The move by a new Auckland-based feminist group to attack DB Breweries over a Tui beer television advertisement smacks of a desperate push for publicity.
The organisation, Auckland Feminist Action (AFA), has announced its intention to launch a campaign to get rid of the advertisement, which features a groupof men stealing beer from Tui's Mangatainoka brewery, under the noses of the brewery's so-called "Tui girls."
According to a group spokesperson, the women are depicted as being "even more stupid than the dorky men who try to steal the beer". The spokesperson claims the advertisement also shows women as just a collection of body parts, says it is okay to value women on how they look, and trivialises relationships with women.
Oh please.
This country has come a long way in how it views women, and we started from a fairly strong place to begin with - did the outraged members of AFA forget we were the first country to give women the right to vote?
While that in no way guarantees our fair shores will be free from sexism, it's still extremely unlikely that the bulk of our society sees anywhere near the same level of degradation in the advertisement as the members of AFA apparently do.
It's a matter of perception, and as in most cases, if you go looking for these sorts of things, you can probably find them anywhere.
Another accusation thrown by AFA at the advertisement is that it promotes "a form of mateship."
Tui isn't alone in this, it's a marketing strategy used by several beer bands, and it makes sense when you consider the demographic the advertisements are aimed at.
But since when did "mateship" by necessity become demeaning of women?
Undoubtedly, there are some unfortunate members of our society who do still view women through an outdated lens of chauvinism and a misplaced sense of superiority. Sadly, it will take more than a knee-jerk ban on a beer advertisement to change the views of these rather sad individuals.
None of this is to denigrate or doubt the need for a strong feminist movement in this country. It's just that brewery advertisements have become easy targets over the years, often under dubious circumstances, and in this case, it's difficult to imagine too many people being upset aside from AFA members.
It's hard to avoid suspicion that DB Breweries has been targeted to allow AFA to make its mark.
