Is the world going to women? (Said the man who blogs at home while his wife works at a real job!)
Recent statistics indicate that only 43 percent of today's college undergraduates are men, reflecting a downward trend that had been going on for at least 20 years.(See: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-10-19-male-college-cover_x.htm)
Men's collective self-esteem seems to be lower than ever. Are advertisers partly to blame? I've noticed that a number of ads--often intended to be humorous--portray men, particularly younger men in their 20's, as immature imbeciles, interested only in sports and sex (not necessarily in that order). The X Curmudgeoon thought it would start to recognize some of these ads for bringing down manhood. We'll call these awards "Loosers" (because these guys can't even spell "loser").
Today's Looser award goes to Anheuser Busch for its series of Bud Lite commercials featuring "Ted Ferguson, Bud Lite Daredevil". In these ads a pale, flabby, not particularly good looking 20-something guy named Ted Ferguson, wearing a helmet, attempts various "stunts" such as working two minutes past 5:00 or shopping with his girlfriend. After barely completing the stunt, Ted is rescued by a crew of other guys, who give him a Bud-Lite to revive him. (To see the shopping with girlfriend ad, go to: http://www.advertisementave.com/tv/ad.asp?adid=633.)
This is just one of dozens of Anheuser-Busch ads that portray young men as losers. Ted Ferguson is lazy, immature, out of shape, stupid and generally repugnant. The ads aren't even particularly funny (there are plenty of Bud ads similarly portraying men as losers that are, at least, good for a laugh).I'll try to pay closer attention, but off the top of my head, I can't think of any advertisers who are trying to appeal to women by similarly portraying them in such a bad light.
More nominations welcome!
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