Torontoist’s Johnnie Walker has a great piece on the Canadian Club campaign and its obvious homophobic overtones:
It’s also hard not to view the campaign as somewhat homophobic. The “YOUR DAD WAS NOT A METROSEXUAL” ad seems to basically say, “your Dad wasn’t a gay, but you probably are if you don’t buy Canadian Club.” Guess what, Canadian Club? Most of our Dads aren’t gay. This is not news. One would hope that our Dads’ likely heterosexuality is not the most interesting thing about them.
The comments section is packed with your usual “calm down” and “relax, it’s only an ad” offerings, but also some fantastic spoofs, like this one.
For Shameless discussions on Canadian Club, click here and here.
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five comments
Haha, that spoof is funny. Too bad about the Amy Winehouse jab though...
Posted by Thea
May 8, 2008, 12:21 PM
I keep wanting to deface the one that says "YOUR DAD HAD A VAN FOR A REASON". Was it because... he lived in it down by the river?
And then I try to think of "YOUR MOM HAD A VAN FOR A REASON" and "YOUR MOM NEVER SHAVED ANYTHING" ads, and they just don't work at all.
Posted by Heather Ann
May 8, 2008, 1:43 PM
Someone defaced the "Your Dad had a Van" with "And that's why your Mom left him."
I kind of like "Your Mom never shaved anything," actually. I'd love that campaign...
Posted by Stacey May
May 8, 2008, 2:49 PM
Hi. I just found your entries on this. I've been worked up about those ads all weekend, and ended up posting a rant about them on Mother's Day. My post includes a spoof ad called "Your Mom Had Groupies," with some of my favorite musicians. I also have a template made up so that anyone can make their own fake ad. I was hoping to turn it into a bit of a multimedia project. Check it out if you're interested.
Posted by Michelle
May 12, 2008, 4:35 PM
Seriously, I hate those ads! I keep seeing the tweeze and van posters in bus shelters.
My reaction was the same as Thea's:
1. It makes no sense.
2. It only potentially makes sense to a tiny percentage of the general population.
Then I had a third reaction:
3. Are most privileged, affluent, straight, white males insecure about themselves and have daddy issues? Was this ad created from market research? LOL!
Posted by Restructure!
May 15, 2008, 1:09 AM
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