sometimes advertising gets me all riled up.
there’s a Canon commercial on the radio i hear at least once during each of my morning and afternoon commutes. it’s got a married couple looking at a Canon camera flyer and the wife says things like “it’s so stylish” and “it would fit in my pocket” about the Elph while the husband prattles on about all the superior technical features of the other model he’s interested in. the inference is that women only care about how a camera looks while men are more interested in how a camera works. it’s compounded when the man makes a snotty comment about how he doesn’t “take” photos, he “makes” them.
not only is it a stupid commercial, it’s insulting. the more i hear it, the more pissed off i get. all right, i get that i’m more geeky than the average female. i also concede that i’m more interested in the technical side of photography than most women. that does not mean that the majority of women decide on purchases purely on the object’s visual appeal. i’d like to believe that women are smarter than that and to have advertisers reinforce the stereotype is unacceptable in the year 2007.
all i can say is that i’m very glad i’m a Nikon girl (which i chose entirely on specs, btw). take that, Canon!
I think I know as many chicks with dSLRs and high-tech camera equipment as I do guys. And I know more guys than I do girls.
I agree with you, that’s stupid. Was the woman wearing pink, too?
i hear that commercial all the time on the radio. it drives me nuts too. especially the whole ‘ooh it’s so cute and tiny’ voice. fuck them all. yes, i said fuck.
Boo, hiss, Canon.
I own a Canon SLR and a Canon Elph, which I use for totally different things, and I can’t relate to that commercial in the least. I hate it when a company/product I use and like has to come out with insulting advertising. Makes me feel somehow complicit.
Oooh, you’d love the book I’m reading right now (or it would make you cry) – “Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing our Daughters from Marketers Schemes.”
When I first started reading, I was eye rolling thinking the writers were just forcing scenarios to fit their hypothesis. And still, I think they did at least occasionally stretch things a bit (or ignore examples that didn’t support their position – they complain about a specific TV show, for example, many times over, then later bemoan that there are no TV shows that demonstrate a particular dynamic, when the show they’ve been picking to pieces – with good reason – does indeed have it).
Aaaaanyhow… the whole underlying message of their book is how much of marketing to girls is based on creating this internal image of themselves as shoppers – not someone who buys things because they need to be bought, but who buys things to make oneself a type, to make oneself fit in, to make oneself an outcast…
It’s an interesting read.
Grr… and I can’t add my website because it “is blocked due to rampant spamming.”
I love my Nikon D70. Mrowr. Nikon = seckshee!
Well, apparently stupidity in advertising isn’t partisan – i particularly *hate* the D40 commercial wherein it implies any idiot who picks up their D40 will take better photos. Trust me – i can think of at least 5 people *off the top of my head* who will not take better photos by having an slr. Hell, i know at least 5 people who would take *years* to figure out an slr. All they know about mine is that they are *not* allowed to touch it. ever.
OOH, but is it shiny too?
; )
sweet jesus… i haven’t gotten this many comments in YEARS!
okay, i get the message. more ranting it is. ;)
insulting, yes. i guess canon needs to market their cameras to unsmart people? because smart girls and boys buy nikon! :)
this ad reminds me of my fujica half-frame. i remember reading somewhere that it was marketed towards women because its size and thriftiness (72 pics instead of 36) – way back in the 1960s! have we not come so far in 40 years? heather, you should write a letter to canon! i’d be interested in their response.
I actually love my XTi, but hate the Canon commercial, too. Seriously, what a stupid bit of writing that was.