I was talking with a friend at work today about Diesel’s “Be Stupid” campaign, which includes lots of big, flashy photos of attractive young people being recklessly impulsive in very expensive jeans. There was some disagreement over the tastefulness of the ads, not because of the hyper-sexualized content, but because of the tagline–and I think our different opinions may be partly informed by our genders.
To my female friend, “Be Stupid” works great with the humorous photos and the big brash copy (like “Smart may have the brains, but stupid has the balls”). But for me, as a male, “Be Stupid” is the amalgamation of literally every single ad campaign that targets my demographic, and it’s getting old.
If you’re a male between the ages of 18 and 35, you may have noticed by now that advertisers think you’re a bit dim. Apparently, we all hate our jobs, we’re insecure in our relationships with females, we’re exceptionally secure in our relationship with beer, and we’re desperately trying to hang onto our frat-boy lifestyle long after it’s appropriate. If a company really wants to reach us, the way to do so is to double the amount of bacon in their product, or show us some cleavage, or both.
Stupidness is celebrated; yielding to the worst parts of our adolescent natures is encouraged. I’m trying to think of a young-male-oriented campaign that DOESN’T take this approach, and I can’t come up with any (Nissan perhaps comes the closest).
That means there’s a big demographic chunk that’s not being directly marketed to. Intelligent, educated guys who watch football but also have degrees in Humanities. For every 30-year-old post-frat alcoholic who wants more bacon on his burger, there’s a successful, well-read guy with disposable income, whom no one is even trying to reach with a credible brand message. (OK, so the ratio probably isn’t 1:1, but still…)
This perception of perpetually adolescent males is a dangerous one, too. If all of the depictions of males in the media and advertising fit within a narrow stereotype, our culture loses whatever social currency ever existed to reward things like intelligence and maturity (I still remember reading a dire article in Esquire four years ago about the future of the American male if we stay on our present course–it’s well worth the read).
The good news: The brand that bucks the trend will probably be successful doing so, if only because everyone else is piling on with the “stupid” shtick right now. So which company is going to take up the challenge and start speaking intelligently to me?
Along the same vein (but not exactly, since I’m not a guy) – it SRSLY pisses me off when I watch a stupid commercial that was obviously geared towards my demographic. Like it OFFENDS me that they thought I’d think that was funny. I can only imagine how mad I’d be as a guy, because it’s totally true – the stupid beer-loving ex frat boy thing is everywhere in advertising. We’re relying on you to change the world, Kyle. Start with those awful Progressive ads, please.
Actually, Jessie, that’s an interesting point–what are the female equivalents of bro ads?
I like these Kotex ads from JWT…good skewering of bad commercials:
I’m thinking of a particular Tommy Hilfiger Holiday ad that tries for our demographic and I’m still offended by it’s pandering (and out-datedness). Wes Anderson feel–check!! “Proven to be cool”. Vampire Weekend–check!!! Also “proven to be cool”. Drives me crazy. So really, they can’t win either way.
I meant the ad is targeting the demographic you think should be targeted, not the frat boys. In case that wasn’t clear.