Kmart/YouTube
KMart recently released a commercial for a brand of boxer underwear, which you can see below. It’s already raised a bit of an uproar and I think that it’s warranted.
First of all, imagine if the genders were switched and it was women standing there in a line gyrating their hips to the song in nothing but a bra and underwear? The word ‘misogynistic’ would probably be the first one of many people’s mouths, along with things about reducing women to mere sex objects, among others. There’d probably be picket lines in front of the stores’ headquarters. Inches and inches of columns would be written about it in newspapers and online. It’d be on the news for at least several days. This is garnering much, much less attention than something like that would.
While it happens far less often than women, men can be objectified too and this commercial shows it. What makes it worse is that it’s near a holiday like Christmas. A very bad message to send to people, I think. If it were near summer and the guys were getting ready to go to the beach, it wouldn’t be anywhere near as controversial.
There are those who would dismiss it as a mere lark or a spoof and ask why no one complains about ads for Calvin Klein. KMart, and whoever they use for advertising, really dropped the ball here (no pun intended). It’s a family store. They sell to all kinds of people,and why should a parent have to explain why a commercial about underwear is showing things like this. Calvin Klein is targeting their demographic. Its a clearly defined one. KMart’s demographic is broader and their commercials should reflect that.
I say that if women want to see guys thrust their pelvises at them, they can go to Chippendale’s or watch late-night television. They should not see it in something like this.
