I wouldn't give them my money if I had a gun held to my head

[veronica_rich]

Any of you seen those commercials for Broadview Security (formerly Brinks)? They're always about some well-to-do white woman (with or without children) being terrorized by some thug kicking in the door. She shrieks on command and immediately runs off to call Brinks.

No black women or families. No Hispanic ones. No men.

OH MY FUCKING GOD, HOW BAD AN ADVERTISER CAN YOU BE? I can understand not targeting poor people - you need customers who can afford to buy your home security service. But to target a potential demographic with THIS kind of shitty CSI-tortureporn is just nasty. Plus, it sends the message that pretty, affluent white women (and white kids) are the property really worth protecting.

Seriously - fandom feminists? THIS is the sort of shitty media you need to be all over. Not crowning some toothpick-sized chick from a popcorn movie based on a goddamn theme park ride the queen of modern feminism. But I suppose maybe protesting something like this to the advertiser would require actual courage and principles ... whereas ruining other people's good time in fandom is easy and satisfying, and satisfies a need to bully.

Tra-la.

Comments

[caniad.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm not sensitive enough in this case, but from what I've seen from these commercials the biggest offense is the sheer stupidity of the acting. But you might have a point.

Then again, the people at Broadview might just be tapping into their typical demographic that is most likely to be scared into buying a security system. It's irritating, but from a marketing perspective it might be working for them. On an unrelated note, we canceled television service, so I'm glad to say I don't have to see these commercials anymore :)

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I could be overly sensitive, but really, given the last few years in my fandom, I usually tend toward the roughly callous on feminist issues now, LOL. (That doesn't mean I can't be oversensitive, just that there are particular triggers I have that have nothing to do with who a woman *chooses* to marry.)

But these commercials piss me off. So do the cleaning supplies commercials where it's the woman being targeted. Again, women might be your chief buyers, but they just want to see how the product works - really, if these manufacturers gave a hunky-looking shirtless man a sponge and some Scrubbing Bubbles, I can guarantee the female customers would still buy. *G*

[caniad.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely with you on the commercials for cleaning products. I don't know that they bother me so much from a feminist perspective (because women probably are the ones who purchase and use most cleaning supplies) as they do from the perspective of the image they convey: perfect-life America (as manufactured by the post-WWII generation), with mom happily spraying toxins all over her house in order to get it clean, and smiling like it's nothing when the kids run in and get it dirty again -- because those cleaning supplies will work just as well once more! It's stupid and unrealistic.

You might have something on an attractive muscular guy cleaning, though -- no doubt that would get a few women to buy and would give a company the chance to set itself apart from the other inane commercials.

[gobsmacked.livejournal.com]

See they bother me more from a feminist perspective because it reinforces the idea to children that men don't clean. Maybe if kids grew up seeing a man with a bucket once in fucking while, women wouldn't have trouble asking for help, and men might feel it was normal to say yes.

[venusinchains.livejournal.com]

Yes. You've summed up my problems with the anything-to-do-with-kitchens-and-or-cleaning commercials exactly.

~~

And - the helpless-female-in-need-of-SECURITY commercials reinforce rape culture.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

What Gob said. My feminism has a very practical purpose; I'm kind of tired of it being reinforced that either men are too good to clean their toilets, or they're silly butterfingers who can't do it right and women are the proper domestic goddesses. Either way, they escape the drudgery, while it looks like that's what we are born to do. ;-)

[caniad.livejournal.com]

I can appreciate that. The stereotypes are a little irritating. My husband is actually much better at cleaning things than I am, but with us it's a matter of time: I can do it in a fraction of the time he can. Several weeks ago, he offered to vacuum the bedroom because I had some other things to work on. I can do that in five minutes; thirty minutes later he was still in there vacuuming away. If he were responsible for the cleaning, it would literally be a full-time job. For me, it's an hour once a week. But at the same time, I've been doing this longer, so perhaps it's just an acquired skill -- which goes back to the stereotype, doesn't it? :)

[sirriamnis.livejournal.com]

Actually Feministing, I believe has taken on those ads, pointing iut that the only likely scenario they depict is when the ex-boyfriend kicks in her door. Sarah Haskins also took this on in her last Target: Women.

The racial make up has also been discussed

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

It's just all so gratuitous. I guess I should be grateful they haven't had black thugs trying to get in (that I remember), but frankly, that's about all I can find redeeming about it.

I'm not even suggesting they show a woman kicking a guy in the nuts. I'd just like to see some color in the affluent potential victims, and a guy here and there as a potential victim needing the services. The idea you get from these is "oh noes, Daddy's gone, so now we're in trouble!"

[gobsmacked.livejournal.com]

How can you tell it's her ex-bf? Where is that said?

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

No, there is one like that. She comes home from a date and tells the guy she just got out of a bad relationship, and it shows a guy in a car across the street waiting. When the date us gone, stalker dude goes and kicks in her door - the way she tells him to get out pretty clearly suggests she knows him. Not to mention she tells the security guy that it was her ex. :-P

[gobsmacked.livejournal.com]

That one I have not seen, or anything like it.

[sirriamnis.livejournal.com]

The woman says it's her ex to the Brinks guy.

[xenafox.livejournal.com]

Those commercials are so freakin dumb. Like, smash-your-head-repeatedly-on-the-doorframe dumb. And you're right, they are pretty insulting.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

CALLISTO!

Honestly, I don't go around looking for things to complain about. But if it needs complaining about, yeah.

[virginia-fell.livejournal.com]

Hell yes, to all of that. Racism, misogyny, the whole nine yards. Fuck those commercials.

I count myself lucky every time I see the commercial that the burgler doesn't grab a chicken and some watermelon on his way outta the big house once missus calls the po-lice.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to remember if any have had black intruders; I don't recall it, but I'm usually so busy being annoyed by the object of the violence that I don't always get details of much else ...

[virginia-fell.livejournal.com]

I've seen enough magazine full-pagers and TV commercials that are racially full of fail that at this point I notice when the intruder is white.

[pktaxwench.livejournal.com]

Well, assuming I can't get to a sword, I'd be reaching for my alarm's panic button too.....

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's not in question. I'm just saying if I were in a position and need to buy home security, I'd try to find another service besides Brinks.

(Another annoyance I have is that when an intruder kicks in the door, the woman never NEVER shuts it when the guy takes off running - she runs upstairs and grabs a phone. HE COULD COME BACK IN AND HIDE FOR LATER, YOU DUMBASS.)

[beckyblack]

Call me weird, but when someone is kicking your door in, isn't that the time to call the police? Especially your police who can shoot the guy!

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'd rather test out my cutlass with the fingerholds on the blade to see how well it works. :-P Given my druthers and the proper skill of course.

[beckyblack]

Well absolutely. Gotta do something before the police actually arrive. :D

[justawench.livejournal.com]

The thing that gets me about the lady and child commercial, is she's so paranoid, she sets her alarm when they come in from playing outside, for lunch. And then the guy kicks in the front door in broad daylight (if I'm not mistaken). Everything about it is fail.