Fast Company, a marketing company that runs an online design magazine, asked ad agencies to run what they describe as “mock campaigns” to re-brand girls. In the process, the companies dump on males, and male children in particular. A few of the ads are targeted at China in particular, where more boys are born than girls (particularly in the countryside), but others are simply gratuitous man-bashing, and imply that boys are dangerous and unhealthy and lack compassion, loyalty and self-control.
Sometimes I wonder whether we have reached the height of misandry, only to find that corporate America and politicians are all too willing to dive to new lows.
If companies created campaigns trashing baby girls, we would never hear the end of it, but when boys are the target nobody bats an eyelid. Furthermore, it’s considered bad form for men to flaunt their advantages, but when women do it somehow it is acceptable. However, these campaigns will probably backfire, as they make women look like very poor sports, and quite arrogant to boot.
One company even set up a website called “Hope it’s a Girl” that features anecdotes and pictures of boys behaving badly. Ironically, it makes boys look like more fun, and girls like insufferable bores, but perhaps the guys tasked with creating the site did that on purpose.
