Sexist ads slammed by women’s rights activists
American company, Madison Avenue Cookware, has outraged women’s rights activists after launching an advertising campaign in Australia this week.
The ads display images of high-end kitchenware accompanied by headlines such as “The only thing that cooks better is a woman”, “Enjoy your time out of the bedroom” and “A woman’s best friend”.
Roger Hudson (pictured), CEO of Madison Avenue Products, defended the campaign saying “This model has worked very well for us in America and we feel it will work very well in certain parts of Australia too. These women respond well to traditional values. If we ignore hairy-legged feminists for one second, research has told us that women do actually love cooking and they do actually love keeping their man happy. It’s in their DNA.”
Women Rights Activist Cathy Davis says the ads are “…absolutely despicable. They devalue women by implying that cooking is our most important role in society… It is archaic, misogynistic and sexist”.
In response to Ms Davis’ comments, Mr Hudson said:
“Settle down doll face.”
See the controversial TVC
Be warned though, not for the easily offended.
72 Comments
Back to honesty in advertising – about time. Now cook me some eggs bitch!
pass the salt sugar-tits.
Watched the ad. Went to the site. Gold. A+ guys. Awesome.
I suspect this is a pisstake.
That Roger Hudson is hot.
fax g
Could be an ad for the next season of Mad Men, but I’m intrigued now.
Genius!!!
*golf claps*
Advertising advertising advertising by advertising old advertising as new advertising.
Interesting for people in advertising
This is obviously some kind of ruse.
There are women that do like cooking. Most of them don’t work in advertising. But ‘shock horror’ they do exist.
If a feminist is a woman’s right activist why is a masculinist a sexist?
That Roger hudson looks razor sharp to me!
Yeah, settle down doll face. My girlfriend’s just as bad in the kitchen as she is in the bedroom.
I smell a big dirty fake fart going on.
No honey, yours, not the dogs.
Madison avenue products for… lemme guess madison avenue, madmen, already seen season 2, catch up SBS air it at the same time.
Brilliant.
Although should be more 60s.
Shame it’s only had 450 odd views. I’m assuming that’s the entire Australian ad industry and the audience of Campaign Brief.
7:21 there are men that enjoy cooking as well. Most of them don’t work in advertising, hell, they get paid a fuck load more.
Chef.
Roger Hudson looks like a young Andrew Wynn of Razor. I smell a con.
Just not very good whether you are a woman’s activist or not. Oh and just in time for mothers’ day. Nice.
It’s Mad Men, obviously. And it’s rubbish compared to the NZ effort for season one: http://www.campaignbrief.com/nz/2008/05/mitchell-and-dyer-launch-party.html
Those ads are Wynne’ers
Be a good girl and fix me a drink.
It can’t be Razor – these ads are good.
Smells like kiwi to me.
Well done.
9:08 how is NZ’s spoof sexist agency approach for advertising Madmen better than this spoof sexist agency approach for advertising Madmen? They seem exactly the same to me.
Er 9:08 what agency? This is a real kitchware company.
Nice try, but I don’t buy it.
It’s a great viral for Mad Men. MADison avenue: Making Everyday New
I was chocked the first time I saw the banner ad. But after a quick search on internet, I got the reveal. If you saw the show already, you understand the direct connection.
However, I was so surprised at first that I didn’t click the banner (I generally don’t click on them anyway) so the link with the series was not obvious enough to me (and will be like this for a lot of people).
It would have been great to work a bit more on the SEO as the reveal should have been easier to find.
Anyway, it works, everyone speaks about the campaign now 🙂
I did, I bought four copper bottom pots, a whisk and a sieve.
Visit the website you mongs. Yes it’s ads for Mad men.
I really like it. Well done. Who has SBS as a client?
PENSÉ QUE ESTE TIPO DE PUBLICIDAD SE HABÍA QUEDADO EN LOS 60’S PERO VEO QUE SIGUE HABIENDO HOMBRES QUE ASUMEN ACTITUDES QUE YA NO EXISTEN, POBRES… DEBEN TENER MATRIMONIOS BASTANTE INFELICES Y NI SIQUIERAN HAN DE SABER PORQUE…
10:11 AM you can’t call it viral when you have under 600 hits, just the same you can’t call it a TV ad if it ran in a newspaper.
Cockmunchers.
Finally, the second season of Mad Men is coming to Australia, and to promote it, the show’s makers have commissioned this sexist TV commercial for pots and pans (“The only thing that cooks better … is a woman!”). The ad directs viewers to the website of fake company Madison Avenue Cookware, which is actually a Mad Men site. We’d like to congratulate the brilliant man who came up with such a clever campaign.
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/04/mad_men_advertised_with_sexist.html
I think they made the mistake of thinking that women give a shit about marketing. It’s all about reputation when it comes to cookware. Ask a decent cook and she’ll give you five top brand names off the top of her head. They’ve really misjudged what’s important and what’s relevant, all sexism aside.
Nice viral, although they need to get the Search Marketing right… I got directed to http://www.madisonavenue.com.au/ – not that I’m complaining though.
May I congratulate the art director on their fine choice of props. Itala cookware, (or Hackman as I think it’s known in the US) Hideously expensive. I’d swap my wife for a set of that.
Jay those hits are for Youtube.
The important hits are on the reveal site – madisonproducts.com.au
Just to clarify for you, this campaign is in press, radio, tv, online and outdoor. It has a viral component.
who’s a dumb dumb pumpkin bum xxx
10:41…angry jay – it’s not meant to be a viral – the tv ad ran prime time on sbs during the world news and shit, there over 100 taxi and busbacks, the radio is playing on triple m and the press was in smh with a viewership of over 500000 -YouTube hits are irrelevant……website hits are what matters…. Cockmuncher
http://Www.madisonproducts.com.au
11:46 AM – “website hits are what matters” – of which there have been plenty. Munch on that.
11:10 AM – The quality of reveal on both sites are good though, thats the main thing 🙂
To distill this show down to ‘sexism’ is really missing the point and beauty of it.
I’m not sure about this.
It’s a clever link to Mad Men and all, and relevant considering it’s a show about sexism and advertising but does the end justify the means?
We get to laugh at those people who think it’s real and click on the site in outrage to find it’s an ad for another product, but what about those that will never get past the outdoor for instance?
Why is OK to make a baldly sexist statement even if it eventually leads someone to a relevant reveal? Does a 12 year old girl who reads it or a 16 year old boy who uses only twitter and myspace and would never watch Mad Men even matter? To say nothing of a full-grown man driving a ute who wouldn’t go near SBS with a barge-pole, or a woman trying to find self-respect in a domestic situation. Plenty of women still cook, clean and care for kids out of sheer necessity and self-sacrifice.
Making a sexist joke is making a sexist joke. On the show you can cringe as it’s in context. In these ads, it’s just a sexist joke to create attention.
Attitudes are going to shaped (as they are by all media, which is why we have standards in the first place) by these communications.
This has given me a great idea to advertise a show about racism.
A billboard with the headline, “Black people are stupid!”
But when they click on the website http://www.stupid.com they read the message:
“You idiot, this is about a TVC show! See, the ad you drove by six times this week with your kids in the back is all fine now.”
Lets do an ad and call everyone shitheads if they don’t like it.
Fuck I’d hate to work with whoever did this.
Dear god… The subtlety will be so lost on the MMM audience.
Not even remotely funny.
I know, lets do an ad about a bunch of miserable talentless creatives who have got nothing better to do than bitch about campaigns that aren’t theirs. Hey, we could even direct them here. Grow up you pathetic dickheads!
I think it’s brilliant. It distils the essence of the show when both advertising and values were different. clever and right on brief.
I wonder if the cookware company know their products are being used this way to advertise a fake cookware company to advertise a show about advertising with sexism?
I’m a radical man-eating feminist and I’d love this campaign even if it really was for saucepans. So obviously a pisstake. My husband (a bloke) and I giggled our heads off.
Don’t care that it’s a trick. It’s sexist, not funny, not clever.
Totally agree with 1:58.
By the way, reading some of the equally offensive comments made on this blog reminds me of how many turned up collared, oversized watch wearing, ironic t-shirt collecting, small membered cockheads work in this industry. ie. “Now cook me some eggs bitch”
Go fuck yourself little man.
In the context that it’s in, it’s not sexist. Calm down people.
Headline: AD CAMPAIGN CREATES PLAGUE OF SEXIST CHILDREN.
Do you really believe this? Don’t you really think that a sexist child is the result of a far greater far more prolonged exposure to sexism. A sexist mother or father for example, sexist relatives, a sexist school or perhaps a country with a sexist undercurrent?
But to say that an ad for a kitchenware company with a ridiculous headline like “The more you cook the cuter you look” can create a sexist child is really one of the stupider things I’ve ever heard.
Stop being bitter for the sake of it. This campaign is a bit of fun and nothing else.
I think these ads are lame.
They are not clever enough to spike a real reaction with women.
A bit like most the ads done my all those clever little “Mad men” targeting the poor little 1950’s housewives.
The men that write them had no idea then .
They have no idea now.
Sorry.
Wish it was real. I would be into Myer picking up a set faster than you can say; “If you can’t stand the heat, get back in the kitchen!”.
Iconic, ironic.
Graciously put 1.58
Isn’t it about time the adverting industry would move out of the 1950’s,
the rest of the world has.
what’s wrong with being sexy?
1:58
The fact that you assume that men wrote these ads?
Is that because:
A. You’re a sexist who imagines only men work in advertising.
B. You’re a sexist who imagines that only men worked on this project.
C. You’re simply angry at the world for everything…grrr….world….grrr
It’s so funny any time there’s an ad on here from Razor they abuse the crap out of anyone who politely points out they don’t like it.
I’m hitting back.
You’re talentless fucks, your ads are shit and you can’t abuse people without resorting to swearing your intellect is so sub zero.
Come on, hit me you abusive little men.
It’s so funny any time there’s an ad on here from Razor they abuse the crap out of anyone who politely points out they don’t like it.
I’m hitting back.
You’re talentless fucks, your ads are shit and you can’t abuse people without resorting to swearing your intellect is so sub zero.
Come on, hit me you abusive little men.
It’s so funny any time there’s an ad on here from Razor they abuse the crap out of anyone who politely points out they don’t like it.
I’m hitting back.
You’re talentless fucks, your ads are shit and you can’t abuse people without resorting to swearing your intellect is so sub zero.
Come on, hit me you abusive little men.
5:48..Why do you think I said the ads are done by men?
Because:
A) You don’t like my allusion to racism and so you built straw-man argument.
B) You couldn’t think of any other way to say, “No, you’re sexist!”.
C) You’re angry at people you criticise your work….grrr….bald spot…grrr
Wow, really, wow.
Of all the sexist rubbish out there, it’s kinda funny how some people are getting real abusive (seriously undermining their intelligence at the same time) over ads that do it with irony.
Personally I don’t thing the end justifies the means, did I laugh, yes, but I’m already half way through series two.
I was in the country a couple of weeks ago and saw a store proudly promoting all the stickers they design there in the front window with WAY worse lines than this that will float around on the back of some bloke/or shelas ute for eternity.
A bit of perspective please.
I don’t care for these ads. They are a bit sexist. And I LOVE to cook, believe me. I just don’t like this attitude that I SHOULD love to cook, and that chores and relationships should be my only focus in life. Besides, it’s nice when a man cooks too.
this is too funny
Washing
Ironing
Food
Entertainment
Now get in the kitchen and cook food.
Roger Hudson (pictured), CEO of Madison Avenue Products, defended the campaign saying “If we ignore hairy-legged feminists for one second, research has told us that women do actually love cooking and they do actually love keeping their man happy. It’s in their DNA.”
So hairy legged feminists don’t like to cook don’t like keeping their partner happy?
And what about men who like to cook and keeping their wife happy?
So everyone who is not happy with this campaign must be a feminist?
No wonder CEO is in the top 10 of psychopaths. Just push your misstakes and
responsibility away, because it’s always something outside like a research result. Just take anything to reach your goal. Ignoring the real reasoning. Why? Are you afraid or is it easer to just not care. Maybe this CEO even likes the anger.
Feminism is a scam theory. I don’t advise any serious minded person. To take this theory serious. 95% of so-called feminists, discourage men. From having long hair (or female hairstyles). They also discourage women, from wearing trousers. What hypocrisy!! As most of us, ‘forcing’ men. To have long hair. Is supposed to be part, of feminism
there are 64 genders
this Add implies pots can cook