1. Is it more appropriate to think of a woman as prey, or as a trophy? This ontological conundrum comes to us courtesy of Heineken, which this week altered an ad it had been running since August after complaints of sexism. The 30-second spot, titled The Tiger, shows two fellows trying different tactics to pick up a lady at a wedding. A voiceover suggests the scene is like a jungle, and explains there are "two types of tigers - one who goes straight to the prey and the one who makes the prey surrender to him." On Sunday, the brewer changed the word "prey" to "prize." Yea. That should totally stop the complaints about sexist advertising.
2. The folks at Ogilvy & Mather Canada know a thing or two about sexist ads. When the One Club for Art & Copy announced its top 10 digital campaigns of the decade this week, O&M made the list with their 2006 Evolution campaign for Dove, which began online with a bracing time-lapse film demonstrating the physical and digital manipulations that go into the creation of beauty ads. But here's something depressing: When we watched Evolution again the other day, YouTube suggested we follow it up with something called Bikini Shakespeare, a Popcorn Indiana ad featuring bad actresses in tiny bikini bottoms (and tops made of popcorn) performing Hamlet's immortal Act 3 soliloquy. To be or not to be sexist: Really, is that the question?
3. Maybe we should ask whether obesity is preferable to sexism. This week the Dieticians of Canada called for better controls on the marketing of food and beverages to kids. Saying the current system of self-regulation isn't protecting children, the dieticians called on the feds to mandate standards for pitching to kids on TV, in advergames, through product placement, via cartoon characters and celebrity endorsements, on school grounds, and through other channels. "Evidence is clear: The current food advertising environment leads to poorer food choices for children," said the author of the dieticians' new position paper. We agree; we just wish their campaign didn't remind us of all the poor food choices we're about to make this holiday season.
4. Looks like we're not the only ones on an eating binge: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is trying to take a big bite out of online marketers. A couple of months ago, we reported that hundreds of U.S. companies had promised to offer Web surfers the ability to opt out of having their online activity tracked. But on Wednesday, the FTC said the industry wasn't moving quickly enough, and that a government-mandated do-not-track mechanism might be in the offing. "We're sending a clear message that self-regulation of privacy has not worked accurately," FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz said. Does this mean we're finally going to stop getting all those pop-up ads our wife has been asking us about?