Earlier this year, the aesthetic marvel that is this ad appeared in D-scene, a Dunedin newspaper, and was kindly emailed to THM by Keely, a reader. It promotes Dunedin's Huntsman Steakhouse restaurant.
The ad prompted complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority, which upheld the complaints on the grounds that the ad degraded women. So far, so good - but what I don't get is that the ASA seemed to partially accept the Huntsman's excuse that the ad was part of an Orientation week promotion aimed at students. The ASA commented that, although targeted at students, the ad reached the broader community; as if to say that, if the ad had denigrated women to a student audience only, it might have been OK.
I'm confused. Is the ASA suggesting that students already have a low opinion of women, so sending degrading material in their direction doesn't matter?
11 comments:
Have you seen Richard Boock's SST column today? I daresay you'd appreciate it.
The full decision of the ASA on this complaint can be found here: http://203.152.114.11/decisions/09/09106.doc.
The ASA upheld the complaint Anna.
Also the woman in the advertisement was the restaurant manager, who feely chose to partake in the advertisment under no duress. But I'm sure you'll still find fault with that :)
Anon, I'm aware the ASA upheld the complaint (I mentioned it in my post) and I didn't criticise the woman in the picture or suggest she acted under duress, so I'm not quite sure what point you're making. You might like to re-read the post - the argument I was making was to do with different parts of the community being deemed to take different levels of offence at the ad.
Darren Rickards, I've deleted you because we try not to promote stupidity at this blog.
Thank you Anna, what I meant was that in your original post you were talking about this woman being thought of as a piece of meat. She seemed perfectly happy to come up with the idea and run with it. But I get your point.
I don't think I did actually say that, Anon, although I obviously don't like the ad.
I personally don't have a problem with sexual imagery of men or women, provided it's done in a respectful way. For example, I think that a lot of erotic art is beautiful, because it celebrates women's sexuality. The meat picture makes a joke of it. It's the kind of image that could never actually appeal to a woman - it could really only give a cheap laugh to a (young) man.
There's nothing in this picture with any aesthetic merit at all - it's been done on a shitty camera, looks like its been laid out using Microsoft Word, and uses a woman's body to sell meat. Who's that supposed to appeal to?
Ok, but so what if a younger boy or girl has a cheap laugh? That's surely not up to us to regulate Anna is it? The leaflet was done up cheaply, by the restaurant manager who chose to pose in it herself. It's a little bit of a storm in a tea cup really. If you asked her she'd be bemused by the attention.
I'm not all that interested in the woman who appears in the poster, so long as she freely chose to do it and doesn't feel harmed in any way by it.
The thing that bothers me is that to think this ad is funny or sexually appealing in some way, you've got to have a really childish attitude to both sexuality and women. If you think that most women like to be leered and giggled at with slabs of meat on their boobs, you're going to spend a long time single. If you ask most women whether being leered at with meat on their boobs made them feel sexy, attractive or respected, they'd say no. This just isn't a respectful portrayal of women's sexuality.
I'd like to teach my daughter that she is not just a thing with boobs to be perved at, but a whole human being, with a sexuality, a brain, feelings and a personality, all of which should be respected. And I'd like my son to treat women in this way too - not just as things to leer at, have a giggle at, or jerk off over. Images like this remind women and men that women are just bodies. Women who think of themselves only as bodies are less likely to enjoy healthy sex lives and feel good about themselves generally. Presumably the woman in the picture feels fine about it, but other women who look at it may not.
Last but not least, the fact that something makes someone laugh doesn't mean it's a good thing. Some people find racism funny, after all.
PS We're probably not going to see eye to eye on this one, Anon, but thanks for debating the point respectfully (unlike some of the trollage we've been enduring round here recently).
You're welcome Anna. I am one of the trolls who has been a little rude lately - but I see that being nice gets its rewards :)
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