Australian Politics Forum - Beavers are cool

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Beavers are cool (Read 1631 times)

freediver

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Beavers are cool
Mar 20^th, 2008 at 4:31pm

Was it wrong for the advertising standards Bureau to pull this ad? It's one of the few ads that I actually rewound and played through rather than fast forwarding from a recorded show.

An ad that demeans women and men

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/an-ad-that-demeans-women-and-men/2008/03/14/1205472076792.html?page=fullpage

I HAVE a fairly intimate confession to make. I've never given my vagina a nickname. It's not that I feel I've been neglecting it or that this confession should also suggest I'm unfamiliar with the process of squatting over a mirror. It's just never really occurred to me to give it a pet name.

But apparently that puts me in a measly 6% of the female population. The remaining 94%, it would seem, are on nickname-friendly terms with their genitals. Not that I begrudge other women having this kind of relationship with their private parts. But I find that figure surprising. Yet this rather startling statistic was trotted out this week by one of the world's most well-known tampon-making companies. According to research conducted by this company, women have 181 alternate names for their vaginas. Clearly I am well outside the target demographic of 18-24-year-old women, but 181? I simply can't imagine. But the critical bit of this research was that "beaver" came in at number 11.

Beaver, of course, is a rather tee-hee-hee euphemism for vagina. And I've never been fond of it. I've always found that term derogatory. A hairy, and somewhat toothy, burrowing amphibious rodent just doesn't have much resonance for me.

But it was enough for this tampon-making company to cast a beaver in a starring role in a tampon ad that first screened on Australian television last Sunday night. It wasn't an actual live beaver — it was some kind of furry animated puppet-like version, but you get the idea.

So there I was, kicking back on the couch enjoying my one guilty pleasure on commercial telly, and on comes the beaver. Going shopping, having its nails done, being gawked at by a couple of beefy blokes at the beach and sitting in a cafe. And all in the company of an attractive young woman one is supposed to assume is the beaver's best friend. The visual punchline is the delivery of a gift-wrapped box of tampons to said beaver by said young woman with the voice over: "You've only got one. So for the ultimate care down there, make it (insert tampon-making company's latest brand name)".

Well, at first I thought I'd gone back to the fridge for one too many wines. Then I questioned the contents of dinner and the possibility of some kind of LSD-type reaction that had somehow transported me into a Chevy Chase movie. But then it came on again. In the next ad break.

And that's when I got angry. Really angry. Just one day after International Women's Day — and after writing extensively on this page about the rampant and ubiquitous sexualisation and commodification of women that is destroying women's self-image and taking us back to the 19th century mores of women as Madonna/whores — here was the grossest example I had ever seen.

What on earth is going on when an advertisement like this can not only get made but can actually get to air? And who in their right mind thought it was OK to thinly disguise a blatant male ogling at beaver-as-vagina sunning itself on the beach as a tampon ad?

Make no mistake. There was absolutely no ambiguity here. This ad said loudly — and apparently proudly — that women are nothing more than vaginas on legs. It not only offended and degraded women, it underestimated and degraded men.

It is little wonder that the Advertising Standards Board was bombarded with complaints and the ad was pulled amid howling criticism. But if the tampon-making company actually did the research it said it did — research that found young women are quite comfortable with their vaginas being referred to as toothy, amphibious rodents — surely this is the ultimate proof that the impact of DIY porn and raunch culture has successfully deluded an entire generation of women and men about what feminism was actually supposed to achieve?

The greatest tragedy of this whole episode is that it was done with the imprimatur of the target demographic. Young women. And defended by them. A spokeswoman for the campaign, Penny Warneford, said "the advertising is the result of extensive research, which is right on target".

And that is the most demoralising part. The social parameters of Western culture have been smashed so far beyond recognition that women themselves can no longer recognise when they are being exploited. It wasn't just vaginas reduced to animal namesakes this week. It was all of us — women and men. Perhaps that was really the point.

Mr & Mrs Beaver sing in Narnia the Musical -- YouTube

http://youtube.com/watch?v=s7fyNpx0e_M

Leslie Neilsen appreciates a Nice Beaver! -- YouTube

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XLukGYc76bE

Leave it to Beaver -- YouTube

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VtqQyW0XOLo

Barack Obama in Beaver County on Monday -- YouTube

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MvJAVzf2B28

Canadians love a Beaver -- YouTube

http://youtube.com/watch?v=H-aoWSpFor0

Abe Lincoln plays chess with a Beaver -- YouTube

http://youtube.com/watch?v=khY4dAdfDTE

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freediver Gold Member Offline www.ozpolitic.com Posts: 47481 At my desk.	Senate inquiry into swearing on TV Reply #1 - Mar 20^th, 2008 at 5:47pm http://news.smh.com.au/senate-inquiry-into-swearing-on-tv/20080320-20oc.html A parliamentary committee is to investigate the frequency and usage of swearwords broadcast on television. The opposition initiated the inquiry on Thursday, citing a need to look at the effectiveness of the Broadcasting Code of Practice.
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Re: Senate inquiry into swearing on TV
Reply #2 - Mar 20^th, 2008 at 6:11pm

freediver wrote on Mar 20^th, 2008 at 5:47pm:

http://news.smh.com.au/senate-inquiry-into-swearing-on-tv/20080320-20oc.html

A parliamentary committee is to investigate the frequency and usage of swearwords broadcast on television.

The opposition initiated the inquiry on Thursday, citing a need to look at the effectiveness of the Broadcasting Code of Practice.

bahahaha codes of practice.

journalism, advertising and PR are as far as i know the only proffesional fields which have NO governement restrictions. Codes of practice are a joke, and are not enforcable by the government.

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freediver Gold Member Offline www.ozpolitic.com Posts: 47481 At my desk.	Re: Beavers are cool Reply #3 - Mar 20^th, 2008 at 6:13pm But they are effective in controlling what is shown at certain hours.
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Re: Beavers are cool
Reply #4 - Mar 20^th, 2008 at 6:50pm

freediver wrote on Mar 20^th, 2008 at 6:13pm:

But they are effective in controlling what is shown at certain hours.

only on broadcast media, as they fear licence removal, but you would be surprised with what they potentially can get away with.

newspapers and magazines can and frequently do break codes of practice. print media can print anything as long as it does not directly break defamation laws... even then in australia we have a cap on defamation pay outs where no matter how bad the case is a newspaper etc will only ever have to pay out 250 000 dollars.

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oceanz

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Re: Beavers are cool
Reply #5 - Mar 20^th, 2008 at 6:55pm

[quote author=freediver link=1205994689/0#0 date=1205994688]Was it wrong for the advertising standards Bureau to pull this ad? It's one of the few ads that I actually rewound and played through rather than fast forwarding from a recorded show.

An ad that demeans women and men

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/an-ad-that-demeans-women-and-men/2008/03/14/1205472076792.html?page=fullpage

I HAVE a fairly intimate confession to make. I've never given my vag ina a nickname. It's not that I feel I've been neglecting it or that this confession should also suggest I'm unfamiliar with the process of squatting over a mirror. It's just never really occurred to me to give it a pet name.

But apparently that puts me in a measly 6% of the female population. The remaining 94%, it would seem, are on nickname-friendly terms with their genitals. Not that I begrudge other women having this kind of relationship with their private parts. But I find that figure surprising. Yet this rather startling statistic was trotted out this week by one of the world's most well-known tampon-making companies. According to research conducted by this company, women have 181 alternate names for their va gina. Clearly I am well outside the target demographic of 18-24-year-old women, but 181? I simply can't imagine. But the critical bit of this research was that "beaver" came in at number 11.

Beaver, of course, is a rather tee-hee-hee euphemism for va gina. And I've never been fond of it. I've always found that term derogatory. A hairy, and somewhat toothy, burrowing amphibious rodent just doesn't have much resonance for me.

But it was enough for this tampon-making company to cast a beaver in a starring role in a tampon ad that first screened on Australian television last Sunday night. It wasn't an actual live beaver — it was some kind of furry animated puppet-like version, but you get the idea.

So there I was, kicking back on the couch enjoying my one guilty pleasure on commercial telly, and on comes the beaver. Going shopping, having its nails done, being gawked at by a couple of beefy blokes at the beach and sitting in a cafe. And all in the company of an attractive young woman one is supposed to assume is the beaver's best friend. The visual punchline is the delivery of a gift-wrapped box of tampons to said beaver by said young woman with the voice over: "You've only got one. So for the ultimate care down there, make it (insert tampon-making company's latest brand name)".

Well, at first I thought I'd gone back to the fridge for one too many wines. Then I questioned the contents of dinner and the possibility of some kind of LSD-type reaction that had somehow transported me into a Chevy Chase movie. But then it came on again. In the next ad break.

And that's when I got angry. Really angry. Just one day after International Women's Day — and after writing extensively on this page about the rampant and ubiquitous sexualisation and commodification of women that is destroying women's self-image and taking us back to the 19th century mores of women as Madonna/whores — here was the grossest example I had ever seen.

What on earth is going on when an advertisement like this can not only get made but can actually get to air? And who in their right mind thought it was OK to thinly disguise a blatant male ogling at beaver-as-va gina sunning itself on the beach as a tampon ad?

Make no mistake. There was absolutely no ambiguity here. This ad said loudly — and apparently proudly — that women are nothing more than vag inas on legs. It not only offended and degraded women, it underestimated and degraded men.

It is little wonder that the Advertising Standards Board was bombarded with complaints and the ad was pulled amid howling criticism. But if the tampon-making company actually did the research it said it did — research that found young women are quite comfortable with their vaginas being referred to as toothy, amphibious rodents — surely this is the ultimate proof that the impact of DIY porn and raunch culture has successfully deluded an entire generation of women and men about what feminism was actually supposed to achieve?

The greatest tragedy of this whole episode is that it was done with the imprimatur of the target demographic. Young women. And defended by them. A spokeswoman for the campaign, Penny Warneford, said "the advertising is the result of extensive research, which is right on target".

And that is the most demoralising part. The social parameters of Western culture have been smashed so far beyond recognition that women themselves can no longer recognise when they are being exploited. It wasn't just va ginas reduced to animal namesakes this week. It was all of us — women and men. Perhaps that was really the point."

======================

You have got to be kidding..arent the new forum standards banning such SMUT/FILTH? Rules apply to all surely.

« Last Edit: Mar 20^th, 2008 at 7:17pm by oceanz »

&&Jade Rawlings on Cousins " He makes our team walk taller..a very good team man , Ben Cousins"

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Classic Liberal

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Re: Beavers are cool
Reply #6 - Mar 20^th, 2008 at 6:57pm

Quote:

[quote author=freediver link=1205994689/0#0 date=1205994688]Was it wrong for the advertising standards Bureau to pull this ad? It's one of the few ads that I actually rewound and played through rather than fast forwarding from a recorded show.

An ad that demeans women and men

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/an-ad-that-demeans-women-and-men/2008/03/14/1205472076792.html?page=fullpage

I HAVE a fairly intimate confession to make. I've never given my vagina a nickname. It's not that I feel I've been neglecting it or that this confession should also suggest I'm unfamiliar with the process of squatting over a mirror. It's just never really occurred to me to give it a pet name.

But apparently that puts me in a measly 6% of the female population. The remaining 94%, it would seem, are on nickname-friendly terms with their genitals. Not that I begrudge other women having this kind of relationship with their private parts. But I find that figure surprising. Yet this rather startling statistic was trotted out this week by one of the world's most well-known tampon-making companies. According to research conducted by this company, women have 181 alternate names for their vaginas. Clearly I am well outside the target demographic of 18-24-year-old women, but 181? I simply can't imagine. But the critical bit of this research was that "beaver" came in at number 11.

Beaver, of course, is a rather tee-hee-hee euphemism for vagina. And I've never been fond of it. I've always found that term derogatory. A hairy, and somewhat toothy, burrowing amphibious rodent just doesn't have much resonance for me.

But it was enough for this tampon-making company to cast a beaver in a starring role in a tampon ad that first screened on Australian television last Sunday night. It wasn't an actual live beaver — it was some kind of furry animated puppet-like version, but you get the idea.

So there I was, kicking back on the couch enjoying my one guilty pleasure on commercial telly, and on comes the beaver. Going shopping, having its nails done, being gawked at by a couple of beefy blokes at the beach and sitting in a cafe. And all in the company of an attractive young woman one is supposed to assume is the beaver's best friend. The visual punchline is the delivery of a gift-wrapped box of tampons to said beaver by said young woman with the voice over: "You've only got one. So for the ultimate care down there, make it (insert tampon-making company's latest brand name)".

Well, at first I thought I'd gone back to the fridge for one too many wines. Then I questioned the contents of dinner and the possibility of some kind of LSD-type reaction that had somehow transported me into a Chevy Chase movie. But then it came on again. In the next ad break.

And that's when I got angry. Really angry. Just one day after International Women's Day — and after writing extensively on this page about the rampant and ubiquitous sexualisation and commodification of women that is destroying women's self-image and taking us back to the 19th century mores of women as Madonna/whores — here was the grossest example I had ever seen.

What on earth is going on when an advertisement like this can not only get made but can actually get to air? And who in their right mind thought it was OK to thinly disguise a blatant male ogling at beaver-as-vagina sunning itself on the beach as a tampon ad?

Make no mistake. There was absolutely no ambiguity here. This ad said loudly — and apparently proudly — that women are nothing more than vaginas on legs. It not only offended and degraded women, it underestimated and degraded men.

It is little wonder that the Advertising Standards Board was bombarded with complaints and the ad was pulled amid howling criticism. But if the tampon-making company actually did the research it said it did — research that found young women are quite comfortable with their vaginas being referred to as toothy, amphibious rodents — surely this is the ultimate proof that the impact of DIY porn and raunch culture has successfully deluded an entire generation of women and men about what feminism was actually supposed to achieve?

The greatest tragedy of this whole episode is that it was done with the imprimatur of the target demographic. Young women. And defended by them. A spokeswoman for the campaign, Penny Warneford, said "the advertising is the result of extensive research, which is right on target".

And that is the most demoralising part. The social parameters of Western culture have been smashed so far beyond recognition that women themselves can no longer recognise when they are being exploited. It wasn't just vaginas reduced to animal namesakes this week. It was all of us — women and men. Perhaps that was really the point."

You have got to be kidding..arent the new forum standards banning such SMUT/FILTH? Angry

are you making a joke oceans, i dont think i recall you ever being quite so humorous

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freediver Gold Member Offline www.ozpolitic.com Posts: 47481 At my desk.	Re: Beavers are cool Reply #7 - Mar 20^th, 2008 at 7:36pm Oceans if it's good enough for our newspapers, it's go enough for this forum. It would be absurd to not be able to discuss local print media standards in a politics forum.
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deepthought Gold Member Offline In Defence Of Liberty Posts: 2869	Re: Beavers are cool Reply #8 - Mar 21^st, 2008 at 6:29am Where can I see this ad?
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freediver Gold Member Offline www.ozpolitic.com Posts: 47481 At my desk.	Re: Beavers are cool Reply #9 - Mar 21^st, 2008 at 10:21pm Looks like it's been pulled, but I'm surprised you missed it. It's probably on youtube by now.
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deepthought Gold Member Offline In Defence Of Liberty Posts: 2869	Re: Beavers are cool Reply #10 - Mar 22^nd, 2008 at 4:41pm freediver wrote on Mar 21^st, 2008 at 10:21pm: Looks like it's been pulled, but I'm surprised you missed it. It's probably on youtube by now. I hardly ever watch TV. It sounds kind of cute though. Wonder why people get upset?
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