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For shame, Charles Atlas
14 years ago
General
Kyoo no tema wa kore desu....
While I was going through some my comics from 1993, I came across one of those stupid ads that have been aimed at young male comic readers since, well, forever.
You all know how it goes: Skinny guy at a beach with his girl (a pretty blonde), some jerk kicks sand on them both, and the skinny guy backs down when the jerk is unapologetic. The solution is (insert muscle-product thing of your choice). Next scene, the skinny guy is a bronzed overly-muscled macho man & the jerk is backing down while the no-longer-skinny guy's girl beams approval.
But for the first time I really took time to look at the ad. The skinny guy, once he gains all that muscle, actually becomes a bully--smugly lording it over the jerk (whatever happened to 'with great power comes great responsibility?'). And his girl -- she's a different, curvier blonde, with bigger boobs!
I always thought that the message of the ads was:
Use this product to get macho and you won't get bullied any more--then you can be all cro-magnon & avenge your girl when she gets sand kicked on her by a jerk.
But the message is more along the lines of:
Might makes right, so get some muscles & you can get away with being a jerk, too (and only losers settle for small tits).
Here are a few of my own messages:
-Any product or system that has to get results by making you feel bad about yourself isn't worth your time & money.
-The brain is by far stronger than any muscle.
-You do not win anything by becoming that which you hate.
-A girl's heart is not measured in the size of her bustline.
Now all I've got to do it figure out a way to condense that into a short comic vignette, become rich, and plaster comic books with MY ad, in a vain effort to counterbalance generations of wrongness dealt to young comic readers.
I'm working on it.
You all know how it goes: Skinny guy at a beach with his girl (a pretty blonde), some jerk kicks sand on them both, and the skinny guy backs down when the jerk is unapologetic. The solution is (insert muscle-product thing of your choice). Next scene, the skinny guy is a bronzed overly-muscled macho man & the jerk is backing down while the no-longer-skinny guy's girl beams approval.
But for the first time I really took time to look at the ad. The skinny guy, once he gains all that muscle, actually becomes a bully--smugly lording it over the jerk (whatever happened to 'with great power comes great responsibility?'). And his girl -- she's a different, curvier blonde, with bigger boobs!
I always thought that the message of the ads was:
Use this product to get macho and you won't get bullied any more--then you can be all cro-magnon & avenge your girl when she gets sand kicked on her by a jerk.
But the message is more along the lines of:
Might makes right, so get some muscles & you can get away with being a jerk, too (and only losers settle for small tits).
Here are a few of my own messages:
-Any product or system that has to get results by making you feel bad about yourself isn't worth your time & money.
-The brain is by far stronger than any muscle.
-You do not win anything by becoming that which you hate.
-A girl's heart is not measured in the size of her bustline.
Now all I've got to do it figure out a way to condense that into a short comic vignette, become rich, and plaster comic books with MY ad, in a vain effort to counterbalance generations of wrongness dealt to young comic readers.
I'm working on it.
I <3 you more, Kwan!!
Nerd gets rich selling steroids to jerks on the beach, and all the jerks gets imprisoned for a beach-blanket-roid-rage riot.
But I'll give him props for being a bottom.
of course chuck's mini-comic is not a positive ad. it's very much over the top. oO however, i always thought this was done on purpose. ^^;
and how interesting that it appears in comic books, placed amongst fantastic stories of heroism, vengeance, and violence -- and starring men and women with perfect physiques. maybe comics are part of the conspiracy, as well? *^^*
comics are about entertainment and escapism, and the advertisers know their market. the
nerdsawesome kids don't buy feel-good comics, more than they buy kick-ass comics. and i would honestly hope that kids don't learn life's lessons from lobo, the punisher, or worse, archie. <<;ish lovely thought to place positive, "you should like yourself, because you're awesome!"-kind of ads in comics. ^^ but would they fly? i just hope you don't end up wasting your monies, when you're all rich. ^^
also, pls no be hating the women with curves, kthx. <<;
kwan listed her messages. ^^ but now, i'm curious about the methods. Oo in the hypothetical case of a kid receiving a face full of sand, how should he or she react?
and if one is to have the courage to be himself or herself, (free from the pressure to conform to a physical or behavioral "standard"), doesn't this also imply a need to stand up for himself or herself? maybe even a need for self-defense? ^^;
i agree with your ideas, cute rattie. *huggles* ^^ being yourself is awesome, and violence sucks. Oo ideally, we would live in a world where there are no bullies. but bullies exist. bullied kids have a "need" to feel strong (as a substitute for "safe"), and marketers will be marketers. <<; i'm just curious as to how would things go down if you had your way. ^^ especially in today's context -- i.e., the intense pressure from all sides to "kick butt" and "not be a wuss".
and this being said... are we really discussing the societal implications of an ad featuring macho man savage, requiescat in pace? ^^;;;
And you don't have to be muscle-man to defend yourself, unless you think the only way to defend yourself is through force, in which case you're not thinking so much as fighting fire with fire.
And ::hugs::
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