Lynx and Brut: brutally sexist

As published on Melinda Tankard Reist's blog.

Good piece in The National Times today on ‘Lad’s Ads’, pointing out the raw sexism of the new Brut deodorant advertising campaign – a perfect case study in sexist advertising. Brut appears to be following in the footsteps of Unilever’s Lynx, which has turned objectification into an art form (all the while promoting Dove ‘real beauty’). Thanks Brut and Lynx for entrenching the notion that women are mindless objects for male sexual fantasies. Oh, and men? Perhaps find something else to spray yourselves with. These ads demean you too.

Here’s a spray of my own: this stuff really is on the nose

Lads’ ads’ are ironic, we are told. They are also brutally offensive.

PLEASE, don’t adjust your sets – it really is still 2010. But watching TV lately, you could easily be forgiven for thinking you had slipped into a time warp.For those fortunate enough not to have seen the latest commercial for Brut deodorant, let me paint you the picture.A woman in a hardly-there, leopard-print bikini is walking down a beach footpath. A guy clocks the oncoming girl and, rather than selfishly ogle her on his own, he gives his mates a nudge so that they can leer at her as a pack. Their approval is clearly evident as they loudly let rip a couple of ”phwoars” while the camera pans to a shot of her bouncing breasts.

Read Sarah McKenzie’s piece here.

Brut "girl codes"

As you know, last week I appeared on the Gruen Sessions on the subject of women in advertising. I also published here yesterday an extract from a piece which unpacked the inconsistencies of the ad execs supposed positions (sexism isn’t good!) while at the same time justifying what they do (but it sells products!). Today Sheryl has made some further observations on her blog about last night’s Gruen Sessions – which also featured the Lynx and Brut ads, justified as ‘teen boys fantasies’, which makes it OK of course.

Ad Standards upholds complaints against Brut ad