I tend to watch TV constantly thinking, “How did anyone think that was a good idea?” Between the commercials and the actual television shows, I am constantly amazed at how much crap actually gets screen time. It’s gotten to the point where the GEICO “So easy a caveman can do it” commercials are quickly becoming a high point in marketing history.
One commercial that recently caught my attention was a condom commercial by Trojan. In it, a bunch of hot women are at a bar talking to pigs (they really went all out with subtlety there, didn’t they?). The focus shifts to one particular pig, who hops off his bar stool and makes his way to the bathroom when he comes upon, GASP!, a Trojan condom dispenser! Being the smart swine that he is, he grabs a condom out of the dispenser and is instantly transformed into a guy! Now, I’m no English major, so please forgive me if I inaccurately unravel this intricately woven tapestry of metaphor and simile. The message is: Men are pigs until … wait for it … they wear a condom! Man, I’m glad I took that literature course or I never would have been able to figure that one out.
The message puts all the responsibility on men to wear a condom and fails to point out that a woman has just as much at stake, if not more, than a man does. Sound unfair? Maybe. True? Definitely. I understand the purpose of the message to make it cool and hip to wear a condom, but there has got to be a better way than to demean half of the people involved in the act.
Imagine that a woman gets up in front of a group of other women and says that women don’t need men, men are stupid, men are useless and women don’t need men because women are better than that. That’s OK, she would be on “The View,” “Oprah” and everything in between. She would be a star. Now imagine the same scenario only it’s a man doing the talking and saying the same things — men don’t need women, men are smarter, better, blah blah blah. What would be the reaction? He wouldn’t be on “The View” anytime soon, that’s for sure. But the outrage would definitely be memorable. Women are allowed to call themselves better than men and they are considered strong and confident, but a man says he is better than a woman and he’s a pig.
There was a case in the New York Fire Department where a woman failed the physical exam. Part of it requires the person to carry a 150-pound dummy down several flights of stairs, a very likely situation in a real fire. She couldn’t do it, and ended up dragging the dummy down the stairs bumping its head on every step. She failed and sued the FDNY. The argument her lawyer used? That dragging the dummy down the steps was actually a good thing! She said that keeping the head low prevented smoke inhalation, and when the fire department pointed out, “Yeah, but banging a guy’s head down six flights of stairs was kind of a bad thing,” they still lost the lawsuit and now there are firefighters out there who are not qualified to do their jobs.
It’s at that point that this whole thing becomes dangerous. Where do we draw the line and just say, “No, I’m sorry but that’s not OK, you can’t do that”? Unfortunately, probably never, or at least not until somebody gets hurt anyway. It’s not really about the commercial; I usually just zap through them with my DVR anyway. It’s the message that you can’t get away from. The message that women are fine and it’s only the men causing the problems is ridiculous and unfair. Just in case you missed it, women, you are just as responsible for a man to wear a condom as a man is.