Not a lot of love for Chevy's 'perfect man' People get pretty fired up about a topless guy doing housework. Chevrolet's ad for the 2009 Traverse shows a "perfect man" ironing his mate's dress while planning their six-month anniversary dinner. I found it pretty vanilla, but the spot seems to have raised hackles on both sides of the gender divide. MSNBC's Allison Linn says it's "tacky, nonsensical and weirdly evocative of pornography." Todd at the Iced Tea & Sarcasm blog thinks it's a blatant ripoff of the (quite safe for work) book Porn for Women. And a commenter named Lunchbox420 on the unofficial Opie and Anthony forums believes the "Chevrolet Traverse Homo Commercial" is just another example of Madison Avenue "emasculating the American white man." Maybe Chevy should have avoided controversy altogether by showing the perfect man as a dancing robotic alcohol dispenser. —Posted by David Griner

September 3, 2008 in Automotive, Chevrolet, Controversy, Griner, TV | Permalink

Comments

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I think it’s important to remember that sensitivity to gender stereotyping differs depending on the generation. My baby-boomer mom is the sort of person who loves commercials like these. You know, we’ve come a long way, baby. But for a car this size I’d imagine you’re going after moms who have a couple of kids still in the house, which probably means more like my Gen-X sister and her kids. Gen X as a generation is known to be unhappy about anything they see as stereotyping. All this said, there have been some studies lately claiming that women are turned on by a man doing housework. But what type of housework? Toilet scrubbing? Or say, water sealing the deck? It’s clear that Lunchbox is bothered by the type of housework being done. If the dude with the hairless chest were cleaning the gutters, would it still be emasculating? I think some of the complainers would like the commercial more if it was more in line with gender convention. I’m with you Dave, I think it’s just rather vanilla and boring.

Posted by: Rebecca Cullers clearly wrote too much. | Sep 3, 2008 10:38:23 AM

It flat out doesn't make sense. I had to watch this thing like three times before I came to a conclusion of what it all meant...and I still don't think I got it. At some point during the shoot everyone had to look at each other and say "what are we doing here? are we really committing this to film?" Advertising like this makes you want to join the Peace Corp.

Posted by: D | Sep 3, 2008 11:10:11 AM

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