TV commercials that denigrate men

Do TV advertisers think the viewing public are stupid? Take the latest ad from a certain frozen food company. The advert is set in Port Isaac and the actors are playing fishermen are singing the famous traditional sea shanty 'What Should We Do with the Drunkn Sailor' with the words changed to suit the promotion of the item. The item being sold is frozen chip shop style fish. During the ad a note appears on the foot of the screen declaring that the fish in question is sourced outside the UK! If that is the case why oh why use a traditional English fishing port and a traditional English song in their ad? This ad is misleading and the disclaimer should be more prominent, this ad is also a poke in the eye to our ever dwindling fishing industry which has restrictions placed on it that other EU countries don't

I agree with oracle to a certain extent but it aint the adverts that bother me so much, it's programs like Loose Women, which bring muscle bound men (wearing nothing but speedos) into the studio where one of the hosts is guaranteed to get up and start stroking the guy's chest or abs, saying things like "Ooh is it my birthday?" and "What a fine specimen" To which the audience erupt with laughter and wolf whistles.
If it were four 40 to 50 year old blokes doing the same to a girl dressed in a bikini there would be OUTRAGE! So how are they allowed to get away with it?
If women are not allowed to be treated as mere s*x objects, then surely, it should be the same for men.

@justin sidebottom: TUT...you give us men a bad name, you need to begin to open your mind my friend and see that macho is no longer cool, or comfortable to live up to as a man!

Men are becoming women and women are becoming men.
The female of the species is becoming more loutish, aggressive and loud whereas the man is becoming timid and fragile.
The female has chosen her time well. Machines have taken over the physical side of life so men are not needed for the heavy lifting quarrying and pushing of huge objects.
The once dominant male is now taking a role as a harmless television watcher. This is why these adverts are needed, to show buffoonery and therefore drive the man away from the television set.

@Oracle2006 - exactly which adverts are you griping about? The only ones I can think of which portray men in a less than positive way are the Flash adverts - implying that men will look for an easy way out so they can get away with doing a half-assed job. But being viewed as wimps, oafs and cretins? Maybe you're watching a different channel to the rest of us...

I cannot believe I am reading this! Your points are totally warped. For example :
"such men folk are constantly portrayed as wimps, oafs or cretins"... what exactly do you mean by Wimps, If you mean they are not portrayed as 'the dominant species' then is that not a compliment? After all men dont want to be thought of as dominant now do we?
"she will be a smart, intelligent, good-looking person, in full control of her life"... How come this is so wrong for a woman? and did you notice, she was valued for her looks in your comment? (a real problem for women in a society where the subliminal messages of womens value connected only to her looks are indeed not so subliminal, in fact they are plastered everywhere you look)
"this deliberate gender bias produces the opposite effect"... How in control of our lives us men are...these types of adverts are seen so rarely that Men get upset with them. Women on the other hand are so oppressed by the images all around them that they dont even think to complain or if they do they are seen as 'man haters and feminist big mouths'
"members of my family and my friends have joined me in boycotting all goods produced by companies which libel the male sex in this way. My impression is that this is a growing protest movement.

So, if the directors of companies are puzzled by falling sales, they need look no further than their television ads; which nowadays promote war between the sexes instead of selling their goods"...Proves the above point beautifully!
You had better lighten up fella...or you will get left behind with all the other macho twits!

There are a growing body of men who are at last being big enough to recognise that females being viewed as inferior, is killing this planet.

I hope you get well soon.

Frustrated male

How can it be female manipulation when most ad agencies are run by men and most of the CEOs of the major companies for whom they make adverts are also male?

Companies have no respect for their customers, male or female; they will just use whichever tactics they think will work.

I just read some of the other comments concerning the objectiving of women as sex objects to sell to males - in my opionion it is just another way of saying men are dumb and base their buying decisions on their gonads. More female manipulation just like in the real world. All things being equal - maybe a gender war in the U.S. is long overdue.

I agree wholeheartedly but the humilation extends into US television programming as well now.

Oven Brite

"So simple even a man can do it."

I'd like to see the sh*tstorm that would cause if it were changed up a little.

Christ, the only thing that I gather from these comments is that Men are a bunch of pussies. So what if commercials advertise men as morons? I've met plenty of men who act like idiots just to get a laugh. You say that these commercials give men a bad name? I'm pretty sure that any woman who watches tv isn't going to become a hardcore dyke just because a commercial that no one (apparently you guys are the exception) seriously considers for more than a few seconds after the ad has ended "denigrates men." Seriously, this is pretty funny considering how much you're pissing and moaning about something stupid...

Is there a list and a campaign to help us stop buying from these horrible people who hate us guys so much? Why do they make me feel so foolish because of my gender?.I never did anything to harm anyone yet they mock our lives and demean us like animals.

If you feel the advertisers should concentrate on the product when promoting it, should you not concentrate on the product, rather than the adverts, when considering consuming it?

Of course, because to imply that a black person could be considered anything less than perfect would be considered 'racist' and would attract complaints from the pinko liberal Guardian readers.

Note however it is only white men who are portrayed as duffers

yes - the weekly gripe may just have stopped me going out and killing someone today (problems with partners ex)! thanks for the first real smile i've had all day. congo *hug* let's all concentrate on The Weekly Gripe :D

Well said 'sadandangry'

We men are far above such petty irrelevances, do not take that sort of tosh seriously and have far more important tasks upon which to concentrate.

Such as reading 'TheWeeklyGripe' :)

I know! It's amazing how women complaint their men never do any housework, or cooking. But who's up in the loft when something needs putting/fetching up there, or up a ladder unblocking something from the guttering? Is the woman sweeping up the yard, or cleaning the moss and gunk off the patio with a hosepipe? Maybe - but many men do housework, washing and cooking while the lazy b!tch of a wife sits watching the soap operas. This is probably why the adverts are so sexist against men - they are selling products to the women sitting on their fat backsides watching TV!

Women ONLY want equality when it suits them.

The advert for that oven cleaner with the line "So easy, a man could do it" really annoys and offends me! If it's so easy then the bıtch should do it herself and quit whining! Housewives always get men to do the jobs they can't handle because they are either too weak or don't have a clue. For example opening a jar or basic car maintenance.

(continued from previous comment)

In previous decades, sexism of women in advertising (such as it was) was not about deriding women and saying they are stupid or worthless. It was, most of time, treating them like sex objects. Yes, that's wrong too, but you didn't like that did you? So, what is the "Diet Coke man" coming down of the ceiling of the lift in that advert, to the sex starved eyes of drooling females, if not treating him as a sex object? Do men care or complain about this advert? No! Probably because they have better things to do.

You also fail to realise, despite a few women in a few key "make work" jobs, the world is still run by men. Get used to it, because it will never change. Because the more that women jump up and down, demanding this and that, take-take-take and me-me-me, the more the men in charge will tighten their grip on power and nothing will ever change.

Women are their own worse enemies. This will never change.