We know — and are desensitized to the fact — that beer commercials often objectify women. But, the beer industry isn’t alone.
MissRepresentation is a documentary and movement that “exposes how mainstream media contributes to the underrepresentation of women in positions of power and influence in America.” Using the hashtag #NotBuyingIt, they’re encouraging people to call out advertisers who misrepresent or degrade women. While you’ll read LOTS of posts this week about Super Bowl ad winners and losers, you won’t see as much conversation around the portrayal of women. Though it’s an understated part of the post-game analysis, it’s an important element.
In a statement before the Super Bowl, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, CEO and Founder of MissRepresentation.org, explained: “Eighty-five percent of the purchasing decisions in the United States are made or influenced by women. It’s time we used our consumer power to let the media know: sexism won’t sell.”
While most tweets centerred on the ads, Beyonce, the power outage (and even the game itself!), 10,000 tweets were shared with the #NotBuyingIt hashtag, reaching more than 2 million people. A very small percentage, when you consider that 24.1 million Super Bowl tweets were shared, but that shouldn’t diminish the importance of the message. Miss Representation put together a recap, embedded below for those of you interested in seeing #NotBuyingIt reactions.
Did you think any of the ads unfairly or inappropriately represented women? Does it matter, in your opinion? Or, do you think this is much ado about nothing?