Anybody but me tired of the “Stupid White Guy” commercials? If any advertiser tried to put a minority or woman in that light they would be metaphorically tarred and feathered! Here are a few examples:
- The Verizon Wireless commercial where three “office workers” are rocking on their cell phones.
- The Toyota commercial with the white guy bouncing around the show floor and poking his head through the open sun roofs.
- A whole raft of Progressive Insurance commercials that portray white men as either buffoons or clueless.
- The Nationwide Insurance commercials with the guy walking around with a traditional telephone strapped to his chest.
I see little reason why the advertisers think that they have to make someone look stupid to make a point. Is it is an expression of how the advertisers feel about their audience or does it reflects the relative intelligence of those creating the commercials? I will leave it to you to decide.
Loren Berg's Blog 
An other aspect of ‘stupid men’ commercials are the ones that must have been thought up by a woman that has never, ever lived around men.
I refer to a ‘Tide’ commercial recently airing that depicts a super cute woman that has washed her little white sneakers in Tide. She described them as dirty before they were washed; the man seated on the floor in front of her describes them as ‘vile.’ I bet I don’t know six men that have ever used the word, ‘vile’ in a sentence. Having her sneakers clean and white again makes this woman happy and she announces that she’s glad has these shoes back in her life. The man, upon hearing the woman proclaim her happiness, makes a weak little fist and, with no enthusiasm, says, ‘yea’.
Besides the use of the word, vile, this commercial also gets this wrong, at least for me; any man that can identify anything that makes a woman happy that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg should be depicted as, at least, ecstatically happy and amused. This dud was thought up by someone with no idea how a man thinks.
I will not buy Tide for this commercial, alone.
I’ve been on this topic for a number of years. The pattern began late in the 2000’s when Bush-bashing was in vogue and then, really accelerated after Obama was elected. Few realize that the ONLY class of citizens NOT “protected” by the Federal government are white males.
Women, blacks, Hispanics, gays, the disabled are all ‘protected” citizen classes. White males are not organized as these groups ar and have few, if any. advocacy organizations. If there were, they would immediately be denounced as racist, sexist, etc. It’s truly an outrage. Ironically, the advancement of these demographic groups accelerates as the need for the diminishes. There is a cultural war against white men going on, and so many white men are only vaguely aware of it, if aware at all.
I wish I knew how to get a movement organized to boycott the companies that use this approach to selling their product/service. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?
If you think about it, it’s Madison Avenue’s way of actually keeping white me in power: give the minorities some sense that they are smarter than white men. That way, everyone is placated, but white males. But, it does not matter: we have the power anyway. Cool deception; stupid minorities, including women.