What do you think of the commercial? Were you distracted by the fact that little girls were constantly swearing? Or was the content of the message stronger? Did their marketing strategy worked for you?
The first time I watched the commercial I feel torn. I felt a bit uncomfortable seeing young girls using such foul language, it just seemed a little bit too natural for them. But the more I watched the video, the more the actual message was heard. However, I do not think it got people talking about actual feminism. Comments on Buzzfeed and Facebook mainly consisted of angry parents completely appalled that children were used in this way.
I have two points to make for people who do not agree with the commercial:
1. The commercial show the issues that as girls and women have to experience are much worse than swearing.
2. Children are constantly victims of marketing and advertising. They are constantly being exploited for new toys, movies, clothing. Why not allow children take part of a marketing strategy that raises awareness and creates a movement hopefully for the better.
Nice post, Zuhaly. There's something else about this ad that's been bugging me. It's all over my FB wall, and I've been struggling to articulate my discomfort. I'm not that bothered by the language--I understood the conceit of the ad, and I agree that the things these girls face as adults in our culture are far more obscene than a few "fucks." What bothers me, actually, is something I saw when I watched the ad with no sound. All the girls' mannerisms are borrowed from stereotyped media depictions of the "Angry Black Woman." Finger pointing, head swiveling, hand on hip, chin jutted out. What bothers me about this is the racial divide it reveals: when American women want to express anger, regardless of their race they rely on fairly racist notions of blackness. It's really similar to white boys in wealthy suburbs wearing "ghetto" fashion (think Justin Bieber) in order to express some kind of anger and rebellion: on some level they know that what will be most shocking and appalling to their communities is if they "act black" in some way. The problem in this is that the stereotype is damaging: it reduces black anger to a laughable stereotype, it erases the differences between black women, and it makes it seem, oddly, as if white women must borrow blackness in order to express any aggressive emotion. Very troubling.
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