The most sexist food commercial of the year? (DiceFood.com)
The most sexist food commercial of the year?
Filed under: Business, Baking, Fast Food
Hardee’s (the fast-food chain also called Carl’s Jr.) commercial, which I saw on prime time last night, is particularly sick-making.
Fort those of you who can’t watch YouTube at work, I’ll summarize: A bunch of 20-something dudes are sitting on a couch in a Generic Bachelor Pad (dart board on wall, football posters), watching NASCAR. Another guy, clad in flannel shirt and baseball cap, ambles up from the kitchen, looking pleased with himself and holding a tray of excellent-looking, golden biscuits. “Hey guys, who wants some fresh biscuits?” he asks.
Utter silence ensues as the dudes stare at each other in confusion tinged with disgust. They clearly don’t know what to say. No one reaches for a biscuit. A deep-voiced off-screen announcer says, in a slow, this-should-be-obvious tone, “Guys don’t bake.”
Then a Hardee’s chicken biscuit flashes on the screen, with the words “We bake, so you don’t have to.”
Gagging noises follow (that’d be me).
What the commercial is saying seems pretty obvious: Baking is an unmasculine activity and guys who bake are somehow not normal (hence the freaked-out stares). The homophobic implications are pretty close to the surface.
Watching Paris Hilton writhe around in a swimsuit eating a burger in the old Carl’s Jr. ad was irritating, but this is much worse: Hardee’s is taking something great (who wouldn’t like a guy that makes awesome snacks?) and turns it into something shameful and snicker-worthy.
And honestly, in this Food Network-loving, celebrity chef-worshiping world, aren’t we pretty much past thinking that baking is for girls (or that any activity is just for girls/boys, for that matter). I recently saw Bobby Flay baking biscuits and making jam on a biscuit-themed Throwdown With Bobby Flay. Say what you will about Bobby Flay, a pugilistic high school drop-out with tough-kid New Yorkah accent, but he’s not, to quote Ahnold, a “girlie man.” Who, I ask you, really believes that a man baking is gross/wrong? The guys from Mad Men? The Taliban? So why is Hardee’s trying to bring back such a regressive stereotype?
To sell biscuits, obviously. Thanks, but I’ll stay home and let my boyfriend bake - his biscuits are pretty good, but his cinnamon rolls are really to die for. And I’ve never seen his friends pass up one of his chocolate chip cookies. That would be weird.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
food allergy, diet, indian food, vegatarian cooking, vegan recipes
