Is it just me … ?
It’s sometimes a bit of a burden being in marketing. Don’t get me wrong I’m passionate about what I do and love helping businesses make the most of their best assets – in fact I’d go so far as to say I totally love it and wouldn’t swap it for the world. The burden comes when watching TV , reading the newspaper or listening to commercial radio. I can’t help but critically assess each advert I come across and wonder what the thought process was that went behind a particular campaign.
The one that’s bugging me at the moment is the TV advertising campaign for Boots. You know the one, where two women meet in the street, sniffing in their hankies and telling each how much they have to do. Such as prepare a presentation for work, re-decorate the bathroom as the in-laws are coming to stay at the weekend, as well as having to get up at 5.30am in order to get the family to school, make lunches and still get to work looking fresh for 8.30am. To be honest I can’t remember what the other lady has to do as she annoys me so much I’ve mentally switched off by that time. Now the thing that REALLY bugs me is when they both turn round and say their poor partners are at home in bed with the sniffles ‘poor thing’. Indicating that as women not only can they multi-task with ease, they can do so while suffering with a heavy cold/flu. Whereas their weakling male partners are straight off to bed at the first sign of a blocked nose only to be waited on hand and foot by these super women.
Is this just me that this advert annoys the bejeebers out of?
Okay, I get the whole showing the stereotypical viewpoint that woman can multi-task while men come down with ‘man-flu’ at the drop of a sneeze. And yes, predominately it’s women that will buy the health care products hence it showing the women in a good light and the men as weaklings. But I find this advert so condescending it actually makes me avoid Boots like the plague (or like a strong dose of man-flu, whichever is the worst).
My long suffering husband reckons it’s just me and that I should just chill out and relax, rather than getting extremely wound up in the middle of an episode of Emmerdale. He maybe right – but I don’t think so.
I’d be really interested to know what you think? Is this just me being highly critical and over analysing? Or do you too get really wound up when advertisers think that pandering to a stereo typical view point will make us buy a product?
If you’d like to send me your views to viewpoint@tbcmarketing.co.uk I’d love to hear from you.
Teresa