Lady Friends, What Would You Buy Without Them?
In a recent Target Women episode, Sarah Haskins skewers Lady Friends, those female creatures particular to TV advertising. They can help you pick out a candle, get a great deal on shoes, or advise you in a crowded nightclub that previous commercial for Yaz are for the treatment of PMDD and mild acne, not PMS or major acne. They imitate human behaviors and real emotions, but everything they say has a price tag. "Friends, what would you buy without them?" quips Sarah.
Sarah Haskins in Target Women: Lady friends [infoMania]
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Comments:
If I'd listened to my friends I'd be listening to Wilco on my iPhone while Tweeting about how I'm sitting here reading The Consumerist.
That's pretty much what I'm doing righ ... crap.
@Keavy_Rain: I'm finding this a more amusing game if I think of SPECIFIC friends. Like if I listened to one of them, I'd be listening to angst rock while buying tiny dogs; if I listened to another one, I'm pretty sure it'd be nothin' but substances of questionable legality.
I'm a guy, but I love Sarah Haskins' Target Women shows. They're pretty much all hilarious and do a pretty good job of pointing out how stupid marketing companies think consumers are.
OMG - But my girlfriends and I totes are like this. I mean, the first 15 minutes of girl-time are always devoted to home-goods. This is where we make products sound like supe-luxe French goods by putting accents on everything.
The next half hour is spent dispensing medical advice. Amazing serious stuff. Meg is up2dte on all the latest serious diseases like restless leg disorders, dry eyes, depression, PMDD and night terrors. She's our pharma-hook up!
And then there's our good friend Louise who spends the next 20 minutes on household cleaning supplies. We really should call her the swiffer princess! I can spend dayz just saving more time and being like Monica from Friends. Totes TRU!
We then go back and forth between shoe talk, food talk and Oprah and Martha talk.
Someday, we may have a real thought between us, but we're too busy giggling!
Gah. Well, at least my girlfriends and I do know how to order drinks together. We've yet to have the "PMDD" discussion. Maybe after we've known each other for a few more years...
Forget the women in commercials ... what about the men? Ever noticed how completely stupid and childish the men are, in television commercials?
Like the husband/father who threw a full-blown tantrum in a sandwich commercial ... and whose daughter has to tell him to "grow up"?
And the dolt who demands a cord for his wireless Internet connection ... even though he was told repeatedly that he doesn't need one?
When I was a kid I recall the makers of Geritol catching a lot of flack for being insulting to women with their commercials that ended with a guy saying, "My wife ... I think I'll keep her!" Does Madison Avenue have the first clue how insulting to men most of their advertising is?
Why was it unacceptable for women to be insulted in Geritol commercials, yet it's fine for men to be insulted in many commercials now?
But they're the only ones that tell me how I can better all of the flaws in myself that they constantly point out!
They boost my self esteem and cut me down so efficiently. I love them and hate them.
I'm terribly confused.
@Stephmo: Hey, she didn't go to medical school for nothing!
Plus, she's hip to all the updates from the FDA that she's happy to share with us IN DA CLUB! yeah!
My girlfriends and I were totally giggling over that video! Awesome! We truly are a sisterhood of consumer spending! *big hugs*
As a side note, Buffy's demon college roommate has been a bunch of commercials lately. Glade, HFCS, Activia... Hmmm.
Beware. They roam in packs.
That's what these ads say to me. I think the ads are trying to tell women this is how you should behave when you are with your friends. There is a LOT of that going on these days. Was it Olive Garden who did several ads about "passing the plate" at the dinner table? What the heck is that all about? My family never, ever did that. Creepy.
Anyway, the male version of the women's ads invariable features shabbily dressed, unshaven, heavy guys who want to do something stupid with food, powertools, or sports. Usually a vat of something ends up on someone.
Nothing new. There was a pharma ad back in the 80s where a fat, shabby guy in sweats is sitting at the kitchen table eating an enormous doughnut far larger than any doughnut anyone would ever buy. A woman comes in, apparently his wife. She's been out jogging or some healthy thing. Takes one look at the big doughnut and brutally smashes him in the face with it. haha powder sugar everywhere. Comedy moment.
Had the man done that to her, it would be abuse. But she does it to him, it's funny? Not to me. Insulting ads are insulting.
@veg-o-matic: I keep waiting for the "doctor" to hand out bills and demand co-pays from all her friends. Doctors don't even say hello for free any more.
@PsiCop: Well, traditionally, women do most of the shopping in the household. Even though these products are for men, they're still trying to appeal to a female demographic, for the most part. It's stereotypes all around because that's what we expect and, yet, that's what catches our eye. You remembered the commercials, even though you didn't like them, see? Also...
The Psi Cops is your friend. Trust the corps.
Wait, what was I talking about?
@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter: Duh! We only have pillow fights when we hang out together in our matching underwear set parties!
Pfft.
It's like men don't even know how women live.
@bennilynn: I remembered the commercials, yes, but I'll avoid patronizing the companies that made them. I'm one of those people for whom advertising can work in reverse ... rather than appealing to me to buy, idiotic ads repulse me.
The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. We're everywhere ... for your convenience.
I dunno, maybe I'm crazy, but it seems to me that annoying me and insulting me is hardly a valid way of getting me to buy.
@PsiCop: becasue men can take a joke...
(the awesome part about this comment is that if any women get mad, Ill claim it was a joke and they kind of proved it true, if there are no responses, I got away with a sexist remark. GO TEAM!)
@PsiCop:
I totally agree and have thought the same thing myself for years. I find that advertising "device" grating. And I'm a woman!
@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter: O really? You don't think that all women just hang out giving out product recommendations in their underwear?
=P
@PsiCop: My absolute favorite was a JC Penney ad for some big sale that basically portrayed women as shopaholics that couldn't care less about their families while the men are bumbling oafs that can't manage to take care of their child for even a couple hours.
@PsiCop:
The same goes for men in sitcoms. Ray Ramone, Tim Allen, etc. They are shown as bumbling idiots who would probably stave to death while their house burned down around them if they didn't have their level-headed wives to save them.
@wgrune: Well, in the case of Tim Allen, Tim Taylor's home would actually literally burn down because he demands "More Power! har har har.."
/misses "Home Improvement"
That is the best segment on that show.
Remember that commercial from last year with the girl talking about, "No one knows how an e-mail gets in your inbox...it's like magic!"
@PsiCop: This has bothered me for a while as well. Almost universally, if a commercial has one male and one female who don't completely agree, the male will be wrong and the female will be right. I've often debated sending a nice polite message to companies that use this type of advertising to let them know that they're alienating an entire demographic. But then I get lazy and decide I'll vote with my dollar and just don't purchase from them.
I used to buy all my shirts at Upton's, but then they started running radio ads that depicted men as bumbling oafs. I started shopping elsewhere, as did at least two other men I know. I hope that we contributed to the chain's failure in some small way!
A jeweler runs ads in the Atlanta area featuring the founder's daughter. She has such a condescending tone that I'd never walk into one of their stores. Maybe they're next. I hope so, I'm tired of hearing that snotty bitch on the radio.
@Real Cheese Flavor: That ad is why I do not shop at JC Penney. You're the first other person I've encountered in ages who remembers it!
@SynMonger: It's entirely up to you.
Oh - and we all look incredibly hot while harvesting beer in our hip waders. Totes true!
@Real Cheese Flavor: To this day, when I see some brat running around unsupervised, I say out loud "Where is your mother?".
The commercial was irritating, but did at least provide a useful tag line...
@LastError: I thought the Olive Garden ad was more of the father lusting after what whoever was to his right ordered. He just made it up and everyone laughed, but deep down, the rest of his family (and possibly the wait staff) was considering how to kill him and get away with it.
Or at least that's how I interpreted it.
I would hope people are smart enough to...*Bursts out laughing*
Let me try that again.
I would hope...*Bursts out laughing* Damnit.
Peer pressure for the win, I guess. I dunno, I mean...If I'd listened to my friends I'd be listening to Wilco on my iPhone while Tweeting about how I'm sitting here reading The Consumerist.
Like Geddy Lee, I choose freewill.