Fucking Veg*ns, eh!? (For readers not familiar with Boolean operators, the asterisk can stand for an "a" as is Vegans, or "etaria" as in Vegetarians!). I'd like to apologise in advance to SAFA's meat-eating members for my explicitly Vegan values here, but my goal is to analyse some ads as I perceive them--and to poke a little fun: take my contribution for what you see it being worth.
Let's address some of the messages in some of the ads I've noticed around Calgary recently. First up: Black Sheep Spiced Rum!
Where to begin? How about "what the fuck do butchers and vegetarians have to do with rum?" Well, I imagine the marketing team behind this masterpiece aim to tap into that wonderful ideology of rugged (read: manly) individualism we hold so dear in capitalist democracies. Stay true to your uniqueness! Be a "black sheep!" Maybe it's more accurate to say: stay true to hegemonic masculinity, don't be influenced by those bleeding hearts? I've been either Vegetarian or Vegan for a few years now, and I can say (and without the defensive pride this ad is full of) that Vegetarians are "black sheep" in most situations where their dietary/consumption choices become known! But "You Are a Vegetarian. Here's to You" wouldn't sell much rum.
Meat eaters, referenced in this ad through their collective enablers--butchers (let's face it, whenever you eat meat, an animal was killed for you)--are not "black sheep" in the vast majority of settings here in Canada. I suppose these marketers have experienced their share of the hardships of very occasionally being among people who think differently then the privileged groups they are a part of, and assume most of their audience has too. It must be difficult only having the support of hegemony 99% of the time. After all, besides being for meat-eaters, the ad is clearly intended for a male audience (with its masculine, "bold" font and the implied bread-winning status of the targeted reader. Did you imagine that the mother of the family was the butcher? And maybe it's just me, but this ad doesn't seem geared toward families with Queer parents). I doubt there's even a "butcher" position at most of the slaughterhouses in North America: the job of one butcher is done by hundreds of workers, to increase efficiency. All the same, "butcher" has a nicer ring to it, and implies good, honest, old-fashioned labour, doesn't it? And why the implied resentment towards a family so understanding that they accept your choice to work in an industry that is so contradictory to their own moral priorities? And you know... maybe I just don't get it, but what the fuck does one's preference for a particular brand of drunk-juice have to do with being unique? Here's to you, asshole.
Next up: Full Press Vineyards (Wine)!
Just look at the rugged fellow pressing that wine. Nice, striking typeset on the label, and it goes with meat! Now there's a man's wine. We all know men (real men anyway) don't drink wine, and certainly don't pair it with food. That's just gay.
The connections between meat and masculinity go back to our cavemen days, where men hunted and women gathered food and did some other trivial shit like raise young, take care of everyone's living arrangements, prepare food and make clothing. In my research into anthropology, it seems that our hominid ancestors (what the hell is a caveman, anyway?) actually received the majority of their calories from plant matter, but never-mind that, it was a long time ago.
This ad plays it safe, relying on the time-tested myth of "man like meat." For North Americans, the connections we take as natural between men and the manliness of meat probably have more to do with post-second World War advertising (B-B-Q, anyone?) than pre-historic gender relations, but nevertheless, they're around today. Not only does this ad draw on men obtaining their manliness from meat, but it addresses the concern that wine just isn't manly. Well, it is if you pair it with meat. There is more to be said about the gender stereotypes present in this ad, but we've got one more to go.
Lastly for today: Glaceau vitaminwater.
Ever tried this shit? I'm willing to assume that the alleged non-deliciousness of tofu owes more to subjective preference (and inept preparation) than the foul taste of this crap does. It tastes like Tylenol. It's gross.
Veg*ns have to listen to enough jokes about how bad tofu is from our omnivorous friends, we don't need to hear it from inanimate objects at the mall. I guess the folks behind this one are drawing a comparison between the reputedly healthy soy-product and their new "smartwater" (another very similar product made by Glaceau, a subsidiary of Coca-Cola. Visit http://www.glaceau.com/ to receive a free facefull of total fucking bullshit. Requires Flash player.). Of course, tofu is considered healthy compared to meat (as both are sources of protein and tofu has substantially less fat, no cholesterol and--as a bonus--doesn't build up and fester in your colon!), but the health benefits of this vitaminwater are of a very different sort. "Health" is used by implication, in this ad and many others like it, to play on people's fear of being unhealthy. Health is an extraordinarily complicated and subjective series of measurements we attempt to impose on ourselves, but here it is represented as something you can buy and drink. So drink up! To your health!
Peace, Love and Tofu,
Ben
ps. though not directly related, this facebook screen-shot was too good not to share! Click on it to read the text!
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