Every once in a while, during a binge of Criminal Minds or Law and Order: SVU, I’m forced to watch commercials. I don’t like advertising in general, but I do find it fascinating. I’m amazed that marketing professionals get paid so much money to create such uninspired crap, but even more amazed that, for there to be a constant stream of ads, some people out there must actually be paying attention to them.
There is one in particular that always catches my attention. It’s an animated spot starring cannibalistic pieces of Cinnamon Toast Crunch who chase each other around a milk-splattered bowl with over sized tongues and teeth, trying to brutally murder each other. But that’s not the weird part. Before the commercial even begins, a confident, sassy sounding woman says, “Hey Ladies…”
I’ve really tried to understand the mentality behind that decision, tried to figure out why a company as huge as General Mills would add such a bizarre line to a commercial for a cereal that is really for kids. I imagine some overpaid, overdressed executive pointing angrily at a big chart titled, “Adult Female Consumption of Children’s Breakfast Cereals,” stomping around the board room, demanding explanations for the steadily descending red line. I figure the conversation would be something like this:
Executive: “Look, we can’t ignore this demographic. We have to get the women-types eating more cereal! Who’s got some ideas? Because I clearly don’t other than maybe starting another ‘Fiber One will lose weight for you’ campaign.”
Businessman 1: “Let’s make the boxes pink! Women love pink! Don’t they? Has anyone ever talked to a woman? I’m just guessing here. Oh god, I’m so alone.”
Businessman 2: “No, no. It needs to be sassy, confident. We need to target the working-woman. You know. Like those ones in the commercials that wear pant-suits? The kind who just wants to have a bowl of cereal in her perfectly decorated urban studio apartment after her long day working at an office or something.”
Executive: “I like that, sassy cereal. But what cereal? Cookie Crisp is too casual. Wheaties, too athletic. We need something real, but feminine. …Hey, Johnson, what is that you’re shoveling into your face there?”
Johnson: “Shminamin toas crufmch, sthir.”
Executive: ” Brilliant.”
And so a stupid idea to add a gender to a product that innately has no gender is born. All hyperbole aside, this commercial is a reality. Because someone in marketing decided that ads targeted explicitly towards women will somehow help their bottom line, we’re bombarded with the idea that some products are male, while others are female. This commercial is a symptom of a larger problem, one where stereotypes and blanket generalizations are used to define the wants and desires of half of the entire population of the world.
It’s doubly vexing, as our language doesn’t even have gender for things like cereal. Unlike modern Romance Languages, English relies on context to provide sex connotation. We just say “cat”, not like the Spanish “gato” or “gata.” Outside of our pronouns (he, she; his, her), and specific gender-identifying words (stallion, mare; father, mother) we don’t automatically apply gender to anything. Almost every inanimate object in the world, according to English linguistics, is neither male nor female. It just is. Which, in a roundabout way, suggests that any masculine or feminine feelings we have towards things with no gender are the result of social constructs, created and perpetuated by our culture.
But because of the stranglehold of patriarchal thinking, it’s only getting worse as the world gets more commercialized. As if women need to be treated as fragile, soft, delicate creatures, things that don’t need to be “feminized” at all are – turned pink or orange with flowers and soft edges – usually by clueless men who think they can sell a product more effectively. Like some kind of misogynistic poison it seeps into everything: pens, razors, deodorant, news.
And now, even beer.
I hear talk about certain beer being “for women” as if it’s somehow brewed to kill anyone with an Y chromosome who tries to drink it. It’s a term that gets thrown around, I assume, to suggest women prefer a certain style of beer: usually something light, fruity, delightfully effervescent.
But that’s bullshit, because I am a man and I love fruit beer. I like light beer and sweet beer and low ABV. I also love stouts and imperial porters and DIPAs. I like beer that is brewed well and tastes good; nary giving one single #@%* if it’s masculine or feminine. I know plenty of women who feel the same way.
Because beer doesn’t have a gender. It’s a beverage, not a birthright.
Yes, in America, the craft beer world is dominated by men. Most brewers have beards, many of those commenting on the culture sport pronounced Adam’s Apples, and many of the people who drink beer excessively do in fact have penises in their pants. But that in no way makes the beer itself male. To suggest so would be to suggest that anything with a following of predominantly one sex would then make that thing a decidedly polar representation of that gender.
What if we could figure out who exactly in the world loved cheese, and found it was mostly men? Would cheese then become a masculine thing, and would the need arise for cheesemakers to start making “female” cheese to appeal to a broader base? Sounds pretty silly when forced upon something with a pretty equal gender balance, doesn’t it?
So I implore all of the marketing people out there, all those people who feel the need to apply gender to things that really don’t need one: stop. Stop thinking women will prefer your product if it’s the right color or has the right name or the right label art. Stop thinking female beer drinkers only like one oddly specific subset of styles. Stop thinking that something as subjective as taste has anything to do with how many X’s a person’s genetic makeup might possess. Stop thinking about the money, for once, and start thinking about the people.
When you drink a beer, think about how it tastes, how the malt is balanced, if the hops are too subtle or too much for your tongue. Do not think that “chicks will totally dig this beer because it’s sweet,” or that somehow women aren’t capable of appreciating the complexity of an Imperial IPA, because it’s hurtful, caveman-like thinking, that has no place in a civilized world.
Beer is female. Beer is male. Beer isn’t either. Beer is beer.
All we really have to do is drink and enjoy, which last time I checked, are human universals.
Tagged: beer, craft beer, for her, gender, gender neutral, linguistics, marketing, stupid marketing, women, women and beer
What if a brewer creates a cask beer that is aged on estrogen? What then?
Recent studies have shown that estrogen is important for men too, especially those approaching middle age. It helps fight the accumulation of fat around muscles and, allegedly, increases libido.
So, to answer your question, I’d drink it 🙂
Unfortunately, as Italian, “la birra” is feminine, but trust me, I don’t know anybody who thinks that is a stuff for men or for women. We just think to drink it! 🙂
Sounds like I’d fit in well in Italy 🙂
Never saw the commercial but the genderization of products has been going on a long time. As a former chief marketing officer I resemble the whole dialog. Yes beer has been served up so that females stand right beside males in consuming and feel that they too belong in the belch line. This is a switch from the “fruit like” wine coolers of not too long ago.
From a business perspective, it makes a lot of sense, since alienating one sex is ignoring a huge chunk of potential revenue. I get that, and in a weird way, appreciate it.
My concern is that it’s so heavy-handed and thoughtless. Why not just show the positive qualities or something without having to “target” it at certain groups of people. It’s silly youthful idealism, I know, but I wish we could simply come at things directly without adding social commentary of gender biases. I just want things to be as they are as naturally as possible.
It may be way too late for that. The whole separation of humans into their particular differences for the sake of melding them back into a homogeneous whole has precluded generalizations. So marketing types today take the safe road of calling out the particular target so as to not be accused of missing the mark. I think your real legitimate criticism is the stereotypical way the marketing types call out the target. You know, pink = female. Really thought provoking stuff. Well done.
You’re damn right! As a HUGE craft beer lover who also happens to lack a penis, I’m insulted that someone would assume I’d want a cider (cause I hate them) or maybe a nice Mich Ultra (yay to no calories…or taste). I’ll take my IPA and chase it with a Stout while I’m pouring a pint of Porter!
Nice post!
That’s it, Oliver. I’m going to hire you to crank out a line of “Barbie Brew” where you peel the label to reveal a 50% off coupon for tampons. That’ll learn ya.
A) Sentient cereal cannibalism is kinda disturbing
B) Fruit lambics are delicious and for everyone!
thanks for this, i couldn’t agree more – beth
Yeah…I couldn’t figure out that CINNAMON TOAST CRUNCH commercial either!
Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
MARKETTING IS TRYING TO INJECT SEX INTO UNISEX ITEMS NOW! WEIRD.
Agreed, I’ve always thought that was a disturbing commercial. But one thing you have probably missed, they already target the female demo for cheese, and have been for awhile now. Those little Mini Moo’s or whatevers and the Baby Babels, I always thought they were kinda a stupid idea in the first place, but saw the marketing as directly aimed at women, they’re shamelessly blatant about it. One commercial I noticed recently went sorta the other direction and over the edge a bit. It was for a men’s razor, now I understand that people do have dif’ preferences and choose for dif’ reasons. But this one, I can’t remember which right off hand, was soo strange in it’s presentation one would think it was a female target audience. Go figure, although my girlfriends have always used my razors on their legs in a pinch and then claimed how much better they were then their own. Maybe it was smarted then I first gave it credit for. Anyhow loved the post and god bless DVR!
smarter*
Reblogged this on Jamie Lynn Morgan.
I wish they would make chick beer that killed guys. That might just stop Hank from drinking all my beer around here.
I’ll never understand the gender-fication of products. Aren’t there women out there who love driving their Chevy trucks–with or without mud splattered all over the exteriors? Aren’t there men out there who come home from a day at the office and fix a home-cooked dinner for the family? My sweetie’s favorite color is pink–and you should hear the flak he takes for his cellphone case. He doesn’t like to tell people what he did in his former life (because of stereotyping), but trust me, he was (and is) no delicate princess. Thanks for this post, Oliver–I hope a few Madison Avenue-types read it.
As a 20-something girl living in Wisconsin, I can tell you right now, I get some funny looks when I’m out-of-state ordering an IPA or something “manly” instead of that summer shandy they have on special. Beer for all!