Some Hefty Male-bashing

November 15th, 2001 | Disclaimer

[disclaimer]

Introducing “The Gripper”, says Hefty, with memorable advertising like all companies strive to achieve. The commercial promoting this new product compares the garbage bag to the “Strong, Dependable Type” of man - only to toss “him” in the garbage in the end. I saw this commercial several times and, as a strong dependable man that I am, I was insulted. I’ll remember this Hefty ad since it offended me, but I can take it like a man and so I will.

I’ll avoid Hefty (PACTIV Corporation) products just like I won’t step foot into a Hallmark store since they feature male-bashing cards to make a buck on jaded women. Welcome to the club Hefty. As a matter of routine, I’ll make sure none of my investments include Pactiv stock (NYSE symbol PTV) since they are the owners of the Hefty brand and obviously don’t know how to address an the entire product market.

I do have to wonder why such a company would introduce a new product using a commercial that denigrates any of their potential customers. Makes me think Hefty doesn’t value investor money enough to maximize returns on their investment. So, I make sure I’m not giving them any of my investment money. I’m sure I’m not the only one with some business sense thinking this. Why would any company choose to introduce and promote a product by associating it with a negative message?

Here’s a transcript of the Hefty "The Gripper" ad that ran during the NBC evening news on November 13th, 2001:

Actress 1) If I had a man like Hefty…
Actress 2) If I had a man like Hefty…
Actress 3) He’d always be coming up with new ways to impress me

Female Voice) Introducing Hefty The Gripper. The first kitchen bag with the stretch and grip top so it hugs the can and won’t slip

Actress 3) oh, and he’d know how to hold on tight
Actress 1) …then he won’t cave under pressure

Female Voice) Nothing is made like the gripper. It stretches, grips, and stays put so it can take it like a man.

Actress 3) and when I’m done with him…

Actress 1) (shown dropping a bag of trash into a garbage can)

Actress 3) Chow baby
Actress 2) Bye bye
Actress 1) So long

Female Voice) The Gripper – new from Hefty. The strong dependable type.

Hefty must have female chauvinists running amuck in the marketing department or they must have determined that targeting dysfunction women is worth alienating balanced women and men. Funny, I though we all need garbage bags but I suppose Hefty knows the market best. Maybe they figure men will just take their insults like a man and buy Hefty bags just the same.

Pactiv is an international company and I have to wonder if they have a Hefty product ad targeted toward the Taliban men since they dominate their culture. The Hefty brand doesn’t seem to mind associating themselves with chauvinistic women so denigrating a gender to advance their product shouldn’t be a problem. With a name like “The Gripper,” I’m sure they can come up with plenty of ways to denigrate women and get that male Taliban market share. Go to it you creative Hefty marketing geniuses.

[disclaimer]

I used to get a kick out of the Taco Bell Chihuahua & look what happened to him

If men had the same political clout as the Hispanics do, Hefty would be out of the bag business.

Hefty's advertisement portrays a deliberate and direct denigration of men. It's a stretch to say that the Taco Bell Chihuahua belittles Hispanics, but the advertising campaign was pulled nevertheless due to the political clout of the Hispanics.

Did you find the Hefty advertisement funny? If so, would you explain why?

[Harrison Bergeron]

"If men had the same political clout as the Hispanics do, Hefty would be out of the bag business.

You give us men too much credit. As a class, we don't even have the same polital clout as chihuahuas.

[FITZ]

Maybe a man wrote the ads because they're tired of it always being expected that one of their chores is to take out the trash.

[Harrison Bergeron]

"Maybe a man wrote the ads because they're tired of it always being expected that one of their chores is to take out the trash."

Actress 3) and when I’m done with him…

Actress 1) (shown dropping a bag of trash into a garbage can)

Actress 3) Chow baby

Actress 2) Bye bye

Actress 1) So long

Yeah. That's it.

[Harrison Bergeron]

Guess what? My wife informed me that she saw the commercial on a cable station this morning. The info someone provided that the commercial had been pulled turns out to be wrong.

[FITZ]

I was joking but still if it shows a woman taking out the trash, it could be a trick by men to convince women they can do that job.

[maxwell]

Yeah I was surprised that in those soup commercials they actually let the guys say "we're grownups now, we can eat [whatever the hell it was] instead of condensed soup"... Though they usually end it with the woman glancing balefully at the guy holding baseball cards or something, to emphasize that yeah he's on the ball with soup but he ain't all the way yet...

I saw this one commercial for diapers a year or so back-- the minivan that had the sopping wet nipper in the back was driven by the dad, whereas the minivan that had the comfortable dry kid was driven by the smirking mother. Hmmmmmm. So does that mean that with the folks who knew enough to buy "Oops-I-Crapped-My-Pants" (hilarious SNL skit, btw), the guy was changing diapers? Hmmmmmmm.

[skeeter]

Did you find the Hefty advertisement funny? If so, would you explain why?

Not at all. I'm in total agreement with you - the ad is obnoxious.

But the jokes on Hefty, 'cause I do the shopping in my house. And I'll be using GLAD.

[Harrison Bergeron]

• 100% of every president ever elected has been a man?

Yep.

• 95% of all CEO's are men?

Possibly, although I suspect you're a little on the high side.

86% of congress are Men?

That sounds about right.

It's impossible to make the case that the above statistics are a conspiracy on the part of the "evil patriarchy" when women outnumber men both among the electorate and among corporate stockholders.

If men in politics use their power to keep women down, the following stats say we're doing a pretty lousy job:

• 95% of the homeless are men.
• At the turn of the 20th century, men and women enjoyed equal life spans. At the turn of the 21st cenntury, women enjoy a seven year advantage. Yet the emphasis by the 85% male congress continues to be on "Women's Health" issues.
• More federal money is spent on breast cancer alone than all male and childhood specific cancers combined... this despite the fact that prostate cancer kills almost as many people each year as breast cancer.
• College enrollment, in the last ten years, has gone from about a 50/50 male/female ratio to about 60% female.
• There are dozens of Dept. of Health and Human Services programs aimed at improving the "self image" of school age girls. There are zero programs aimed at boys, this despite the fact that a boy, from the age of ten on, is ten to twenty times more likely to commit suicide.
• Domestic violence affects men, women, and children. There is not a single shelter - anywhere in the U.S. - where a father might temporarily retreat from a violent or addicted spouse, alone or with his children.
• As far as I know, none of our elected officials, male or female, have ever introduced legislation excusing men from fighting and dying for our country. Conversely, no one is likely to introduce legislation offering this privelige to women very soon.
• Despite entire industries dedicated to women's health and welfare, men have continued to enjoy a 98% advantage in worplace fatalities.

I'm not trying to have a p!ssing contest over who has it harder, men or women. I merely point out the silliness in your argument that men somehow benefit politicaly as a class because we outnumber women in corporate and political office. The opposite is true. I suspect women instictively know that they will benefit from chivaly when they elect men. This is why women regularly and overwhelmingly put socially liberal politicians like Bill Clinton into office, while ignoring conservative female candidates.

[2Trievers]

When trash bags start coming with brains, then we can start worrying. Until then, this is silly.

[operation clinton cleanup]

I discoverd the remote control and 60 cable stations takes care of those insultind advertisements. The only problem is I have not watched a T.V. show all the way through since I was twelve.

[operation clinton cleanup]

it hugs the can and won’t slip

This would not be a problem if your wife has a nice can.

[Bernard]

Actually, trying to find a true reflection of society in TV commercials is like caring what Alec Baldwin's politics are - who cares? People who take commercials seriously should not buy violent video games - they are too susceptible.

[leadpenny]

Thanks for bringing this up. I have been noticing this one-way type of crap coming from the advertising community for a long time. It truly is a mean-spirited double standard.

Whenever I see examples of it I put it through my reverse strainer to see if it would be acceptable to the average woman. Most of the time, if the roles were reversed, you would be called insensitive and sexist. The absolute circus atomsphere that surrounded the Wayne and Loraina Bobbitt trials comes to mind. It was OK to sell T-Shirts that expressed approval of Loraina whacking off Wayne's whacker. But one could only imagine if the rolls had been reversed and Wayne had mutilated the genitals of Loraina.

Some time back I came across some pre-printed Post-It notes with the message: FIRST, GOD CREATED MAN. Then he had a better idea. I wrote on one of the notes: He decided he would make someone with just half a brain. It was not funny to the owner of the notes and, to this day, we don't speak.