'SNL' Brilliantly Skewers Sexist Super Bowl Snack Commercials With This Parody Ad

Rebecca Eisenberg
Sun, 01 Feb 2015 20:37:45 +0000
Democracy, Diversity and equality, Gender equality, Culture, Media

On "Saturday Night Live," Vanessa Bayer and host J.K. Simmons took aim at the slightly more subtle sexism of game-day snack commercials.

Namely, the idea that women in commercials love nothing more than making snacks for their husbands and their husband's friends who are watching the game.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with enjoying making snacks for everyone, but it's the way these ads like to portray women that's outdated.

It's like the people behind these ads think women have nothing better to do than serve microwaved snacks to their husbands.

(Divorce him. Divorce him nowwwwww.)

And even if women did want to watch the game, advertisers seem to think football is too complicated for most women to follow.

But will she understand what a quarter is?!?! Everyone knows women can't do math!

SNL's parody of these ads features a product called the "Super Bowl Activity Pack (For Women!)" that gives all the wives trapped in their kitchens in Super Bowl commercials something to do in between feeding their hungry guys.

"For women!"

You know, I wouldn't put it past some companies to actually create a product like this. Because according to most advertisers, ALL MEN love football and ALL WOMEN can't watch it because it's too hard for their tiny brains to handle. As though there's no such thing as a woman who likes football and a man who couldn't care less.

These ads want you to think that all women prefer staying in the kitchen.

And it's totally OK if you genuinely enjoy being on snack duty, but it's so rare that we see anything other than that in these ads, and that's a problem.

I swear I've heard almost this exact bit of dialogue in a commercial before.

And, of course, despite preparing all the delicious food, women aren't supposed to eat much of it.

Because that wouldn't be ladylike. Not to mention, it might make them fat. And fat women have no place in commercials, especially Super Bowl commercials, unless they're advertising how to lose weight. At least, that's the message advertisers love to send. I'm rolling my eyes so hard you can probably hear it.

These ads aren't very kind to men, either. Men are often portrayed as being annoyed and frustrated with their clueless wives.

Because in a loving and healthy relationship, you never want your significant other to share in the activities you enjoy. Right? How weird is that!?

Isn't it kind of insulting to men for ads to imply that men need women to microwave a snack for them? I'm pretty sure most men can handle something that simple. If only advertisers had that much confidence in them.

Of course, this isn't a real ad. It's just a parody.

But keep your eyes open while you're watching commercials during any sports game, and you'll start to see these tropes being used over and over again.

What can you do to change the way advertisers sell products?

If you're on Twitter, use the hashtag #NotBuyingIt to tweet at advertisers who are using sexist and outdated gender roles to sell products. The campaign has been successful at getting advertisers to change their ways, and the more people who speak up, the sooner we'll get ads that are fairer to people of all genders.