So it’s no secret that I really hate that Canadian Club ad and have from the start. It’s also pretty clear that I’m not alone.
Good news is, there are some fantastic bloggers on the interwebs who turned their distaste for this ad into something fantastic and subversive. Michelle Schwartz has a great critique of the campaign:
Apparently, the only people invited to the Canadian Club Club are White Males, Ages 18-30, women and people of color need not apply. It’s not that surprising to me that a company is aiming at that small demographic, but the way they’re doing it is truly offensive. Basically, they are appealing to men who miss the days (whether or not they were born yet) of grabbing the asses of their secretaries, playing a few rounds at the all-white private golf club, and then going home to their wives, the happy homemakers who would mix them drinks, cook them dinner, and wait on them hand and foot. None of this women’s lib, civil rights, limp-wristed liberal bullshit that men are expected to follow these days. No, let’s go back to the days of rampant sexual harassment, before women could expect to be seen as equals and before the gays turned all those masculine men into pansies with waxed eyebrows. Let’s return to the days when men were men. Please.
Her thoughts are accompanied by some of her own (feminist) spoof ads that kick the campaign in the ass. There’s a whole series of them that include “Your Mom Wasn’t a Stepford” and “Your Mom Played Sports.” My fave? “Your Mom Had Groupies.”
As part of the project, Stark brings us this fantastic gem:
Thanks to Michelle for alerting us to her great project!



Digg
seven comments
SO. MUCH. AWSUM.
Posted by Jelly
May 15, 2008, 8:42 PM
Awesome. This made my day.
Posted by Restructure!
May 15, 2008, 10:27 PM
Oh man, I wish The Raincoats were my mom!
Posted by Anna
May 16, 2008, 5:54 AM
I mean... I love my mom.
Posted by Anna
May 16, 2008, 5:55 AM
Thanks for the shout-out! I've been really excited by the response to the project and all the cool ads I've collected.
Posted by Michelle
May 17, 2008, 4:42 PM
I have been avidly following your critiques of the Canadian Club ads. Thanks for the shout-out! I hope others are inspired to create their own responses, too.
Posted by Stark Koenig
May 17, 2008, 8:34 PM
This is so bloody rad. Nice work!
Posted by melinda
May 18, 2008, 6:56 PM
Leave a comment
This blog post is older than 90 days old. All comments submitted regarding this post will be automatically held for review by the editors before posting. Your comment will not appear on the site until it has been approved.
Our comment policy
Shameless prides itself on the diversity of opinions expressed by our writers, and we encourage and appreciate different points of view. Our intention at Shameless is to foster community and to maintain a safe and positive blogging environment; we do not consider it our duty to give a voice to anybody with an opinion.
Discussion on this site is moderated. We will delete comments that:
(We get to decide what's discriminatory, hateful, attacking, or inflammatory).
In some cases, we will cap off comments on a discussion when we feel they are spiralling out of control and fostering an unwelcoming space for bloggers and readers. Comments will be closed by the Web Editor, unless the post is by the Web Editor, in which case the Editor in Chief will close them.
If your comments repeatedly make the same point, they may be deleted. This also applies to comments made by multiple members of the same organization.
Your comments should be about the topic of the post, not its writer—although we certainly encourage praise for our writers, if you want to say something nice.