Welcome to the conversation!


Welcome to the conversation!

Harriet Beecher Stowe's (1811-1896) best-selling anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), made her the most famous American woman of the 19th century and galvanized the abolition movement before the Civil War.

The Stowe Center is a 21st-century museum and program center using Stowe's story to inspire social justice and positive change.

The Salons at Stowe programs are a forum to connect the challenging issues (race, gender and class) that impelled Stowe to write and act with the contemporary face of those same issues. The Salon format is based on a robust level of audience participation, with the explicit goal of promoting civic engagement. Recent topics included: Teaching Acceptance; Is Prison the New Slavery; Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North; Creativity and Change; Race, Gender and Politics Today; How to be an Advocate

This blog will expand the reach of these community conversations to the online audience. Add your posts and comments to keep the conversation going! Commit to action by clicking HERE to stay up to date on Salon and social justice news.

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Monday, February 2, 2015

#Mediawelike at the #SuperBowl

Last night, the Super Bowl provided last-minute thrills, dancing sharks, and plenty of funny, heartwarming, and even tragic advertisements. In recent years, The Representation Project, an organization devoted to promoting fair representation of gender in the media, has used the Super Bowl to draw attention to sexist commercials by tweeting #Notbuyingit after any misogynist or patronizing adverts. For the second year in a row, the organization tweeted #Mediawelike along with #Notbuyingit to promote companies representing progressive portrayals of gender and identity.

It seemed that this year provided more opportunity to use #Mediawelike then in years past, with advertisements focusing on families, empowerment, and acceptance. Below are several of the most notable #Mediawelike moments of the game.

Procter & Gamble's and Always's "Like a Girl" was originally released in the summer, but re-aired during the game. The commercial reclaims the old insult "Like a Girl" and highlights the ways conceptions of "girlhood" are used to devalue the pursuits and ambitions of young girls.  



Invisible Mindy, one of the more humorous spots of the night, depicts Mindy Kaling moving through town as seemingly invisible. The ad provides a thinly veiled critique of the ways women and women of color are deemed invisible in the media. Plus, Matt Damon makes a cameo at the end.



Dads seemed to be a common theme in this year's Super Bowl commercials. Dove focused an entire ad on the concept of masculinity and fatherhood. The spot show Dads in all moments of parenthood and claims that "real strength" is shown by caring.


One of the few serious ads of the night, project No More in conjunction with the NFL, presented a spot focusing on the realities of domestic violence. The ad was not without criticism, as many noted the irony of the NFL promoting domestic violence awareness after its notorious mishandling of several abuse cases in the 2015 season. Perhaps this commercial serves as a start for the NFL to take more action.  

 


Always a fan favorite for Super Bowl viewers, Coca Cola takes aim at cyberbulling in their latest ad and encourages viewers to #MakeitHappy as an alternative to spreading negativity and hate. 
 


What were your favorite commercials of the night? What did we miss? Do you think advertisements are getting more progressive? Are these advertisements indications of a more inclusive and equitable media to come? 

1 comment:

Jordan said...

I noticed (happily) that the McDonald's ad was not included in your above list. This "feel good" ad promoted random acts of kindness, which the fast food chain will apparently start using as a payment method. Personally, I think McDonald's could do a lot more than simply giving Big Mac's and a side of 100% saturated fat to their customers for calling their parents or dancing. How about paying your workers OR sourcing sustainable chicken and beef?!