I really hate football, so I always look forward to the SuperBowl commercials as a way to get me through what would otherwise be four hours of sheer boredom. Last night, however, I was more disgusted than entertained, especially by the GoDaddy.com commercials featuring Indy Racing League driver Danica Patrick. I hate that I’m even giving GoDaddy any press by writing this post, but I just can’t keep quiet. The ads were racy and one featured some gooberish college guys ogling Danica in the shower (you could only see her head & shoulders but STILL. It was inferred that the goobers were getting the whole picture.) The other ad was also in poor taste, and both offered viewers a chance to see the “unrated” conclusions online. I am sure the unrated conclusions are probably soft p*rn or worse, but I’m not going to find out for myself.
C’mon, Danica! You’ve shattered barriers for women by becoming the first successful female IRL driver, why are you taking such a giant step back in participating in ads that are demeaning to your gender? Do you REALLY need the money that badly? Because personally, I don’t think it’s worth it, and judging from all the tweets I saw about you and your poor-taste ads last night on Twitter, I’m not in the minority. (Do a Twitter search for Danica Patrick and you’ll see what I mean.)
The whole thing left me feeling pretty yucky – how about you? Am I overreacting or has Danica shelved her self-respect?
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Ok this is Emily jumping in here. Jenny unwittingly handed me my soapbox this morning, so I’m going to jump on it.
Danica Patrick has had a successful racing career, and she has broken barriers. There were, however, women who went before her. Janet Guthrie drove in the Indy 500 five years before Danica was even born. Lyn St. James won “Rookie of the Year” at Indy in 1992. Sarah Fisher drove along side Danica from 2000-2004.
She wasn’t the first… she was (and is) the most marketable.
It’s ok for a female to be a strong contender in a male dominated sport, if – and this is a big if – said female is hot.
Hot and heterosexual. Years ago, I was just as hot under the hood as Jenny is today when I saw a life-sized cardboard cut out of Danica advertising pepsi products. She was in her racing gear, she wasn’t wearing anything provocative… it was her wedding ring that made my blood boil. The folks at Pepsi had worked really hard to make Danica’s ring blatantly obvious – somehow they made the silver dollar-sized cardboard diamond shimmer. They might has well have tattooed “Don’t worry, I am not a lesbian!” on her forehead. In addition to her hotness, this fact is also key in her marketability.
But, let me play devil’s advocate for a moment, too. As quick as we are to find distaste for Danica using her sexuality to sell domain names (I haven’t quite figured out that connection yet), did we have that strong a reaction when Michael Jordan walked around in his Hanes? I doubt it. Why is it less of an issue for a man to be seen on TV in his skivvies?
What about when the ooglers were women taking a Diet Coke break?
And what if Danica did the commercial just to make money? Have you seen the advertisements splashed all over race cars? Their outfits? Their helmets? Obviously car racing is expensive, and sponsorship is big business. Are we offended by the giant Viagra car zooming around the track? (Yes, I am, actually, but it doesn’t seem to be a hot topic on Twitter).
Women have come so far in sports in the 30-some years since Title IX was inacted, but sexism and inequity are still very real. And while I could go on all day, I won’t… but I’ll bring it back to Jenny’s original question:
Are we over-reacting?
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Ok, it’s Jenny again. Now for shameless self-promotion: I am guest posting at the Crocs blog today and I promise I didn’t do anything demeaning to myself or my gender over there! Please go check it out!
I only saw one of the ads, but it was just plain stupid and bad. I don’t think it really sets back women any, but it does make Danica look stupid and makes me lose respect for her.
It’s ok for a female to be a strong contender in a male dominated sport, if – and this is a big if – said female is hot. The thing is, if you’re hot, you don’t have to be that good. If you really look at the careers of the major female athlete hotties, you will find some pretty unimpressive stats. They just use their hotness to get attention and good PR. But at the end of the day, the normal looking, but well performing female athletes are the ones with more trophies on their shelves.
GoDaddy purposely creates offensive ads – it’s their thing. So really, we’re doing exactly what they wanted. (And I’m guilty, too, with a similar mention on my blog!)
I will note that in my opinion, it’s not as big a deal to have a man (like MJ) in his underwear, because women are not visual like men and can look at a man without automatically thinking about sex. But that’s just my two cents. I’m okay not seeing ANYONE in their underwear!
I’ve seen the ads, I don’t like them, I don’t watch them anyway…
On the topic of her ring…I wonder how her husband (that is, if she’s still married) feels about her flaunting her body??
As for racing – I keep hoping for the day when I see the Tampax car…with a string hanging off the back LOL
Emily, I completely understand what you’re saying and I appreciate that you brought it up…but, I agree with Jenny on this. Actually, it wasn’t just the Godaddy commercials, but I don’t see why sex has to sell in the middle of a football game that parents are watching with their CHILDREN all across the country.
My opinion is overreacting, Danica is compensated for her work with GoDaddy and as an individual she has a right to decide if she would like to be part of GoDaddy’s ad compaign. She was not forced to do this, she made a concious decision to do this. What someone may view as demeaning to ones gender someone else may view as she had the opportunity because of her sex appeal and she is taking advantage of it. Would Dale Earnhart Jr create the kind of buzz Danica did in the commercial? Probably not. So one could view this ad as an opportunity a woman has that a man does not have. It works both ways, just like there are some ads that provide opportunties for men that aren’t available to women. (see Lebron James Nike ads, would Lisa Leslie be as effective or impactful – probably not).
Whether we like it or not, it is a natural human reaction to notice sex or something sexually provacitive. These companies who produce commercials have their plans calculated very carefully, they are not going to pay millions of dollars for ads if they aren’t hitting the target they are going for or trying to make an impact. Often times focus groups are setup to determine the direction ads need to be taken.
I think it was a poor choice for Danica to participate in the ad, but that is just an opinion.
One reason why Pepsi made her wedding ring very obvious on the Pepsi commercials in the past is heterosexuals appeal to more people than someone that is homosexual. I don’t agree with this, but that is a reality, companies are going to spend money based on what they think will sell the most product. It is an interesting dynamic anlayzing ads – is the company being socially responsible, what messages is the company sending, what are the main groups the company is targeting, why would a company do something like this, etc, etc, there is an excellent class taught at Miami Unviversity by a professor who specializes in branding and I found it to be one of the more intriguing classes offered during my time in Oxford. Good discussion topic, makes you think about why companies promote certain products in certain ways.
Valid points from both of you! But, I must say, it all started with Janet’s boob…’nough said 🙂
I totally agree, but godaddy has had awful commercials for a handful of years now, this wasn’t the first…& these were way more ‘tasetful’ than years past (JMO)
It does sort of make for some uncomfortable times when you’re watching the Superbowl (for the sole purpose of watching the commercials) with your TEENAGE daughter and TWEEN son. We look forward to the commercials every year and often rewind them and watch them over and over. But this series of them were inappropriate, IMHO. Anything that makes me squirm when I’m watching it with my kids is inappropriate.
Give me more of the cute commercials. Like the ones for BEER with those adorable Clydesdales! 😉
OK, the Godaddy ads are bad, she set herself and women back several years…but that is not the real problem with the Super Bowl…look at what Bruce Springsteen has done to music…now everyone has to quit singing!
When I started my site and was looking for someone to take my money, I purposefully did NOT choose that particular company. They actually had a better price, but I will not support them by giving them my buisness. If it’s wrong, it’s wrong, and I do not care what gender you are….
And no I did not like Jordan in his undies either.
If Danica Patrick did “Hanes For Her” ads in the same manner that Michael Jordan did the Hanes ads, I would not find that offensive. But the Go Daddy ads are offensive because they reduce women to being seen as sex objects. Nobody forced Danica Patrick to do these ads, but I have to wonder what her motivation is. She doesn’t need the money. Why does she want to be seen as a piece of a$$? She whines about no-one taking her seriously in spite of her skill. Well, this is why! If you want to be taken seriously, don’t put yourself in a position to be seen as nothing more than a piece of tail.