My point is even that I find the Quiznos, Burger King or hardee's ads "offensive". It's more like they're jsut so lame and stupid. I mean, if you can get a job at an advertising agency and work on major clients, presumably you have some "creativity" and can do a bit better than "hey, this sandwich looks kinda like a dick. lets make a girl BLOWING the sandwich!" (high fives all around). I mean, are we 12 years old here?
Burger King: Now selling blow jobs!
Thu, 2009-06-25 09:52
#52
Thu, 2009-06-25 09:56
#53
Exactly. And a lot of us women do get kind of sick of such juvenile and puerile humour at our expense. I mean, I was momentarily amused at the gall of it, but the joke itself is just dumb.
Thu, 2009-06-25 10:49
#54
The function of advertising is rarely to shine by its brilliance or entertain people. I even doubt that its only function is to sell the product. I see it as more as a vehicle to reign, inspire awe, impose one's dominance.... And this ad does just that. For instance, it is clear that the model has been instructed to show awe, not desire. This is selling something else than sandwiches. Guys high-fiving each other indeed, as Singapore males must be over this wink-wink-nudge-nudge message.
Thu, 2009-06-25 10:55
#55
remind
Which begs the question why are so many things designed to look liike a penis? ;)
Thu, 2009-06-25 11:16
#56
Well, advertisers are their own worst enemy. They have created so much visual and auditory clutter, and have offended so many people so often, that they really have to work to get people's attention.
I'm guessing the Burger King add isn't meant for one to delve into the implications of the sub as a penis, but rather to use the sexually suggestive text and visual to grab your attention from the distorted mouths of teens on the Kudo billboards. Or whatever other visual pollution and intrusions into your brain in public spaces we shouldn't allow, exist.
Thu, 2009-06-25 11:37
#57
Scott Piatkowski
Some worthwhile commentary via Skakesville.
[url=http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/06/assvertising_24.html]Assv...
Fill your desire for something long, juicy and flame-grilled with the NEW BK SUPER SEVEN INCHER. Yearn for more after you taste the mind-blowing burger that comes with a single beef patty, topped with American cheese, crispy onions and the A1 Thick & Hearty Steak Sauce.It's hard to identify what the best part of this ad is. The appalling lack of subtlety (OPEN MOUTH: INSERT MEAT: HAR HAR!)? The globby mayonnaise suggesting cum? The human woman made up and posed to maximize a resemblance to a blow-up doll? Christ. What a clusterfucktastrophe.
I would argue that BK should be ashamed of themselves, but they clearly lack the capacity.
There are links to, er, sixty-nine other appalling examples of assvertising, including four examples from Burger King itself.
Thu, 2009-06-25 11:52
#58
"I am often amazed at how gleefully companies rush to alienate half of their potential customer base."
From "Zhana", the commentary at Skakesville.
Maybe the ad company has research that indicates women "tune out" this kind of advertising as noise and actually don't "see" it, or don't see it long enough to associate it with Burger Dink.
Be a good test today, as everyone is out and about. If you are commuting or taking a route well travelled by yourself, make yourself pay attention to all the advertising.
Just to see what you've trained yourself not to see.
Thu, 2009-06-25 12:02
#59
Yeah, I would think that maybe Burger King's customer base is largely teenage boys who may find nlowjob and penis jokes very funny and they're trying to impress those consumers.
Thu, 2009-06-25 12:03
#60
Or maybe BK has identified, like other hamburger marketerrs, female resistance to their products as a problem when couples choose a place to eat, and they are attacking this directly with an agressive ad. (I find revealing the reference to fellatio, which isn't always women's "choice" either...)
Thu, 2009-06-25 12:04
#61
Here is my favourite blog on weird and unusual ads from all over the world. I read this guy every day.
http://copyranter.blogspot.com/
here's his take on the Buger King Blow job ad:
The New King of Blow Job Ads
"Fill your desire for something long, juicy and flame-grilled..." Well, this ad via Singapore for the BK Super Seven Incher is the new leading "most overtly blow-jobby ad" I've ever seen, surpassing this one, this one, and even this one. Nice misogynistic touch making the woman look like a fucking blow-up doll. Note the Photoshopped-enhanced creamy white mayo. (image via, another version first seen here). related: ABSOLUT 8"
Thu, 2009-06-25 14:27
#62
Polly B
clusterfucktastrophe...great word.
Thu, 2009-06-25 19:58
#63
Yeah, I would think that maybe Burger King's customer base is largely teenage boys who may find nlowjob and penis jokes very funny and they're trying to impress those consumers.
And older men who relate to teenage culture and humour. That makes sense until the time the consumer walks into a Burger King and orders a "7-incher" with fake cum to slide into his own gaping mouth. Little bit of cognitive dissonance?
Thu, 2009-06-25 20:20
#64
remind
Excellent point jas! LMAO!
Thu, 2009-06-25 21:13
#65
I don't know. I wouldn't put it past even heterosexual male consumers to blank out that dissonance and identify rather with the active function of the burger here (blowing a woman's mind) than with its usual, realistic passive fate (being eaten).
Indeed, protecting the penis seems a rather low priority if you consider condom use stats. They/we certainly have no second thoughts at driving phallic sports cars at letal speed.
Also, (high ewwww factor warning!) who knows how many men would self-fellate - as do many dogs & cats - if they had the required spinal flexibility? A lot, I think.
Thu, 2009-06-25 23:57
#66
Yeah, I would think that maybe Burger King's customer base is largely teenage boys who may find nlowjob and penis jokes very funny and they're trying to impress those consumers.
And older men who relate to teenage culture and humour. That makes sense until the time the consumer walks into a Burger King and orders a "7-incher" with fake cum to slide into his own gaping mouth. Little bit of cognitive dissonance?
You're right, it doesn't make much sense, so who is the audience being targetted by this advert?
Fri, 2009-06-26 09:07
#67
Just found this one:
[b][color=red]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIY3gkCUATs[/color][/b]
if anything it's "less subtle" than the Burger King ad.
Fri, 2009-06-26 09:27
#68
[qupte]You're right, it doesn't make much sense, so who is the audience being targetted by this advert? [/quote]
Just guessing here, but it's probably along the lines of "Do you like blowjobs?" , "Burgerking likes blowjobs too" in an attempt to establish some form of common ground between their targeted teenager clientele and their sandwich.
It also gives BK that alternative, mature ( or "adult" ) aura that identifies BK as "risk takers", something young males can also relate too.
Fri, 2009-06-26 10:17
#69
remind
Martin, in response to the eewwwww factor in post #64, I have known in my life only 1 male who could. So where there is 1 there is more. Not that I personally see anything wrong with it, no different than self hand gratification IMV, however his partner, did leave him when she walked in and caught him doing so. Which was a mind bender for me, as I thought she should have left long before that, as he was also XXX self absorbed and abusive, both physically and mentally, yet she tolerated it, but not a self blow job.
Of course, I never quelled her sense of outrage over it either, when she came raging to me about it, as I was just happy she was getting out, no matter what it took in the end. Underlaying it all, I think she believed that that made him "gay", instead of realizing that is how far his self absorbtion went.
Interesting observation salsa, selling a right of passage from MCDonald's little kid focus, to BK's "matrue" one, perhaps?
Fri, 2009-06-26 10:27
#70
remind: Not that I personally see anything wrong with it...
Neither do I - although it could make for a fascinating exploration of obsessiveness and narcissism - I was merely answering Al-Qabong about alleged cognitive dissonance. I could also have brought up unconcious fascination with homosexual sex in males at an age where they are mostly homosocial... but I chickened out!
Fri, 2009-06-26 10:35
#71
Hard to believe it's common. Saw it once in a porn movie. Would take a great amount of dexterity. A gymnast-type perhaps.
Fri, 2009-06-26 10:39
#72
There's a similar ad in downtown Montreal for Queue de Cheval, on a billboard on the restaurant building itself. There's no questioning what the ad is referring to, as the slogan is "food porn."
Fri, 2009-06-26 10:57
#73
remind
remind: Not that I personally see anything wrong with it...Neither do I - although it could make for a fascinating exploration of obsessiveness and narcissism - I was merely answering Al-Qabong about alleged cognitive dissonance. I could also have brought up unconcious fascination with homosexual sex in males at an age where they are mostly homosocial... but I chickened out!
I do not know if said uncconcious fascination, has an age gradient, nor if it would be actuallyy wiith "homosexual sex", I think it has more to do with reversal experience desire.
Fri, 2009-06-26 12:05
#74
remind: Not that I personally see anything wrong with it...
Neither do I - although it could make for a fascinating exploration of obsessiveness and narcissism - I was merely answering Al-Qabong about alleged cognitive dissonance.
That's odd, since my post followed yours. You're psychic?
Just guessing here, but it's probably along the lines of "Do you like blowjobs?" , "Burgerking likes blowjobs too" in an attempt to establish some form of common ground between their targeted teenager clientele and their sandwich
Yabbut, in a junior high gym locker-room level, that question would be entirely reversed, given that the sub is the recipient, and any boys who would eat the sandwich would be pilloried as being "fags."
Fri, 2009-06-26 12:11
#75
Uh, I'm trying to figure out what the problem would be with self-fellating. It would be no different than masturbating, would it? I'm not sure how anyone could possibly spin self-gratification of that kind into some sort of oppressive act. Nothing to be all missish about, anyhow. I like George Carlin's take on it - he said that if he could lick his own balls (in a routine about how dogs do that), he'd never leave the house!
Fri, 2009-06-26 12:21
#76
Al-Qabong: That's odd, since my post followed yours. You're psychic?
Oops, I meant jas (post #62).
Fri, 2009-06-26 12:24
#77
remind: ...I think it has more to do with reversal experience desire.
Good point.
Fri, 2009-06-26 13:35
#78
Uh, I'm trying to figure out what the problem would be with self-fellating.
Biomechanics.
And the variant on the George Carlin observation is the joke: Q: Why do dogs lick their balls? A: Because they can.
Yabbut, in a junior high gym locker-room level, that question would be entirely reversed, given that the sub is the recipient, and any boys who would eat the sandwich would be pilloried as being "fags."
S'funny. I'm pretty tuned into issues of dominance and submission when it comes to sexual play, but I've gone most of my adult life never associating that with any form of oral sex. Or, if I did, it seemed to me that the administrator of pleasure was the person in the driver's seat. I continue to be surprised that I'm probably very uncommon in that view.
However, knowing that people do view it as you say, al Qa'bong, I file away for future reference when a co-worker says something homophobic. And, when I catch them eating a hot dog or banana, I wait for them to take a bite from the end, then say, "you know, a real man would have started that from the middle."
But if we can ignore the tempting segue's into a broader sexual disscussion, I wonder if we are missing the soft delta shaped forest for the long hard shaft of the tree.
So to speak.
Sexual or not, what gives the right to advertisers to assault us with so much visual and auditory pollution? Certainly, there are times when we consent to this, like here at Rabble. We put up with it because we know it helps pay for our enjoyment. But what about billboards, public transit and other public spaces?
Is it "freedom of expression" ? While I'm sure it has been extended to this, I'm not sure advertising is what civil libertarians had in mind when they had it entrenched in so many bills of rights across the world.
And, even if we grant that, why is my right not to live in a place rendered butt ugly by advertising not even considered against it?
And, if that's not bad enough, consider how we ordinary citizens are nagged and cajolled into saving hydro because ( until recently) such a scarce commodity, and it's generation was comming from environmentally nasty coal fired plants at peak times.
All so we can keep those electronic billboards on the Gardiner going? So billboards can stay lit up at 3:00 a.m. when no one is looking at them anyway?
The add above is offensive on so many levels I think we miss the fact that no matter what it features, it's offensive.
Fri, 2009-06-26 14:11
#79
Tommy, I agree with your point about visual pollution. Governments are essentially selling our field of vision to corporations.
As for fellatio, I don't want to mess with your "tuning", but consider how few johns go to prostitutes requesting vaginal penetration because "my wife is so controlling she only wants to fellate me", as opposed to the reverse demand...
Indeed one argument for self-fellatio could be that it would end a lot of male pressure on women. (Oh, but there's that eeewwwww factor...)
Sat, 2009-06-27 02:43
#80
I'm tempted to wait until there is a bunch of kids in the restaraunt, and then march in, and then in a loud voice yell:
"I'll take one of those BLOW JOBS, please. "
I haven't seen anything this 'subtle' since the Nestle Blue Freezer.
Sat, 2009-06-27 02:48
#81
Rexdale_Punjabi
um... I wouldnt want my mouth near no dicc not even mine.
But yo key DO It n put it on youtube lol. But idk the fact that it a white women on a ad for singapore bothers me. She aint even a dime either lol It always seemed weird to me how messed up the MSM beauty standard is with being so skinny u look like ur starving and promoting that. Starving white women so many things wrong with that. A Lie?
Sat, 2009-06-27 08:41
#82
Haha! That would be an AMAZING protest against this ad! :D Get a whole bunch of people to do it!
Sat, 2009-06-27 09:03
#83
Yabbut, in a junior high gym locker-room level, that question would be entirely reversed,
given that the sub is the recipient, and any boys who would eat the sandwich would be pilloried as being "fags."
Possibly, I've never been to Singapore and I don't know the culture but it *could* be avant garde or *shocking* but it's most likely just plain cheezy like it is here. I figure their ploy is to make the connection BK=BJ=GOOD!!!! in the fraction of a second that somebody actually spends looking at the average advertisement before moving on to the next article of visual pollution designed to nfluence their buying decision.ssibly, but I don't think it's that complicated. I've never been to Singapore and I don't know what the culture is like so this
Sat, 2009-06-27 09:05
#84
remind
um... I wouldnt want my mouth near no dicc not even mine.
But I am sure you expect women to, given your comments here at babble.
Sat, 2009-06-27 09:40
#85
Rexdale_Punjabi
um... I wouldnt want my mouth near no dicc not even mine.But I am sure you expect women to, given your comments here at babble.
thats up to her still
Sat, 2009-06-27 10:03
#86
remind
Ya right, somehow I doubt that.
Sat, 2009-06-27 10:59
#87
That's up to her still.
That's the whole point of the ad, isn't it, R_P, getting women to accept, "choose" something she clearly has reservations about, as proof of the man's or the product's irresistibility.
If you are that distateful about dicks, why shouldn't she? I recall your admonition, in the "U.S. Study..." thread yesterday (before you were rightfully skewered by Scout), that women would want to fellate you after you made them cum 2 or 3 times (or was that 20 or 30?...). What about before?
The pressure for women to mirror men,s will is often blatant. I was reading a sex advice quiz on the ELLE magazine website. Where it asked "Should you look your partner in the eye when fellating him?", the "good" answer was "Yes absolutely. A big part of his pleasure is seeing how much you are enjoying it."
Sat, 2009-06-27 11:05
#88
Rexdale_Punjabi
"If you are that distateful about dicks, why shouldn't she?" Na I dont see that as a valid argument cuz that like saying to a gay man how if I like women so much why dont u? There women who like doing that dont even ride on them u know. As for the ones that pressured dont do that still anything I say can and will be used against me so u know all ima ssay is there's a way to ask n it aint do it or ima leave u that shit is stupid.
Sat, 2009-06-27 11:31
#89
remind
That's up to her still.That's the whole point of the ad, isn't it, R_P, getting women to accept, "choose" something she clearly has reservations about, as proof of the man's or the product's irresistibility.
If you are that distateful about dicks, why shouldn't she? I recall your admonition, in the "U.S. Study..." thread yesterday (before you were rightfully skewered by Scout), that women would want to fellate you after you made them cum 2 or 3 times (or was that 20 or 30?...). What about before?
The pressure for women to mirror men,s will is often blatant. I was reading a sex advice quiz on the ELLE magazine website. Where it asked "Should you look your partner in the eye when fellating him?", the "good" answer was "Yes absolutely. A big part of his pleasure is seeing how much you are enjoying it."
Thanks for the excellent support example, of how women are pressured, and then we have Ghislaine's example of women worrying that their men will go elsewhere if they don't. As opposed to realizing if they go elsewhere, then they are useless wastes of misogynistic skin that only see women as objects to facilitate their sexual pleasure.
Sat, 2009-06-27 18:46
#90
As for fellatio, I don't want to mess with your "tuning", but consider how few johns go to prostitutes requesting vaginal penetration because "my wife is so controlling she only wants to fellate me", as opposed to the reverse demand...
How in the world are we supposed to know these data?
Has Leger Marketing been going beyond the call of duty?
Sat, 2009-06-27 19:05
#91
There is ample testimony, both from women who are or have been in prostitution and from married johns themselves, that one thing they appreciate is being able to obtain from women paid not to object sex acts that their wives are disinterested in.
Sun, 2009-06-28 01:05
#92
To whom are these people giving testimony? Are they bloggers, have they been the targets of man-in-the-street interviews, do they call in to late-night talk shows?
Sun, 2009-06-28 01:40
#93
No they answer research studies such as Melissa Farley's, Jan MacLeod, Lynn Anderson, or Shere Hite, or are interviewed by journalists such as Victor Malarek, Claudine Legardinier, Hubert Dubois, and many others. Even the pro-prostitution camp acknowledges this: most men prostitute women for blow jobs or "kinky" stuff they don't dare ask for at home. If you remain skeptical, don't take my word for it, read up on some of the literature.
Sun, 2009-06-28 12:34
#94
OK, I opened the link. I guess I should have known that there'd be research into this sort of thing out there. I'll pass on reading it, though. as I'm not really interested in prostitution. Besides, I have a juicy collection of Ernie Pyle's WWII dispatches that I have to get to.
Sun, 2009-06-28 14:06
#95
I like to say I have the body of a Greek God. My trouble is its Bacchus
You have my body? Mrs Bacchus will be most upset
Mon, 2009-06-29 17:21
#96
Blow jobs are kinky? I always kind of thought they were pretty mainstream. And normal. And fun. And last I heard, lots of people "ask for kinky stuff" from their partners, and discover lots of fun and interesting things about themselves and their sexuality from each other.
Mon, 2009-06-29 17:37
#97
I wrote "blow jobs OR kinky stuff". If I had thought blow jobs were kinky - they are totally mainstream AFAIK - I would have written "blow jobs AND othe kinky stuff". According to what they tell researchers, lots of men don't want to ask their wife for stuff they deem "kinky" because they are more confortable with the madonna-whore division of labour. (And lots of women don't like giving blow jobs even if they are deemed "normal".)
Mon, 2009-06-29 18:05
#98
remind
"Analyze This" paraphrased quotes; " I have a mistress to give me blow jobs" Response: "why don't you get your wife to?" Response; "she kisses my kids"
Mon, 2009-06-29 19:15
#99
Okay, I get the picture, no one wants to talk about how advertising is generally offensive, at least not compared to the fun of talking about blow jobs.
I tried.
So, blow jobs all around.
"Blow jobs are kinky? I always kind of thought they were pretty mainstream. And normal. And fun."
On one hand, I think the add could be viewed with a sense of humour, maybe. But on the other hand, I'm not sure I want our sexual fun trivialized and, really, abused by Mad Men. I mean, even if an add can be presented in a way that it doesn't offend anyone's social or political sensitivities, do we really want it on a billboard, ten feet high and twenty wide, thirty feet off the ground?
Which is a strange opinion coming from me, it might seem. I'm all for de-tabooing sexuality, being frank (or Francine if that's your thing, and I happen to love you) unabashed and uninhibited. But there's something icky-- debasing and perhaps even dehumanizing when things get so mainstream that, well, some precious human stuff ends up as a device to sell stuff for Burger Dink.
"Analyze This" paraphrased quotes;
Wasn't that from a line or scene in "The Godfather"? or maybe "Goodfellas" ?
I think that kind of thinking, having a misstress or going to a prostitute because one doesn't want to ask one's wife to do something, or one's wife won't do something is a fairly transparent rationalization, where in the john is trying to transfer blame.
And, I'll never get the whole dominance and submission view on oral sex. It seems to me that if anyone is in the driver's seat, it's the person delivering pleasure. I see lots of dominance and submission playing out in sex, sometimes it's subtle, and sometimes not so subtle. And, that stuff is kinda up my alley. (insert pun here... but make sure it's clean and hypoallergenic, please) But I've just never connected that kind of view to that variety of act.
Anyway, I better finish this post as we are near the hundert post limit. I hate when the lock goes on during a post.
Postus Interuptus suuu... is annoying.
Tue, 2009-06-30 02:30
#100
The pressure for women to mirror men's will is often blatant. I was reading a sex advice quiz on the ELLE magazine website. Where it asked "Should you look your partner in the eye when fellating him?", the "good" answer was "Yes absolutely. A big part of his pleasure is seeing how much you are enjoying it."
So what would the correct answer be then?
A) Don't look at your partner while fellating him, so you can hide your shame.
B) Look your partner in the eye so he can see how much you dislike the experience.
C) Look him in the eye and pretend you enjoy it so you can get it over with as fast as possible.
D) Giving a man fellatio is inherently degrading and you should really reconsider doing this in the first place
I'm not sure why it is wrong for a woman to want to give her partner sexual pleasure, any more than it would be wrong for a man to want to give his partner sexual pleasure. Hopefully it goes both ways so both partners can enjoy the amount and type of sexual activity which they enjoy.
I should add that Burger King is the main sponsor for the current Jonas Brothers tour. Considering that the JB are well-known for their purity rings and virginal status, I wonder how well it would go over if I took one of these BK BJ posters to the JB concert!
Tue, 2009-06-30 02:38
#101
On the original topic of this specific ad, I agree that it is terrible, sexist and quite bizarre actually.
I also can't believe that this would end up selling many of the subs, or whatever it is. I looked at this ad for a while and I'm still not even sure what they are selling. It's a seven-inch burger-sub? It is an odd product and a strange way to promote it.
It seems like the adsphere is all about getting attention by any means possible.
Has anyone watched the documentary called "The Century of the Self"? It is about how Freud's nephew came to the US and invented "public relations" and "focus groups" and the whole idea of advertising marketing to your subconscious desires instead of rational thought. I have been thinking about this documentary often when I see ads like the one above.