger masochist than I thought. I'll be happy to participate in a feminist critique of commercials and advertising.

I've worked in the entertainment industry since around 1968(!) at not quite 6 years old, but as an adult I've only worked behind the scenes instead of in front of the camera. Just as they were when I was a little girl, commercials are still the most offensive of all the woman-hating offensive advertising drivel to which we're continually exposed. Advertising strategy has been changing with evolving technology, but a typical 1/2 hour sitcom still has 20 minutes of dialogue and 10 minutes of 30 second advertising spots. Each spot has to convey a strong, easily read morality play within its tiny time frame. Everything from the carefully arranged neckline for the carefully chosen actress, to the selective, very engineered lighting has to convey the message that this woman is a good wife because she successfully keeps the house clean for her husband and family. Gaaah! If you've never been on a set, especially for a commercial, you just can't imagine how much time is lavished on each horrifying detail. Nothing is coincidental. Every detail is intentional. Every single thing that gets on camera in a commercial is designed to manipulate the viewer into seeing those cleaning products as imperative to the moral standing of any decent woman.

I didn't watch much television in the last year or so that I spent living in my parent's house, and I didn't have a television at all once I left at around 17 y/o. My long ago ex loved her TV, so I was exposed to it again while I lived with her for six years. I was thrilled to leave it behind when I left her. I vowed that I would never have another one of those poison vectors in my house again. That means I've lived with significant exposure to TV for not quite 23 years out of my 51. Lack of exposure has only increased my sensitivity to the hideous messaging that I do happen to see whenever I'm involountarily exposed to TV!

So, there you have it. I'm prepared to give a totally unbiased, even handed critique of advertising media. Bring it on.

As for the liquor commercial, besides the, uhh, pussies drinking cocktails with pink cherries in them, (except for the strong, masculine blue of the liquor bottle, all the other colour in film is very brown and subdued except for those tell-tale bright pink cherries), there's only one woman in this commercial who is more than just a blur in the crowd, and she appears in perhaps as many as four frames. She's walking towards him in the crowd, then turns her body to cede space to the all-important scotch drinking man. Then she follows him with her awe-struck eyes that say, "You intimidate me enough to want to have sex with you right here and now".

Retch.