Once again, a commercial (and what's wrong with it)

I know there’ve been a lot of attention to commercials and – surprise – I would like to do that as well. More specifically I would like to look at a commercial that always irritates me when it’s on television. With this I also would like to hint at a different discussion, namely about the eating of meat and masculinity. For this discussion you could also look at another commercial, one from last week presentation, for the Cheesy Bacon XXL from the Burger King.

The commercial that I’m interested in is the commercial for the Remia Real American Marinade, for which the commercial is called the 'Bunny' Commercial. This is a relatively new commercial, which aired since approximately June 2016. It starts with a man lying on the side of the road who is obviously part of a joke from his own bachelor party. He is rescued by some tough men on motorcycles. They take the ‘bunny’ (this is how I will refer to him) back to their place, where they were preparing a barbeque – of course with the Remia Real American Marinade. The bunny stays for dinner and all ends well… 

There are, however, some problems with this commercial. First of all the depiction of the ‘bunny, soon to be married man’. He is portrayed as a kind of ‘loser’ and is in sharp contrast with the masculine man on their motorcycles. They look tough, in their manners, are bigger, wear rough clothing and they have a lot of hair. The loser image of the bunny also in a way comes from the fact that he apparently is about to get married. This reminded me of what was said in class with regard to Mulvey’s article. That women in movies are often ‘tamed’, in that they become part of the patriarchal order, for example through marriage. In this way there wouldn’t be any castration anxiety. This is what Mulvey says about this:

‘Ultimately, the meaning of woman is sexual difference, the absence of the penis as visually ascertainable, the material evidence on which is based the castration complex essential for the organization of entrance to the symbolic order and the law of the father. (…) The male unconscious has two avenues of escape from this castration anxiety: preoccupation with the re-enactment of the original trauma (investigating the woman, demystifying her mystery), counterbalanced by the devaluation, punishment or saving of the guilty object (…). (…) The first avenue, voyeurism, on the contrary, has associations with sadism pleasure lies in ascertaining guild (immediately associated with castration), asserting control and subjecting the guilty person through punishment or forgiveness. (…) Sadism demands a story, (…) forcing a change in another person, a battle of will and strength, victory/defeat (…).’ (Laura Mulvey, ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’, 840.)

This was applied to Hollywood cinema, but I think you can also apply it here. Even though the main character, the bunny, is male, he is to a certain extent feminized. This in contrast with the biker guys who are depicted very manly. Like I said he is rescued by the men on the motorcycles. Maybe you could even argue that he is freed from the boredom of marriage? The boredom of his soon to be wife? Of women in general? You see in the commercial that he feels free, in the way that he sticks his arms out like he is flying (sitting behind on the motorcycle). He feels victorious.

A second problem with this commercial is the depiction of the only female. She is waiting for the guys to come home and is working in the kitchen. However, she’s not the one barbequing, this is of course often seen as a ‘typical male activity’ (I guess something with fire, being outside and primal instinct…).

The third problem is a little bit related to the first problem. The bunny is already supposed to look more manly by wearing the jacket from the biker. This ‘process’ started when he sat on the bike (I referred to this before). You could see this ‘process’ as complete when he is offered a plate of barbeque meat by man with the enormous beard who says the wise words: ‘If you wanna act like a man, eat like a man.’ So apparently you’re a man when you eat meat, this idea was also mentioned (in a song) in the earlier mentioned Burger King commercial. This means different things. You could say that this would mean that if a women eats meat (or this specific type of meat) she is manly or not a real women? But it could also mean that a man is supposed to eat meat and therefore can’t be a vegetarian of a vegan? There are still a lot prejudices against male vegetarians. This is however a completely different topic of discussion and too big of a subject elaborate on it here.