For South Africa’s National Women’s day, Bic South Africa released a bluntly sexist and offensive advertisement. It actually does not advertise any of their products at all. This image has so many flaws that it is hard to believe it was released by a multi-million dollar company. In their attempt to be empowering for National Women’s day, they did the exact opposite in releasing a misogynistic advertisement.
This ad is telling women to dress like girls, objectifying them in the office. To act like a lady, instilling the societal norm that women should all act a certain way to be considered feminine. To think like a man, implying that that’s the only way to be successful in the business world. The biggest issue with this whole advertisement campaign is that it portrays the idea that if women “think like a woman” they will not be successful. It is worrisome that this idea of men still dominating the workplace is still in place, and that in 2016 this way of thinking is not yet eliminated.
The idea is that being a women, girls really, except at looking good while men excel at thinking. Rather than empowering women on National Women’s day, Bic offended millions with their blatantly sexist, misogynistic advertisement. This ad is related to our course material in Module 1, it has proponents of racism and targeted women of colour because it featured an African-American woman and was released by Bic South Africa. This ad went public due to globalization and the power of the internet, which likely would not have happened 25 years ago. Though Bic South Africa has apologized since the release of this ad, it is still worrisome that something of this level of misogyny still comes across in advertising.
In my jamming of the advertisement, I crossed out in red “like a girl”, “like a lady”, “like a man” and “like a boss”. Those phrases were very offensive aspects of the ad and instead I wrote at the bottom “Like YOURSELF” to emphasize the importance of looking, acting, thinking and working to the best of each individuals ability. I also highlighted how offensive the advertisement is as a whole when I say “BIC: Normalizing the objectification, demoralization and oppression of women since 1945.”
The fact that Bic advertises looking like a girl implies that one of women’s only talents are looking beautiful. It is also implied in “act like a lady” that women are expected to act in a particular manner and have a certain attitude about themselves, which is demoralizing. Finally, the entire ad is blatantly sexist which enforces the oppression of women which has been going on for centuries. Bic was founded in 1945 which is why I chose that date and because they have been known to make sexist advertisements such as the “pen for women” which causes quite the uproar on social media as well.
It is unnerving that still in 2016 such large corporations are not putting more thought into what they’re putting out into the world, especially with the force and presence of social media. Whether Bic wasn’t thinking or just did not care, there is a deep-rooted issue in this advertisement which I’m sure is of many oppressive, misogynistic ads out there. Instead of celebrating National Women’s Day, they reminded us of the inequalities that women everywhere still face, especially in the workplace. I hope that my ad made the issues with the ad even more clear than it already was.
