Bud Talkinghorn: Advertisers' Male Bashing -- Golf

An open letter to the Advertising Council of Canada

It might have slipped your attention, but discrimination is now taboo. Oh, yes there is a certain degree of lampooning allowed; however, the degree to which you have applied this to the male sex is truly preposterous. You have insidiously degraded the male to rank of a stock simpleton, a baby, a push-over. Inevitably any couple scene has a vibrant, attractive wife 'stuck' with a white, fattish, dull-faced hubby, who must always be seen to to wrong. They are even shown-up, or put-down, by their own children. Have you no appreciation for the message that it sends to young men? Or do you know, and simply will not let anything interfere with advertising profits?

"It is a takeout; no, it isn't!" -- At the very least the ads gave us a young dolt. And who gets to drive the car? Oh, a grievous blow that to young male pride as she sits behind the wheel or refuses to allow him to try out her car.

So, please advise all of us as to the game plan here. Is it that woman buy every single item? Is it that men have been so bashed that they delight in these humiliating images? Are feminazis writing all the ad scripts? Do the agencies have creepy focus groups?

Please enlighten us as to why you have allowed this blatant sexism to continue and to grow increasingly crude. You people are supposed to be the gatekeepers.

I take umbrage at those portrayals, but you folks at the Advertising Council are letting ads like that slither by. Emboldened it seems, the advertisers have decided that there was nothing offensive about kids shown urinating on the floor. Farting sounds they obviously gleaned from their exposure to teeny gross out movies. Is this the future? That ads will push the envelope and show men being assaulted by females--we are already seeing just a little slap or a drink thrown in the face. Will it be a kidnapping scene next?

The examples of the denigration of the male are too numerous to catalogue. You have seen them yourselves. The entire dumbing down of the ads is scary enough, but as to the buffooning of white males; you know that it could never be allowed for a second using women or ethnics. Get on the case, or turn in your badge.

Better, Canadians should note the associated products and determine not to buy them.

© Bud Talkinghorn




For God's sake, just play the game

TV golf coverage is degenerating into some chick-lite spectacle, married to the instant celebrity schtick, a genre that E-Entertainment TV cover so well. This week, we are treated to a future waste of time in the USGA tournament. Overriding the banal "personal stories" of the golf pros--"And Jason has two children, one with a double ear infection"--is the prolonged funeral dirge about Payne Stewart's untimely demise. You hang in, thinking they will actually get back to showing the actual play. Hopes are dashed, as the anchormen feel they must pontificate about who will probably win. Just to cover their bases, they conclude that "Really, it is anybody's chance". While all this chit-chat "humanizes" the game for the ladies or non-golfers, it irritates the h*** out of me. I want to see the boys, six back. who are playing their best. What was Michael Campbell doing back six holes to set up his win? Unless, it is Ernie, or Fred, or Phil, we don't even get snippets of their action but we do get to see Tiger on the practice green for five minutes. All in all, a sad commentary on how dumbed down coverage has become. I would rather watch David Duval six putt, than hear for the 90th time about Olin Browne's 59 in qualifiying.

© Bud Talkinghorn--I hate to admit this, but I have become slightly addicted to these personal back stories -- so improbable are many of them. Gore (Mr. Nobody from the National tour, he called himself), is playing with Retief Goosen, the fifth-ranked golfer. And both of them crash and burn. Who says that lightning doesn't strike twice? Still, stuff all that in the first half hour; then show us the flash-in-the-pan fireworks of the players on the course.

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