Unfortunate Implications/Advertising: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

The way an author handles a Trope is an important factor here; handling a Trope clumsily can certainly create unintentional impressions for readers. Likewise, if a work ''intends'' the offensive message (for example, a piece of Nazi propaganda about Jews), it wouldn't count.

 

== Clothing ==

* In the 1990s, Australian clothing store Katie's ran an ad saying that bosses shouldn't expect female employees to turn up for work on the day they were having their sale. It got pulled after they received complaints.

* [http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/05/08/large-clothes-on-small-women-a-plus-size-marketing-mystery/ It's been noted] [http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/08/27/catalogs-clothes-and-representation-plus-size-at-fredericks/ several times] that even clothing brands that market to plus-sized people tend to use extremely thin models to show their clothes, which has several effects: First, plus-sized clothing on your typical model looks ''enormous'' since it is not meant for their body type, meaning that the people who want to order it are unsure what it will look like on them, and it further stigmatizes plus-sized people because it implies that no one will want to look at them, not even ''other'' plus-sized people looking for clothing that will fit them. Several companies have caught on and now consciously try to avert this, including [http://www.kiyonna.com/ Kiyonna], which honestly makes an effort to have its models be people who would actually wear their clothing in their everyday lives.

** Even plus-size (if you will) models are 'Shopped to all hell, which [[Uncanny Valley|always looks unnatural]], but moreso [http://www.1-plus.com/additionelle.htm here].

 

 

== Jewelry ==

* Sterling, Inc. (parent company of Kay Jewellers, Jared, and others) loves this.

** "Every kiss begins with Kay", and the recipient of the jewelry is [[Always Female]]. Unfortunate implication — if you want affection from a woman, you have to buy her jewelry.

** ''[[Family Guy]]'' — "Diamonds: She'll Pretty Much Have To."

*** And of course, the implication that men are totally fine with being cheated out of all their money and being a slave to a woman [[All Men Are Perverts|as long as they're getting sex out of it]].

*** There are even some Mother's Day commercials that had children. And the "every kiss begins with Kay" line is even sung as the mother, in one commercial, gives her son a kiss! There's another implication: The only way for kids to show their mothers they love and appreciate them is to buy them jewelry ''from Kay''!

* The 2-months' salary diamond engagement ring. One ad goes so far to tell you that "people will talk" if you spend less than that. The unfortunate implication is that people are shallow and materialistic jerks who couldn't care less if Alice's new fiancé will be a good husband; they're only interested in how much the ring he gave her cost.

** More fridge logic: How would "everyone" know how much the ring cost in the first place, short of all her friends being professional jewelry appraisers? I mean, isn't it a bit tacky to boast about how expensive your jewelry is?

 

 

* UK mobile phone network "Phones4U" has recently embarked on an advertising campaign where they show a particular group of people (scout masters, yo-yo specialists) then claim that their phone rates would be wasted on such people because they have no friends (unlike their target demographic, one would assume). [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8102536.stm Said groups weren't amused.]

* Many home security system ads feature young (white) women (sometimes with children) alone and being menaced by big, scary (also white) men who want to break into their homes. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKI4t5MFG1E One ad] involves an ostensibly nice guy saying goodnight to a young woman who just had a party, she goes inside to start cleaning up, and then AJ comes back and breaks her door down, only to be scared off by the security. Given that he was ''the last person seen leaving her house'' by ''her best friends'', he'd be the prime suspect if she was murdered, kidnapped, or raped. What kind of rapist plans to break into someone's house and doesn't notice the security panel by the front door? And why wouldn't he just say he forgot his wallet and get her to let him in without commotion?

** There's an ad for a security system that opens with a couple coming home to find out they've been robbed. Then the commercial enters an [[Alternate Universe]] where they bought the security system, and their neighbors (who didn't) were robbed instead, to which the wife makes a condescending remark along the lines of "I ''told'' them to get (''security system'')." So if you don't buy this one brand for whatever reason, not only will you be robbed immediately, but you'll deserve it and be the object of everyone's scorn for being stupid enough to get robbed in the first place.

** In fact, the newest ADT commercial seems to imply not only that message (although I think that one was one of ADT's commercials), but also that burglary is no big deal anymore once you have their security system and you never have to worry. Try telling that to ''any'' victim of burglary, security system or not, and see what they say.

* A 2010 commercial for Sharp Quattron technology television, featuring Asian-American actor [[Star Trek: The Original Series|George Takei]], introducing a fourth color to the standard TV Red-Green-Blue. Guess what color it is. That's right, {{spoiler|Yellow}}. Unfortunate, indeed.

** On the bright side, his [[Futurama|seductively sensual voice]] did give the announcement appropriate gravitas, so, kudos for finding a way to make the right choice and the wrong one at the same time.

 

== Food Products ==

* There's a Klondike Bar ad making the rounds "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxC9-PJfyKo 5 Seconds to Glory!] Mark vs. ''Actually Listening To His Wife''!" The wife sits down beside him and starts talking about interior decorating - while he gets this look of painful concentration. After five seconds, confetti explodes everywhere as he jumps and shrieks "YES! WOOHOO! I DID IT!", while two young, blonde, buxom and gorgeous women (in VERY short dresses) wink/pout at him and the camera. And the best part? His wife's still sitting there as the women gyrate on her husband - she even gives a silent "[[Flat What|What]]?" as one of the girls ''shakes her ass in the wife's face''!

** As a commenter on Youtube put it:

* A Jack In The Box ad in the 1990s attempted to spoof the Taco Bell chihuahua, with an antenna-ball clown telling the Spanish-speaking dog that he only wants Taco Bell because "it's not like dogs are picky", which was subtle enough until the alleged punchline, when the clown-ball sniffs and says "All right! Who's been eatin' beans?" Supposedly it was merely implying that Taco Bell patrons are flatulent, but the obvious "beaner" implications didn't sit well. The ad didn't run for too long before it was pulled.

* Mini-Wheats has a new flavor, fruit-in-the-middle. The commercial opens by one mini-wheat asking another one what he's looking at... and pretty soon, a group of mini-wheats are staring at succulent blueberries and strawberries, and wolf-whistling. "Hello, fruit-in-the-middle!" What is disturbing is thinking about the fact that the fruit is in the ''middle''.

* One ad for Noodle Box features a picture of a little girl on the grass, a spilled box of noodles beside her, screaming in mock shock/horror. Underneath is the caption "If you're HOT and FRESH, EVERYONE WANTS YOU!" It's uncertain whether this is a cause of [[Accidental Innuendo]] or if it was a case of [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]], but in either case it falls here.

* Several advertisements for food products show children being rude and disrespectful toward their mothers because they didn't serve them the product being advertised. The mollified mother quickly repents and gives the kid what s/he wants. There's two unfortunate implications — first, kids, it's perfectly okay to be rude to and mouth off to your parents as long as it results in getting the "right" brand of frozen fish sticks. Second, moms, you fail for buying Brand Y instead of our Brand X, and you deserve to be yelled at by your children.

** And then, there are some food ads that invert that and have the parents being jerks to their kids by scaring the life out of them with either horrifying stories or (irrational) threats of punishment if they touch the product being advertised. Possibly even more disturbing in that the kids are usually around kindergarten age or so and therefore, too young to realize it's merely a tall tale.

** In contrast to their own "Chocolate Temptations" ads, Jello also runs a series in which people are caught after stealing somebody's snack because they develop 'pudding face' -- an abnormally wide grin that distorts their face. Despite this evidence, the thieves are ''always'' [[Karma Houdini|left unpunished]], with the unfortunate implication that if you buy this product, everyone around you will want to steal it, and it's your own fault if that happens because you weren't watching it closely enough.

* Kraft has a similarly themed campaign for another of their products: macaroni and cheese dinners. In these ads, kids complain about the various deceptive techniques their parents use to keep them from enjoying their dinners, such as distracting them so they can steal bites right off their plate, sending them to their room without supper on false or trumped-up charges, or only serving mac and cheese while they're out of the house. Because teaching kids that their parents will lie, cheat and steal about food is a good way to foster family togetherness, right?

* The "racist" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ8GbKjUkgs KFC ads] in Australia, though (as any Australian will tell you) they weren't intended nor received that way... [[Values Dissonance|but to an American audience]], any coupling of black people with chicken seems to provoke calls of racist behavior in the extreme. Looking up "Black Americana" via Google or the like will show that fried chicken was the second-most portrayed stereotypical food for the caricatured African-American characters (first being watermelon).

* In the UK [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiaNFcMSbmA an advert] came out for Pepsi Max which was considered by some to have very rapey undertones. It shows a man trying to seduce a woman, failing, and then (with the help of friends) tricking her into thinking the world is about to end so that she'll sleep with him out of desperation and panic. After he has got what he wants from the woman, he and his friends drink Pepsi Max. Pepsi Max — the beverage of choice for guys who think women shouldn't be allowed to just say "no".

* A Yoplait yogurt commercial has a woman talking to a friend on the phone about how much weight she lost, dropping the names of the yogurt flavors as if they were the foods themselves. Her husband looks in the fridge, trying to find these foods. Fine enough. A few months later, a sequel commercial begins airing with the husband on a friend, talking about the weight he's lost. Then his wife appears, opens the fridge, sees the Yoplait and gives him an accusing look. He embarrassingly ends the call. The perspective change was probably meant to show that men and women can lose weight with Yoplait, but the way it plays out leaves the impression that women who want to lose weight can be proud about it while men who want to lose weight have something to be embarrassed about. There's also the fact yogurt's heavily marketed to women and Yoplait in particular has kind of a "girly" image, so a man eating it is something to be ashamed of and mocked. This in and of itself can be seen as an unfortunate implication, but the second commercial seems to be taking that implication and lampshading it. How well this works is questionable.

** In both commercials, the man is implied to be a sneaky thief who wants to eat these delicious desserts without her knowing. Hence his searching the fridge behind her back and jumping guiltily when she asks what he's doing, and looking shamefaced when she catches him talking about them later. This gives the impression that you can't even trust your own partner -- that they ''will'' sneak around and do things behind your back.

** There's also a level of classism to the whole concept, since in some areas you literally ''cannot'' find healthier foods or they're too expensive for people with lower incomes, or who are on assistance programs like food stamps, to purchase, due to what's known as the [[wikipedia:Food desert|Food Desert]] effect. The implication then becomes that the reason you're fat is because you're poor, and it's ''still'' your fault.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOp1tpyC0xI&feature=related Chili's "$20 Dinner for 2" commercial.] A man is interviewing a woman for a position. He asks why he should hire her. She says a)she's his wife, and b)his car's in the shop and he needs a ride to Chili's. Nepotism and kickbacks, in one delicious casual-dining package. Of course, they may just be joking around, and she's probably just there to pick him up for their lunch date, but it's not made clear in the commercial.

** One particularly cringe-worthy one has a mom in a grocery store start turning over displays so her kid won't hear the grocery store employee say that the product has vegetables in it. Because apparently petty vandalism and making some poor grocery store worker clean up after you is preferable to telling your kids they're eating vegetables? Some kids are picky eaters, but that's ''really'' pushing it into [[Comedic Sociopathy]] territory.

** There's also an Eggo commercial where two kids see their mom is "doing her exercise video" again and dread what sort of healthy foods she'll be giving them, only to celebrate when they see it's Whole Grain Eggo Waffles! The tagline is "You know it's good for them with whole grains, all they know is they're tasty!" Because kids are too dumb to possibly understand that things can be good for them ''and'' taste good.

* There's a commercial for Fiber One 80, a fiber cereal that's only 80 calories, where a whole bunch of people discover it and essentially form a flash mob that goes to another woman's house to invite her to try it. The problem? ''Every single person in the mob is a woman''. The only guy is a briefly glimpsed construction worker who stares down at the crowd with a "WTF?" expression. This is especially notable because they had an earlier commercial for their regular cereal where ''both'' men and women were excited about it, so according to Fiber One only women care about both fiber and calories.

** There's a similar series of commercials for Jimmy Dean where a bunch of anthropomorphized [http://youtu.be/btXC_Y4BetQ planets], a [http://youtu.be/LHjWO6CTn0Y moon] and a [http://youtu.be/4bSv2xRui_Y female rainbow] are all helped to get out of their morning slump by Jimmy Dean breakfasts. However, only the commercial with the female rainbow mentions how many calories are in it. Because only women care about these things.

* In a Latin-American Snickers commercial, a girl whom is referred to as "Carlos" is mocked by other guys who tell her that "You always cry as a girl when you're hungry!", then they offer her a Snickers bar, upon eating it she transforms into a man who says "I feel better". The commercial ends with the phrase [[Man, I Feel Like a Woman|"You are not yourself when you are hungry."]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7p2Aah29k4 See it for yourself].

** Most of the commercials in this campaign are about a dude who is represented at first as some sort of unpleasant female-type. Although there is the one where the chick turns into Don Rickles.

* There's a commercial for a type of water bottle that filters the water for you, and it shows an Inuit man looking for water on an ice float. Just then a (white) woman shows up with the bottle and gives it to him, cheerily saying "It's drinking water from the fountain at the mall!" This gives it unfortunate [[Mighty Whitey]] implications.

** Clearly, Hardee's has never heard of [[Memetic Mutation|BACON!!]]

* Dr. Pepper 10 advertises itself as ultra-manly, and being "not for women". Which has all sorts of sexist connotations to begin with, but then there's the reason for the entire trope in the first place: women supposedly drink "diet" sodas without needing to be prompted by an ad, so they're girly and men won't touch them, so there has to be a diet soda ''just'' for men. Anything manly becomes sissy the instant women touch it!

* A recent commercial for Steak and Shake features the father of a household accidentally breaking one of his wife's many penguin figurines, which she seems to have a bizarre fixation with, judging from the large portrait of herself holding one. What we see next is his three children, all having witnessed the incident, one of which is wearing the most disgustingly smug smile on her face. The scene cuts to the four of them eating at Steak and Shake, making it obvious that she (if not all three) blackmailed him. "Broken Penguin + Four Meals Under $4 = What Broken Penguin?" is the tagline that follows.

* A serious of commercials for the McDouble from McDonald's feature a person who is very grateful to receive a McDouble from a second person, while the second person tries to obscure McDouble ads showing how cheap the burger is so that the first person doesn't find out and get mad. The implication here is that people will only appreciate a gift if it costs a lot of money.

** Well, at least the vegetable oil's a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Virgin]].

* Danup yogurt ads in the 80s featured physically fit people dancing and singing while drinking the product, emphasizing on the "healthy" lifestyle, but the ads invariably ended showing a fat person eating sweets or other junk food while looking disdainfully at the dancing people. Real nice...

* A 2007 Super Bowl Snickers ad had two mechanics unintentionally pulling a [[Spaghetti Kiss]] on a Snickers bar. Their panicked response? "Quick, do something manly!" After ripping their chest hair out and screaming in pain, the ad directs people to a website to choose their own ending. And here's where it gets unfortunate in two ways:

** Among the endings are the two mechanics drinking things like antifreeze to try and get the taste off their tongue... or swinging at each other with wrenches. [[Sarcasm Mode|Because it's always manly to beat the crap out of any guy who makes a sexual gesture towards you.]]

* Axe/Lynx Body Spray has ads with the basic theme "this body spray will make you smell nice in a way that is attractive to women". They cranked it [[Up to Eleven]] by creating commercials in which their product enhances a man's appeal to entirely ridiculous levels. For example, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9tWZB7OUSU "Billions"] depicts a man who attracts thundering herds of attractive women in bikinis from miles around just by using Axe. A large amount of people seem to think that Axe is sincerely saying their product can achieve this, which would make it less akin to a male grooming product and closer to some sort of weapon of mass destruction.

** There was one very short-lived variant of this which ramped it up even further, where a woman unwittingly uses her partner's Axe/Lynx after she runs out of her own. She then spends the day having women hit on her, much to both her and the other womens' confusion. This is multiple levels of weird. First off, the implication that the product is so effective it even makes even straight women forget their own orientations. Secondly, the woman's horror at being hit on by another woman, which just reeks of homophobia. Lastly - though possibly this goes into all out [[Fridge Horror]] territory - that she only finds her partner attractive because he wears Axe/Lynx. That's before the somewhat rapey implications of that situation even start to surface.

** Especially since the actresses for most of those ads rarely appear overweight to begin with, implying that if you're larger than these women you should never consider wearing a bathing suit at all.

*** Or any type of revealing summer clothing, for that matter. The implication is that unless you're thin, constantly dieting and working out, you have no business being cool in the summer or should stay indoors where no one can see you. If the sheltered people making these commercials ever went to a county fair or a public pool, they'd probably be scarred for life.

*** And even if the woman were actually overweight and not just [[Hollywood Pudgy]], there would still be the implication that overweight people can't wear any of the clothes she mentions.

** There's an ad for Jenny Craig featuring [[Star Wars|Carrie Fisher]] where she says "Thank you for helping me feel pretty, one more time". She's a woman who has overcome drug abuse and depression, and apparently it's not worth it unless she sheds some weight in order to feel "pretty".

** Speaking of which, a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCkwjSWe8B8 TV Ad for Sears Optical] is a [[Double Subversion]] as it features [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife|a similar couple]] with the man asking [[What Does She See in Him?|how he got a girl like her]] and the woman replying "I'm the lucky one." The fact that the voice over immediately asks "Missing something?" may imply that he's the one that needs glasses since he accidentally cut off her hair (He was trying to cut off the tag of her dress. But given that the offer is for ''two'' pairs of glasses at a single price (Implying one for each of them) suggests that not only would the man not have accidentally cut her hair, but the woman wouldn't be dating him if they both had a pair of glasses.

* Invisalign Teen has an ad featuring two sisters. One has regular braces while the other got her mom to buy the product -- for her and ''only'' her. Thoughout the entire commercial, the girl with braces laments all the things she can't do, while her smug sister rubs in her face that ''she'' can, mocking and teasing her at every opportunity. The [[Parental Favoritism]] implications are jarring, especially since the apparent favorite [[Karma Houdini|gets away]] with treating her own sister like absolute crap. Remember kids, if you have braces, that makes you ugly and a prime target for bullies!

* There's an ad for a type of probiotic that's supposed to help people with stomach problems. They have several women of various ethnicities, but only one male... who looks around six years old and complains about "tummy troubles." You have two implications here: First, that only women and little children have stomach problems, and second that any men who do are like little kids and that stomach problems are not a "manly" thing to have. It is true that conditions like IBS are more common in women, but this commercial makes it look like ''no'' men get it, which is not true.

* In general, ads for health-care products have an obvious demographic that comes across as insulting. For example: You're watching ''[[Doctor Who]]'' on [[BBC America]] at midnight because you missed the episode earlier? You must have erectile dysfunction! You fell asleep watching ''[[Golden Girls]]''? You must be constipated! You're watching anything other than cartoons during the day? You must be a fattie who needs life insurance!

* There's an ad for Scope mouthwash that shows a guy making and eating a sandwich for himself full of onions and garlic, and then when his wife or girlfriend comes home rushes into the bathroom to use the mouthwash. He then comes out and the woman comments that he must be starving, implying they were going to eat together, and sees his the dirty dishes and saying that she thought she did them. He then silences her with a kiss. The implication? Use our product to help deceive your significant other! This is one where they seem to have gotten the implication later and cut out the bits where the guy is covering his actions up, instead just making it about him wanting his breath to be nice when he kisses her, which is much more acceptable.

 

== Mass Media ==

* [http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/2954/ewwwwwwwwww.png This] Google ad result on a Cracked article about animals.

* An ad campaign from ''[[The Economist]]'' aimed at women used its traditional brand of quirky humor when it said on the front, "Why should women read ''[[The Economist]]''? They shouldn't." Then, on the inside, it said "Accomplished and intelligent '''people''' should read it." Even some women who made it to the punchline on the inside [http://www.good.is/post/why-should-women-read-the-economist/?utm_content=headline&utm_medium=hp_carousel&utm_source=slide_1 got offended], taking it to mean that a female point of view (the magazine's staff is mostly male) was invalid.

 

== Public Service Announcements ==

** and the comments for that video has been disabled, no doubt because of all the fried chicken jokes in the comments section.

* A recent Home Office ad for ID cards featured a parody of the ''[[Spartacus]]'' scene where one person is finally able to prove that he is Spartacus via the use of an ID card. [[Private Eye]] pointed out what actually happened to Spartacus in the movie.

** So, it's essentially the PSA version of ''[[Urinetown]]''?!

** A similar radio commercial had a man debating what charities to give to. He complained that shelters give the homeless food and shelter, but don't help them get jobs and education programs help them get jobs, but won't provide food or shelter. Rather than split the money between both programs, he decides it's much simpler to forget about helping the homeless and just donate blood. Not to mention the thousands of refuges that make it their job to get the homeless into education and work.

* There was an anti-speeding ad in the UK that began with a shot of a little girl lying dead in the road, who slowly comes back to life with her injuries healing. The endline stated that there is an 80% chance she will die if hit by a car travelling at 40mph, but an 80% chance she'll survive if the car is doing 30mph. Commentators in the media pointed out the unhelpful subtext: that you don't need to ''stop'' if a child steps out ahead of you, just reduce your speed by 10mph and they'll probably be fine! Later, after the campaign ended, the government admitted that the statistic quoted was based on research conducted in the 1980s and didn't take into account the development in modern cars or road conditions.

* There was a UK road safety ad which started with a young woman showing the viewer around her mansion in Hollywood talking about how great her life has been since she was spotted by a modelling agency. Then we see the same woman as a teenager get knocked over by a car and die. The slogan "Don't die before you've lived". Implication: it's a shame she died because she could've been a celebrity and therefore her life would be worth living.

* Any abstinence PSA that focuses on how pregnancy/a baby will ruin your life, especially the ones aimed at men. The message is supposed to be "don't have sex; becoming a parent is a huge responsibility that will completely change your life." A more obvious message, however, is: "Don't carry a pregnancy to term" or worse: "Guys, if she gets pregnant, run like the wind, drop out of her life and don't be a parent, because a baby is the worst thing that could ever happen to you."

* The now-defunct Commission for Racial Equality ran a series of print and billboard ads for (fictional) products, with pretty unpleasant implications about race, such as an ad for a rape alarm with a white woman on a train looking nervously at the [[Scary Black Man]] behind her. A few weeks after this they then ran an ad with their own logo, asking why people don't make complaints when they see things like this in real advertising.

** Ironically the Commission for Racial Equality got in trouble with the police because they didn't take the adverts down, after people did complain.

* A series of PSA's warning of the dangers a stroke had an actor "be" the stroke and talk about what they would do to the viewer. One talked about how it would--among other things-- "come after you" and it "will hit you so hard, you won't know what day it is!" Who did that advertisement? Michael Clarke Duncan! I am ''sure'' casting him had nothing at ''all'' to do with that whole [[Scary Black Man]] thing.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPYTxb03U08 This ad] promoting the benefits of an enlarged European Union. Meant to show the strength of the European Union in the face of competition from the emerging economies of China, India and Brazil. Comes across much more as xenophobic propaganda urging Europeans (represented by a white woman) to stand up against the aforementioned countries (represented by hostile non-white men).

** Not to mention implying that women are all potential victims who need rescuing by men, and that [[All Abusers Are Male]].

** [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16958865 Similar complaints were brought against] a 2012 campaign in Atlanta, GA that used such slogans as "It's hard to be a little girl if you're not." Childhood obesity ''is'' a genuine problem in the U.S., but so far it seems to be an impossible one to sensitively address.

* Ministry of Sound (a large club based in London, with an associated record label) ran a TV campaign encouraging young people to vote. Each of the ads featured someone spouting an offensive monologue about LGBT people, black people, women, fox hunting, etc. with an endline stating that we should use our votes because people like this use theirs. Unfortunately, all of the speakers featured in the ads were older white men, suggesting they are the only ones who hold any kind of bigoted views.

 

 

== Toys & Video Game Products ==

* The front window of a Build-A-Bear Workshop display, wherein amongst many dressed teddy bears was a teddy ''pig'' dressed up as a ''policeman''. Makes you [[wikipedia:List of slang terms for police officers|wonder...]]

* The mascot for the ''[[Transformers]]'' toy company Takara was a black-skinned creature called "Dakko-chan". It was retired in 1990.

* [http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2006/07/sony_whiteiscoming_ad_large.jpg "White is coming"] ad for Sony's white PSP, featuring a white woman (even dressed in a white costume too) holding a black woman by her jaw in quite a violent manner. Granted, it wasn't released worldwide, but the ad became infamous on the web back then. The campaign also includes an ad where the white woman is portrayed as the victim, maybe in hopes of getting rid of the racial undertone of the other ad, but it came of as an [[I Have You Now, My Pretty|Unfortunate]] [[Sex Slave|Implication]] on itself.

* The 4G 'Homeless Hot Spot' campaign. Basically they took several homeless people, dressed them in uniforms and tech that would make them into Wi-Fi hot-spots. The problem? Well, the uniforms said "Hello, my name is [first name]. I am a 4G hot spot.", and were given $20 PER DAY, not to mention the fact that this was about a week after police brutally beat up protesters in New York for complaining that corporate America was taking advantage of its citizens.

** It gets worse: the 4G people called this charity, the radiation necessary to make a person a wi-fi hot spot is potentially (ie more than likely) harmful AND one of the homeless people they used was a victim of Hurricane Katrina. While the homeless didn't have a problem with this you have to wonder if any of them ended up getting stage one cancer from the whole ordeal.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RyPamyWotM This] Super Bowl ad for the Dodge Charger, which implies all women are soul-sucking harpies and small courtesies on behalf of a working relationship actually mean you're giving up your masculinity. ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou5Ens-qNRc Deservedly-snarky] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99BlXSyzSUo&feature=related parodies/rebuttals soon followed.])

** [[It Got Worse]], as commentators [http://jezebel.com/5466569/the-critics-on-the-super-bowl-ads-boring-misogynistic picked up on] misogyny as one of the ''predominant themes'' of the 2010 Super Bowl ad crop.

* The commercial for "The Boyfriend Pillow", a pillow shaped like a disembodied arm for women to use "when your boyfriend is out of town". The commercial proclaims "women without their boyfriends toss and turn!" Yes, because the only way a woman can ''possibly'' sleep is with her man. Plus, waking up next to a disembodied limb isn't all that comforting to anyone who's not a [[Serial Killer]].

** There would be another unfortunate implication if this aired in the UK, as "toss" in British English [[A Date with Rosie Palms|has a slang connotation]] that gives the phrase "women without their boyfriends toss" another meaning entirely.

* The new Swiffer commercials, where mud, crumbs, and other messes around the house are represented by single women looking for "the right one". At the end, the Swiffer shows up, and they attach themselves to it. The tagline? "Swiffer attracts ''dirt''." Nobody caught the implication that single women are awful and need to be disposed of, apparently... They eventually did another one with a male character, but it still carries the unfortunate implication about being single.

* Parodied in old commercials for Yellawood lumber (distinguished by yellow tags and yellow logos, which people might pronounce as "yella" [[American Accents|around here]]) featuring former NFL quarterback Archie Manning (father of Eli and Peyton) and the lumber company's CEO Jimmy Rane.

* Dulux, which makes house paint, had a series of commercials that showed people going to worryingly extreme lengths to find the right shade they wanted for their paint: from stealing underwear off a washing line to following someone on a bus and cutting a square from their coat. The implication of stalking was so disturbing that the "bus" ad was pulled after viewer complaints.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f12gqM5tvvo&feature=related Virgin Mobile's "Tree" smartphone ad] involves showing an otherwise attractive woman stalking her first date via the internet capabilities of her phone. Using Facebook and Twitter apps as well. Bonus horror; [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt-OLBdaeJM&feature=related in the sequel commercial] she is INSIDE HIS CLOSET. The commercials explicitly call her "crazy" and have horror-movie style music playing throughout, but the very fact that it's [[Played for Laughs]] has unfortunate connotations, especially if you think about how that would be perceived if the stalker character was male...

** Another example of UI from these ads; "Buy the SmartPhone and you can [[Stalker with a Crush|stalk]] your partner!"

* A Gerber life college plan commercial has a white and black family talking about the various plans Gerber offers. Toward the end, the black mother says something along the lines of, "And if she DOESN'T wanna go to college, there's NO penalties, so she can use the money for anything." The white mother then replies with, "Well, we should get started right away," to her husband. His response? "Yes we should because YOU'RE going to college" to his baby. It can be taken as a crack that the black family might have other plans with that money.

* In the UK, Persil washing powder ran an advert which showed (among similar scenes) a Dalmatian dog shaking off its black spots and a white horse breaking away from a group of black horses. After many viewer complaints, officials held the ad was not intended to have racist overtones, but Persil pulled it anyway.

* Orkin has been running commercials for their extermination services, showing giant anthropomorphic bugs performing various undesirable behaviors in the neighborhood such as hanging out on their porches drinking and driving by in jacked-up pickup trucks blaring loud music. The tagline? "Unwelcome pests moving into your neighborhood? We'll help you get rid of them." Anyone else look at the bug portrayals and see it as typical "ghetto behavior"?

** Not to mention another where the bug goes on a blind date with a woman, having used a fake photo on the website. The unfortunate part is that the bug's behavior towards her gives off '''major''' rapist vibes, so of course the woman gets saved by the male Orkin tech. See the above mention about security systems for more.

** While the first is still kind of twee and sweet, a follow up got a bit darker. A woman is seen minding her own business and reading a book while waiting for a train. A man with a guitar, on the opposite platform, starts to sing her a song to cheer her up. The unfortunate implication? Harassing random women on the street is not only ok, it's actually really romantic.

** And that's before the overall Unfortunate Implication of everyone involved being young, attractive, straight and white.

* [[Been Verified]].com essentially encourages the viewers of its commercials to never trust any other human being they meet, under any circumstances, and instead use quasi-legal databases like their website to look into the private information of anyone they intend to interact with. Because fear!