As always, I’m horribly busy and don’t have much time to comment in-depth on this, but it came to my attention today on Twitter that EB Games here in Australia is now showing this ad in its stores. Needless to say, I’m disguisted, outraged, etc., but what I’m must curious about is what you all think! Has there been a similar campaign in the United States or elsewhere?
Apparently there will be a woman’s guide coming as well, but I don’t expect it to be any better. Most likely it will show a desperate wife trading in her husband’s games behind his back so she can snag the latest iteration of Cooking Mama.
Well, I can’t say I’ve seen this ad over here yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me if a similar ad was shown at some point. Ugh.
It’ll be interesting to see what the women’s version looks like. I have a feeling your guess won’t be far from the mark — unfortunately.
What on earth? Is this supposed to be laugh out loud funny (or funny at all)? I’m sure it is but it’s just so dull and not well thought out at all.
GameStop has ads showing on loop in stores but as far as I know I’ve never seen anything like this. Usually they just purely advertise games, talk about a hyped game in development, or pre order bonuses. If I did see this sort of thing in my local store though you can bet they’d get a complaint from me!
What would be nice is if the “women’s version” was the exact same ad but with the characters flipped. So, boyfriend/husband making the Charlie Brown adult talking voice and so on. But of course I’m sure it will be very different from this one.
That’s incredibly sexist and so wrong in many ways!!! I’m disgusted by this ad! Yuck! I’m going to show this to my girlfriend tonight so she can give me her points on it… It’s funny how we both usually go to the store and buy games together so these people obviously are using a bad stereotype. I wish I could see the person who help create this video s I can bitch slap him because I’m sure it’s a him!
Bryan – I’m surprised it aired in Australia first, actually! But I guess I shouldn’t be… They do have a lot of archaic beliefs regarding video games, at least in mainstream culture, around here.
Yeah, Marcus, I agree- if they made the woman’s version simply a role-reversal of the men’s version, it would definitely alleviate some of my anger… But of course they won’t be doing that! 🙁
Famicom Freak – Believe it or not, the EB Games AU official Twitter justified this ad as being entirely an attempt at “light-hearted humor” (their words) BECAUSE it was written by a woman! Can you believe it? There was a huge shitstorm on Twitter after one user called them out on the distasteful add on Friday. They actually published an article at Kotaku AU, you can read it here: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/11/ebs-mans-guide-to-trading-criticised-for-sexism/
I’d be interested to hear what your girlfriend thought of it, as well! My husband saw it and he was as angered as I was. It’s just so tasteless!