Sexist Ad Lands EB Games Australia In Trouble

[GotMalkAvian]

To be offended by this, you have to be an excruciatingly histrionic woman. The spot never insulted women, it just played with the positive gender roles everyone has accepted for as long as we all can recall. It's a light-hearted joke, I don't think any woman who has time and a sense of humour with them would find this insulting.

Well said.

Furthermore, that's pretty much the relationship between myself and my non-gamer wife. When we met, I had a history of being irresponsible with my money and spending way too much time and cash on gaming. It was borderline addiction, really. Now, as long as I don't neglect her or our home, things work out just fine.

 

[Cephei Mordred]

The ad was sexist inasfar as it overreached.

What isn't sexist is to acknowledge that there are women out there who are exactly like that, and probably more of them than are gamers.

Of course, in before 'there'd be more women in gaming if men weren't all creepy sexist nice guy manchild scum bawwww'

 

[Lieju]

Talking as a feminist lesbian who likes to nag, meh.

It's more stupid than anything, and doesn't seem particularly serious.
Yeah, it's sexist, but not worth getting offended over.

 

[snfonseka]

"47 percent of Australian gamers are female". Seriously?

Anyway what the heck is wrong with people, try to see worst case every time. I don't think someone should be offended by watching this ad.

 

[Corporal Yakob]

I don't mind the slightly-sexist ad. You have to take stuff like that with a grain of salt. It's human nature to poke fun of ourselves! What I DO mind is going into an EB store looking for the latest installment in the Gears of Wars series, having the store clerk tell me that "it's a bit scary with all the shooting and aliens" and "maybe you'd prefer something like Plants vs Zombies or this game called Furries; they're a lot cuter than shooter games".

>:|
I want to kill aliens, not pop little cute balls of fluff against each other for points.

(Cue Mouldy Cheese grabbing the store clerk by their hair and slamming their head onto the counter)

 

[midknight129]

Ryan Bingham: [on getting through airport security] Never get behind old people. Their bodies are littered with hidden metal and they never seem to appreciate how little time they have left. Bingo, Asians. They pack light, travel efficiently, and they have a thing for slip on shoes. Gotta love 'em.
Natalie Keener: That's racist.
Ryan Bingham: I'm like my mother, I stereotype. It's faster.


What's the difference between a primitive society, a backwards society, a modern society, and a progressive society?

Primitive Society: Stereotypes have a current factual basis and no one finds them funny.
Backwards Society: Stereotypes have a current factual basis and many people find them funny.
Modern Society: Stereotypes have no current factual basis and no one finds them funny.
Progressive Society: Stereotypes have no current factual basis and many people find them funny.

 

[TheWizardWhoDunIt]

I simply read the part where the woman was berating the man for losing his job and buying a game instead, at which point I said, "Whatever this guy does cannot be for the better part of good." I don't think it's sexist, it's just that it lacks a certain amount of sense. The girlfriend at the end should've just said, "Yeah well dinner's all nice but you gotta get a job, dude. There are tons of babies for you to watch," or whatever.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

-_-

Huh...

EB games...

WHY?

Not is this ad sexist, IT IS #$^&Y!

Could you get anybody who is even a little better using Flash?

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

"47 percent of Australian gamers are female". Seriously?

Anyway what the heck is wrong with people, try to see worst case every time. I don't think someone should be offended by watching this ad.

I am less offended of the sexism, and more of how badly done this ad is.

Who was the fourteen yearold who animated this crap?

 

[Iron Mal]

And the sexism in that advert comes in...where exactly?

It's now apparantly in bad taste to depict a woman cleaning?

Well, I'd best tell my mother, sister, girlfriend, step-mum, aunts, cousins and every other woman I know that if they're to do any cleaning at all then they must make sure that it's only when no-one is looking (we can't have it looking like a woman is ever takes it upon themself to clean anything ever).

I take the same stance here as I did with the accusation of Batman: Arkham City (weirdly enough also in the ad) being sexist, it's a very strong and heavy word with a lot of history behind it so it's use should be reserved for times of genuine hatred and contempt for women (otherwise it may get to a point where it gets thrown around so much that it loses all meaning).

Also, I don't know why but I'm vaguely reminded of the fuss that surrounded the GAME advert saying that Call of Duty: Black Ops was 'cheaper than your girlfriend' (and how that was equally pointless).

 

[MasochisticAvenger]

It's totally sexist, and here's why.
- The way the man perceives the voice of the woman when he zones out. Yeah, I get it, sometimes you just don't want to listen. But when it's in a relationship like that it just goes to show a lack of respect for your partner. Judging by how he ignored it, the topic's been up for debate before. Thus they probably haven't talked about it in a rational adult way, which leads me to believe that the guy's going "Fuck it, she can whine all she wants, I'm going to do it anyway", which is clearly disrespectful. It's, in different terms, pretty much saying "I'm the man in this relationship, I make the decisions, so I'll blatantly disregard your feelings and keep doing what I find fun." Not cool.
- Also, the woman shopping and cleaning. Really Australia? It's not 1955 anymore. Also portraying the man sitting around when his wife's cleaning, along with the 'Do you need any help honey?'. If your wife is cleaning and you're sitting on the couch with a beer and a video game - you're a douche. The home isn't one person's responsibility, you both live there.

And agreed, there are lots of adds that are sexist towards men too, but that doesn't make this ok. Not cool, EB.

So the ad is sexist towards women because it portrays men as sexist pigs who don't listen to their wives? The woman is clearly disregarding her husband's feelings as well - she doesn't want him wasting money on games, but she has no problem wasting the money on a fancy dinner out. In other words, she only wants the money spent on things she wants. It works both ways.

As for the cleaning... people causing a stink over it simply reminds me of feminists bitching about how women who like to be homemakers are holding women back. I mean we don't know much about this woman. Who's to say she doesn't enjoy cooking and cleaning? Isn't saying that all women can't like cleaning irregardless of their own opinion far more sexist than portraying a woman as someone who cleans?

 

[ResonanceSD]

This is about as sexist as I am female.

[small][sup]You see, it's funny because the topic is about sexism. No? Anybody? Not even a giggle?[/sup][/small]

Anyway. Yeah, really not seeing the issue here. If it was the other way around, with a woman buying the game and the bloke moaning, would anyone care? Seems like whining for the sake of whining to me.

The double standard of the PC age. It's a bad joke. Nothing more.

[sub]oh yes, I almost loled[/sub]

 

[BgRdMchne]

This isn't the first time a video game store has made a sexist video. Look at this training video from Gamestop:

 

[internetzealot1]

Forget sexism, that ad just SUCKS!

 

[Darkmantle]

I sincerely think significantly more sexist ads have been played, the AXE commercials or beer commercials anyone?

this is probably just getting all this flak because it's in a video game store ad

 

[devilkingx]

for the "offensive"/"sexist" argument:
i know exactly 1 girl who plays video games, and too many guys to count who play video games....

people cant call something offense, sexist, or a stereotype if its TRUE

and 47% of gamers are girls in australia nowhere does that say "regularly", "frequently", "hardcore", nor does it mention whether it counts 15 minutes of bejeweled or 1 hour of angry birds as the same as 1000 total hours in COD or 400 hours in oblivion, or a 100% completion in dark souls or not

its neither a myth nor a stereotype. you should cater to your target audience and not worry about unimportant minorities(because every woman is gonna pick up MW3 and play it for 350 hours until black ops 2 right?) else you'll have a wii, where the target audience hates it, but minorities love it(in the wiis case, gamers hated it for sucking, and casuals loved it, but that caused bad sales on games and crappy games)


as for the ad itself:
the ad is just a light hearted joke that feminazis are taking too seriously, while everyone else(like me) is taking it as it is, a joke ad

 

[Dr. Crawver]

well, I would be offended by the stereotypes, as they play them just a little too hard to be a light-hearted joke. Nagging wife, ignoring dominant man, man provides for woman, woman does housework and sees him giving her money as enough for the relationship. I get that it is meant to be a parody of the old 50s adds, but it's kind of so good at it that I have trouble to see where the parody ends, and actual offensiveness begins...

it was a badly made and thought out advert, and having a female version doesn't balance it really, but if they were going to do that, maybe releasing them at the same time would help, or at least start with, you know, making fun of the gender that hasn't been the one that throughout history has been drawing the short straw. The PR department need to be shot for just being so very stupid