Horrible Television Ads

In one of my journalism courses at Rutgers University this past fall semester, we looked deeply into the effect the media has on representations of gender, race, and class. At the end of the semester, we all gave small group presentation on media effects. One group of students analyzed commercials, and one commercial grabbed my attention. This commercial appeared on the 2008 Super Bowl, and is an advertisement  for Guinness Beer. It is very offensive and I am appalled that the company would advertise such a commercial. At first I laughed a little until I began to think about the effect this has on women, men, and especially young girls and boys. During the super bowl, I can say everyone is tuning in if not for the game for the commercials, since the super bowl is known for having some of the funniest commercials. We have to realize that children also watch it once in a while, and while many people stay tuned for the commercials, many people do not, and children remain glued to the television screen, and they end up seeing commercials like this:

What is this teaching our young boys? It teaches them that it is okay to disrespect women, and that women are submissive whores that let many men perform sex on them at the same time. It teaches them that women are objects that can be shared, just like a case of beer. It teaches our young girls that it is okay to perform such sexual behavior, and that we are supposed to be submissive to men. No doubt, for adults this may have been a laugh. As I said before, I laughed, until I remebered that sometimes my younger brothers and sisters watch the superbowl. This is not an image I want them to see. They are still in the learning stage of their lives, and this commercial contributes to the knowledge they are gaining socially, outside of school. Advertisers, please start to think about this more often. This promotes violence, misogyny and the degradation of women.