Viagra

Did anyone else notice the bizarre sexism during the commercial breaks on last night's episode of Mad Men? I can accept that a healthy dose of douchiness comes with the territory when I decide to watch currently airing episodes of a show instead of waiting for it to come out on DVD, but I honestly felt creeped out by how skewed all of last night's ads were toward a male (and sexist) audience. Could it be that, because the show itself portrays a stylized hypermasculinity, advertisers are missing the context and coming up with campaigns to try and match Mad Men's outdated sexism?

I saw ads for (and this is just what I can remember): Lipitor, Viagra, NFL Sunday Ticket, and more, all aimed at middle-aged men who I didn't think were following Peggy Olsen's rise to the top all that closely. Oh, and let us not forget this gem, from Clorox:



Because, you know, sometimes even MEN do the laundry! And Clorox apparently dragged that ad out of its archives (here is a Feministing post on it from two years ago) just for Mad Men. WTF?

This past week the London Paper brings us news of the September unveiling of a fancy (and expensive) new "Sex Pistol" ice cream cocktail at Selfridge's. Loaded with additives like guarana and argenine, it's billed as "claiming to have similar effect to the libido-boosting drug Viagra." Normally, I don't think you can ever go wrong with ice cream, but reading about this made me roll my eyes so hard I thought they'd get stuck to the underside of my skull. Viagra ice cream? Bitch, please. I am so OVER Viagra.