Is anyone else as offended as I am by the new Tooheys New television commercial ‘Catapult’?
For those of you either lucky enough to have missed it, or who are just not sure what I am talking about, it shows a group of guys catapulting various items into the sky with a large catapult. First they send up various large bags of beer ingredients, then they send up two young attractive women, then they send up a stag, and then beer rains from the sky. To me it harks back to the idea of sending ‘virgin sacrifices’ to the gods, and I find it really offensive not only that Lion Nathan and Saatchi & Saatchi thought that this was a great idea for a commercial, but that it was considered to be acceptable for Australian television. The underlying message is so sexist and revolting.
I keep reminding myself to write a letter of complaint to the Advertising Standards Bureau, but there is only 35 minutes until BB6 comes on, so I’ll do it tomorrow.
[Yes, I do realise the contradictions in my last sentence.]
I think the girls were sent up to be barmaids. Who else was going to pour the beer? The stag, on the other hand, was the missing ingredient, as evidenced by the instant success on it’s being lbbed into the sky. Anyone who has necked a Tooheys will have surely noticed the stag on the label. And I don’t think they were real virgins, being from Melbourne, where the ad looked to have been filmed.
If they catapulted Little Johnnie Howard, the liquid falling out of the sky would be pure piss and vinegar! Why doesn’t someone try it with him and see what really would happen? We could always use more vinegar.
Anyway, I can’t see the legitimacy of the bad taste claim, given the excreble viewing tatses of the complainent…
And the left is accused of being humourless. Jeez, wonder why?
It is an AD. For BEER. It uses HUMOUR.
Get a grip.
MarkL
Canberra
“Is anyone else as offended as I am by the new Tooheys New television commercial ‘Catapult’”
Err, no. Should I be? What, precisely, is sexist about it?
I would have more sympathy if you weren’t also a Big Brother viewer …
Yeah, Cristy. MarkL will be the arbiter of all humour – he will be our laugh-track.
‘Tis an ad for beer, therefore exempt from any and all questioning. You post-modernist, you!
Possibly not offensive per se, but it is one of the stupider ads I have had the misfortune to catch recently. Probably no worse than the um, I dunno Heikenen or Hahn ad that has the household appliances jiving in the swimming pool (they stole that from a Beck video). Neither ad is remotely interesting, funny, or engaging. I think they’re just trying to appeal to an ‘extreme, man!’ demographic. They’re shit out of luck with me as I don’t even like beer.
hmm, that ad is crap. Clearly it is meant for the petit homme who has never actually been raucus enough to spill beer. If they had and thus had to live with the sticky mess afterwards, they would find the ad utterly repulsive. I remember going back to a quad at uni the day after a toga party (infamous Manic Depressive Society UWA toga party), which I attended, and walking into the space only to be perfectly offended by the smell and stickiness that was everywhere. Who the hell wants an entire city covered in sticky and smelly crap!?!?!? Idiots…
There are worse (ie, more sexist and offensive) beer ads.
Namely, all of them.
There’s just something about beer ads at the moment. I think it’s the unquestioning veneration of blokey drinkiness (yes, that is a word) which is very commonly set up as being in opposition to anything relating to women (who are thereby depicted as the opposite of ‘fun’).
And if anyone says I don’t have a sense of humour because I don’t enjoy these ‘humourous ads’, then that’s fine. I don’t have a problem with not finding that kind of pap funny.
I’m off for a beer.
I love how an ad for beer is deemed be beyond question, and a decision to watch Big Brother is also deemed to make the viewer ineligible to complain about offensive messages in television commercials. Every woman that I have discussed this ad with has been offended (as was my husband). Mind you, none of them would be happy to watch Big Brother either so, perhaps, they are more qualified than me and I should have mentioned them earlier.
For goodness sake!
BTW MarkL, why do you end every comment with Canberra?
One more thing, MarkL, what on earth does the use of humour have to do with something being offensive or otherwise? Have you never heard of an offensive joke? That is one of the more ridiculous arguments that I have ever heard.
Oh, lighten up. “I love how an ad for beer is deemed be beyond question,” in your dreams. It is a BEER AD. It is supposed to attract attention, and it uses HUMOUR to do so. Cristy, nobody has said that it is ‘beyond question’, so can the faux ‘I am being oppressed’ schtick. Get a sense of humour, or understand what other people find funny.
Meanwhile the execrable Anna believes I am appointing myself an arbiter of humour! Grow up, Anna – I already understand that your are the doyen of the humourless.
MarkL
Canberra
“Get a sense of humour, or understand what other people find funny.”
Why should I, when they cannot seem to understand what I find offensive?
Oh, I forgot, because the world actually revolves around you. Right. Must remember that for the future.
Cougar is the biggest selling bourbon in this country.
(That’s the one where the guy orders 5 Cougars because the barmaid had a Cougar top over her big boobs).
My expectations of the failed film makers, sell out intellectuals and other lap dogs of the misogynistic, red-nosed dinosaurs that run the booze duopoly in the country are roughly commensurate with this fact.
Not to speak for Cristy or anything, MarkL, but I think she does understand all too well what other people find funny. That’s the problem. Perhaps you need to work on your own understanding of what other people find unfunny.
‘Faux’ in your usage means, I take it, ‘I think it’s bullshit, therefore it is.’ But if you must get all froggified, you need to know that Anna is a girl and therefore a doyenne.
There’s a special kind of humour that certain Canberra-ite Colon-el Dreedles and Cathcarts hate. Ad hominems to the ladies again will undoubtedly so to speak “bring it on.”
Well yes, PC, but there is understanding and there is understanding.
While I certainly do understand all too well, I also don’t understand it at all and hope that I never do.
Ce n’est pas la meme mot ou la meme chose… Just Frenchifyin…
Ps – I was late getting home from work and I freakin missed BB! What happened on the nightly show?
You forgot, dk.au, that the Cougar big bazoongas were attached to a Canadian chick who was actually in Oz on a tourist visa which she’d overstayed. She was subsequently heaved into Villawood detention centre and deported, thus proving that the old adage about any publicity being good publicity ain’t necessarily so…..
I wonder whether the ad isn’t a clever pisstake on this event? The catapulting of the young women (a DIMIA expulsion reference perhaps) could represent the fact that patriarchal insistence on being served the right beverage comes at a price. But it also insists – if not demands – that we consider whether, ultimately, this is a price worth paying and a beer worth drinking? We decide.
It also plays with the scarcely narrative-troubling notion that for every naughty ad there will be at least one blogger strapped for anything to post about other than the offence she’s decided to take at an otherwise utterly unremarkable bit of marketing.
“Ps – I was late getting home from work and I freakin missed BB! What happened on the nightly show?”
Not a lot, I’m afraid. Michael is the new insider and must find out which of the HMs are in a relationship and what kind of relationship that is (or face eviction). He was also supposed to pour a full bottle of water over one of the beds but only poured part of it and so has one strike (three and he is automatically up for nomination). I’m not sure that I could have sustained myself through the whole show (so many commercials…) were it not for the fact that P (my partner) is away and I am home by myself.
If a stag and two barmaids are up in the sky, how do you know what is raining down is beer?
Besides how can you have a piss-up if the beer’s coming down?
Sorry!
Cristy, yes, but the horribleness of it all is also part of the fun. Wait til the real drama starts!
Btw – I can’t stand Tooheys New.
It gives meaning to the phrase “I’d kill for a beer.”
The ad is not only offensive to women, it is also offensive to animal lovers.
My daughter told me every party needs chicks. that’s why the girls were sent in …
Isn’t anyone offended by the undertone of bestiality in those Bundy ads?
“The ad is not only offensive to women, it is also offensive to animal lovers.”
Yes, I didn’t like the Stag being catapulted up either, but once my husband told me that the logo of Tooheys New includes a Stag I could at least understand the reasoning behind that part. It was the reasoning behind sending up the women that I found harder to understand without hearing a particularly offensive sexist message.
Its about as sexist as the men carrying a sofa upstairs shirtless in the old diet coke ad or the current women in poverty ad.
I bet you don’t intend to write one about women in poverty ad
But they need to bring back the Tooheys or Two ad
“I bet you don’t intend to write one about women in poverty ad”
And you would have bet correctly Vee. What on earth are you on about?
Inchoate usefully informs us that it’s not a catapult, but a trebuchet.
Fantastic, Markus!
No wonder you are always a king in Shakespeare’s plays!
Guess MarkL’s never seen the ads for Carlton Draught – like the “Brewed in … big shiny things, carted around by … horses, made FROM BEER” ad which started the whole series. Those are funny.
That that ad is just as sexist
Yes, Vee, but which ad is just as sexist?
What ‘women in poverty’ ad?
Nick
Yokine (just north of the Yokine Reserve)
A cabbie once told me Tooheys New didn’t give you a hangover. I put this to the test at Merthyr Bowls where you can buy a bucket of Tooheys stubbies for 15 bucks. It proved to be false.
I saw this ad last night and the catapaulting of the two women was noticably absent. I’m not sure if this was just a shorter version of the ad, or whether Lion Nathan Ltd have done some on the fly editing.
I think the shortcircuiting synapse masquerading as an idea in the head of the advertising agency “talent” was some sort of postmodern ironic comment on how beer ads generally have sexy women involved, so if they’re shooting all the beer ingredients into the sky in order to make the rain of beer, then sexy women must also be shot into the clouds.
I think the ad agency “talent” involved has a less than Morisettian understanding of the word ironic, and hopefully has since gone mad sorting through thousands of spoons looking for a knife.
Two women are murdered in this ad.
About a decade or so ago, when I was a poor student, I picked up $50 for participating in a focus group. All blokes – in their 20s. It was for the nth iteration of the Breaka ads – shorter version – boofy bloke takes a sip of flavoured milk, and beautiful bikini babe appears out of nowhere and falls for him. It was an object lesson in why focus groups aren’t always good market research – as I argued strongly the ads were inappropriate and sexist, and had most of the other guys agreeing with me in short order. Needless to say, the marketing company never called me back for more focus groups…
Mark- Toohey’s Red is the one that, legend has it, doesn’t lead to hangovers. No ‘chemicals’, apparently.
I am grateful to the Tooheys New drinkers on this thread for explaining the stag to me, but I think the agency made a tactical blue with it — those who recognise the stag are already converts to the product; those who, like me, do not are annoyed its incomprehensibility — everyone hates being made to feel a fool — and are that much less likely to consume it on principle. I do in fact like a beer myself and am always happy to try a new one, but I’ll be giving that one a great big miss.
Bestiality in the Bundy ads? Hardly. That is one very unattractive bear.
Thanks, andy, I’ll have to experiment on Tooheys Red then.
“have to” Mark? You make it sound like a chore.
Frankly, I found the Tooheys ad to be just plain incomprehensible.
Lets review:
1. Giant Catapults on buildings.
2. Hurling hops and wheat in to the air.
3. Adding a stag.
4. And two women (but only in the longer version, i have noticed).
5. Golden showers.
For a start, this is bizarre, even for a beer commercial. Secondly, as a guy, I didn’t even understand why there were two girls in there, and from the comments above, neither does anyone else. I didn’t think that they were objectified, I considered that at the time, but rejected it on the basis that any objectification would have no purpose. There is no pay-off.
To explain, in the aforementioned cougar ad, its the womans abnormally large breasts which sell the drink. Blatant, sexist, no contest. The purpose of having her there is to objectify her, and thus sell Cougar. But in the Tooheys ad, its not clear how the presence of the two women contributes to the message – be it “Buy more New” or “New is good” or whatever. They are just thrown into the sky. At best, we could conclude that to make Tooheys New, you need to mix together Water, Wheat, Hops, a Stag, and two Girls.
So Im sorry Cristy, but I disagree, simply putting two girls in a beer commercial without making it clear why they are there, does not make it sexist, and pales in comparison to your average issue of FHM or Zoo. However, its a monumentally shite ad, and New is awful anyway.
I though the DIMIA joke was funny though.
Regarding beer ads, how well do they really work?
I’ve drunk more than my fair share of Toohey’s Red.
It’s fucking horrible, and is quite serious hangover material, no matter what anyone says.
Oh jeez, complaining about bad taste in beer commercials is as pointless as telling a dog not to fart.
Now the Carlton Draught “made from beer” campaign. That was funny. Shame the brew in question is still crap.
The ultimate beer campaign though I feel is still “Guiness Is Good For You.” Hard to argue with that strapline.
That or a tribute to the long history of women’s bodies being the main medium between the secular/social/political and the mystical/spiritual …
One idea I’ve had for a while, and have reviewed in the light of the successful cross-party feminist initiative on RU486, is to suggest to feminist and pro-feminist parliamentarians that a register be compiled of the behaviour of potential government contractors and suppliers, and their advertising agencies, in relation to non-sexist, non-discriminatory and socially responsible promotions, with a view to blacklisting seriously offending companies and agencies from being awarded Federal, State and Local government contracts.
Chris, fair enough point. My mother felt pretty much the same way. She just could not work out what the women were doing in the ad in the first place. She did, however, still feel that the gratuity of sending them up into the air and the symbolic analogy to a sacrifice was fairly offensive regardless (or, perhaps, because) of the pointlessnes of it all.
Hello, btw, I hope that you are going well.
Paul, I like your idea, and am curious about what you mean by pro-feminist. How is a pro-feminist different from a feminist?
Cristy, as I understand it, pro-feminist is a term for men who are sympathetic to the aims and methods of feminism. It was invented to ensure that men who thought of themselves as feminism didn’t act like men and speak for women!
What I wonder would a commercial for the beer called “Pure Blonde” be like? From observation at a bar last weekend, it’s obviously targeted towards chix.
On a lighter note, does anyone recall the Tooheys ads from 1988-89 which asserted Marx’s labour theory of value (and which came out at exactly the same time that I was first reading Alec Nove’s critique of the labour theory of value)?
No! Do tell.
The jingle for the ad began with the verse:
There are people in this country
That work hard every day
And it’s not for fame and fortune that they strive
But the fruits of their labour
Are worth more than their pay
So it’s time a few of them were recognised
It was adapted from a US country and western song honouring American workers.
When I reflect on the labour theory of value, I always feel that work time is too long and drinking time too short.
But what about the ‘It’s a Big Beer” ad? Surely we can all agree that this was comic genius?
Well, Mark and I are going out drinking tonight so we’ll try and do a quick study of who’s drinking Tooheys at the pub.
Wow. Talk about all hell breaking use.
No matter what side of the argument you have all taken, it seems to be that you have all more or less done one thing – proved that the advertisment worked. You all sit here, spending your time analysing a television commercial that – lets face it – finds its niche wedged soundly in that of 16 – 27 year old males (this is not an exclusive bracket). You, Cristy, are not an anti-misogynist, i beleive. No, at the end of the day, you are suffering from PARANOIA, just the same with most people who believe they are being dicriminated against. And the greatest problem with all this is that you are all more or less intelligent people – not to flatter, beleive me – but this gives you the ability to look into anything and contort any original meaning it may have once had and twist it into something you can take a stand against and claim that its “hurting you”.
My opinion on the Commercial? Those two (yes, good looking – im 16, so ill agree that the ad has soem sex appeal to it) young girls were gettign intot eh spirit of the alcohol-fuel event that was about to take place, and in a possible sudden rush of adrenaline, went along with the fun and tried something new – getting offloaded at a rate of knotts from a trebuchet. And perhaps this is where the analysis if the beer commercial SHOULD lie – the fact that this product can bring on the rush to try new things, and have fun in the process.
Cristy, I have listened to your views. Now I belive YOU should drink some beer, get a grip, and try something new by getting a sense of humour – or should you refuse doing that, try taking onboard some acceptance with what others enjoy. All we need right now in the world are some more fascists with too much time on their hands.
Ultimately, i laugh at you. You have spent several days getting yourself and others wound up about this “shockingly sexist commercial”, which you beleive clearly gives an insight into the misogynistic pigs that we call men in our society and how they can do anything they want. Well, its true. They wanted to promote – or at least spread – the name of their product, and at the end of the day, all you have done is assist them with that. Well done Cristy – how does it feel batting for the other team?
PEACE.
Fox (Canberra ;P)
well I came across this looking for the Cougar Ad where he says “5 Cougars thanks”.. and this is the funnest shit i have ever read. Its an AD people grow up.
If you find it offensive then don’t watch it. I find gay pron offensive so you know what do…I Don’t Watch it… You guys are classic.. “oh no what an offensive ad that was, i know all jump on the net are start a discussion about it and help them advertise the beer some more…. Muppets…
P.S i’m still laughing…seriously.
Oh, lighten up. “I love how an ad for beer is deemed be beyond question,� in your dreams. It is a BEER AD. It is supposed to attract attention, and it uses HUMOUR to do so. Cristy, nobody has said that it is ‘beyond question’, so can the faux ‘I am being oppressed’ schtick.
That’d be more convincing if the “Men are portrayed as dorks in advertising and it’s all the feminists’ fault” wasn’t such a perennial and beloved staple of antifeminist letter writers / article writers.
the women are catapulted to give the beer head…
Sorry to dredge this old thread back up, but somebody else commented and I wasn’t around thr first time around.
XFST says:
This is an obvious misinterpretation of the ad.
The point of the Cougar Ad is that the bloke ordering the drinks is stupid. Not only does he need to repeat his order to himself in order to remember it, but upon sighting the barmaid’s huge breasts, he promptly loses the plot and completely forgets what it was he was trying to remember.
The Cougar ads are sexist – they vilify men. But what is even clearer is that they specifically vilify their own customer base and denigrate their own product.
The second cougar ad (where the bloke asks for “A Slice Of Lemon” quite clearly infers that the ONLY reason anyone in the ad is drinking Cougar is so they can get a look of the tits and ass of the barmaid.
So not only is their product not worth drinking unless it comes with a free peepshow, but their customers are the sort of slavering losers who either
a:) Can’t Keep Their Faculties intact when looking at breasts or
b:) Would do anything possible in order to get a look at some breasts.
Neither ad really says anything positive about either Cougar Bourbon or the people who drink Cougar bourbon.
The point is that they are funny in a boofhead sort of way, and Cougar took the gamble that their potential customers are (Unlike Cristy) in posession of a sense of humour, even when that humour comes at their own expense. And the Ads were apparently a huge success.
The “Barry Dawson is THE COUGAR” series of Ads continue down the same line. Barry Dawson is a dipshit and his “lady friend” shakes her head in disgust at his repeated attempts to bignote himself.
However, the kind of people who actually drink Cougar are quite capable of having a laugh at themselves and Cougar knows it and continues with the same strategy.
I wouldn’t hold your breath for any Ads targeted at angry femininists to be featuring humour at their expense any time soon. So do women in general have no sense of humour, or just the ones who blog about “sexist” ads?
BTW, the girls launched into the clouds are obviously dressed as barmaids. All the ingredients are launched into a magical cloud where they are mixed and the beer than rains down on the city. There isn’t any suggestion that any harm came to the women, they didn’t splat on the ground after they were fired from the Trebuchet, they were obviously in the magical cloud pouring the beer.
It’s pretty obvious to anyone who has an imagination. So basically what we’ve got here is a couple of people who take everything so seriously that they’ve lost their imaginations and sense of humour. Lefty-land must be a such a sad, boring place.
No, no, Yobbo, on the contrary — it’s full of people who aren’t literal-minded, which opens up a whole new world: people who have ideas, can grasp abstract concepts, enjoy working out what sort of world-view underlies things like TV ads, understand metaphors and other figurative representations, and have read a few books about this and that.
Never a dull moment, honestly.
i cant believe i am wasting valuable beer drinking time replying to such a moronic statement. You are living proof that you don’t have to have a long neck to be a goose!
PS. i only stumbled across your crap site looking for the lyrics to the late and great old school tooheys ad “I feel like a tooheys, I feel like a tooheys, I feel like a tooheys or 2!”
You guys are losers. In fact this website has the worst comments posted on it that I have heard in my entire life. None of you have a sense of humour so stop fighting about it. I don’t even know whow i found this crap web page.
Basically you are all a disgrace to the human race, and I would be happy to hear you had all contracted some hideous disease.
Hmmmmmm…maybe something that involves radiation therapy, that way you will only suffer more as you try and fight it. Yeah. That’s it. Radiation therapy.
Morons.
You, on the other hand, are utterly charming.
Mmmm, hatred. Makes me feel all warm and purposeful inside.
Look out Zoe, you might catch Radiation therapy!
Come on…Virgin Sacrafice, they’re in a beer commercial and for some reason, beer and virgin sacrafice don’t go hand in hand…And by the looks of those 2 women, they prolly lost it when they was 13 and to get on an add like that, they prolly know their way around the block…
But for the obvious fact that you had to go and write something about it like this obviously then the add did what it was supose to…Make you remember the add…
The two women being slung up into the sky are barmaids, the stag is the logo of Toohey’s New and the other things are beer ingredients. No I wouldn’t call the ad hilarious but it does have some merit. I’m not quite sure how it’s sexist considering the majority of barmaids are infact women but you’re entitled to you’re opinion none-the-less. Lee does have one point, this ad obviously grabbed your attention and completed it’s purpose, though you probably aren’t likely to buy Toohey’s New because of it but you’re talking about it to other people and pointing it out to them.