Walmart’s geoGirl: Doesn’t Every 8-Year-Old Need to Exfoliate?

While women debate if 50 really is the new 30, with Walmart’s help 8 may be the new 18. On February 21, Walmart launches geoGirl, a line of cosmetic and beauty products specifically formulated for 8- to 12-year-olds. The line, which boasts a total of 69 (let’s hope that’s coincidental) products, contains everything from eyeshadow, [...]

Vintage No Comment: Young and Innocent, 1977

This ad for New West magazine, a short-lived California version of New York magazine, appeared in the January 1977 No Comment section of Ms. Coincidentally, New York magazine published the first-ever edition of Ms. as a one-page insert in 1972. Do you think the same sort of advertising geniuses are behind this campaign that “pretends” [...]

No Comment: Tilly’s Teaches Women How to Listen

Listen up, ladies. Tilly’s, the popular surf and skate clothing chain, is “teaching women how to listen,” according to an LRG-brand t-shirt it’s selling. The front features a woman, nude from the shoulders up, with tape over her mouth, captioned “enjoy the silence,” and below in parentheses, “drawing of girl with tape on mouth.” Offered [...]

Vintage No Comment: The Perfect Present, 1994

This ad for Savane trousers from Macy’s appeared in the Nov/Dec 1994 issue of Ms. What is it about the holiday season that renews the advertising industry’s vigor for sexism? It could be the cookies, the early sunsets or all the Bing Crosby–but it sure is an odd time of year to be a woman. [...]

Canadian Ads Shift Blame to the Real Perps: Rapists

It’s a basic legal principle in Canada and the U.S.: Women who are severely intoxicated are not capable of giving consent, and taking advantage of their mostly-or-completely-unconscious state is rape. And yet, both grim statistics and all-too-frequent rape-apologist statements show that many still do not understand that an unconscious woman was not “asking for it.” [...]

No Comment: Always a Happy Ending?

Apparently racism and sexual exploitation are chic at one of the most popular nightclubs in Las Vegas. This ad for Tao Nightclub plays on Orientalist tropes about Asian women’s sexuality, and makes light of the many underground “massage” operations that offer “happy endings” in North America. It’s certainly not a happy ending for exploited, often [...]

No Comment: Renewable Girls and Ecosexism

I get it. Sex sells. But this is just gratuitous. These images are from a calendar entitled “Renewable Girls,” advertising–get this–solar panels. Part of a tacky trend of ecosexism in advertising for “sustainable” products, this calendar comes on the heels of PETA’s infamous sexy animal rights series and Yoga Journal’s seemingly exclusive preference for young/white/thin/topless [...]

From the Stacks: “I Wish the Burglar Had Stolen…” My Wife?

Ah, yes. The good ole days when it was OK to use funny jokes about wife-hating and spousal abuse in advertisements for  alarm systems. Thank goodness the times when companies used violence against women to sell stuff are over. Oh wait … they’re not! Especially if you’re selling stuff that’s really, really expensive. This ad [...]

No Comment: Axe Body Wash Will “Scrub Away the Skank”

When Ms. received this Axe ad in the mail, I was about to disregard it as a stupid but not overtly sexist piece of advertising–until I read the tagline for the last, pumpkin-orange body wash: “Scrub away the skank with Snake Peel.” Really? I noticed a website address scribbled on the body of the man [...]

Want a Pizza with That Pap Smear? Oh, and We’re Anti-Choice.

Question: Guess what genius new advertising tactic certain crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) are using to get women in the door to their fake clinics? Could it be … listing themselves under “clinics” and “abortion” in the Yellow Pages? No, they’ve been doing that for ages. Could it be CPCs on wheels, you ask? Nope. Already [...]

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