infoMania | April 03, 2009 | Comment on this video (45)

Sarah Haskins in Target Women: Carl's Jr

Sarah_Haskins
Take a big bite out of this super douche-burger ad campaign where women are nags and men are jackasses.

For more Sarah Haskins http://current.com/topics/88794117/sarah_haskins/new/0.htm
For more Target Women http://current.com/topics/88813968/target_women/new/0.htm

Target Women is a recurring segment on Current TV's weekly television show, infoMania. In each episode of Target Women, Sarah Haskins takes a look at the often-ridiculous way the media reaches out to women.

infoMania is a half-hour satirical news show that airs on Current TV. The show puts a comedic spin on the 24-hour chaos and information overload brought about by the constant bombardment of the media. Hosted by Conor Knighton and co-starring Brett Erlich, Sarah Haskins, Ben Hoffman, and Sergio Cilli, the show airs on Thursdays at 10 pm Eastern and Pacific Times and can be found online at current.com/infomania. And make sure to check out our facebook profile for special features at http://infomaniafacebook.com.
  1. groups:
    Comedy,   On Current TV,   Sex and Love,   Funny,   5 more
  2. tags:
    Humor,  Comedy,  Funny,  Sex and Love,  26 more
  3. credits:
    Sarah_Haskins Starring, jplunkett Producer, Dylan Osborn Producer, more
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45 comments // Sarah Haskins in Target Women: Carl's Jr // Video

  • MEnglish
  • huntre
    • 0
      huntre  

    • Furthering, dinosaur-like, male vs. female stereotypes is important to advertising. I mean, what else can they write about in 28 seconds? Similarities? Never!

    • 4 years ago
  • hedonic
    • 0
      hedonic  

    • These guys aren't just douche-bags, they're MORONIC douche-bags.

      Ever see the one where the guy tosses a whole, unskinned avocado into a blender, then watches it bounce around inside, scratching his head, wondering why it isn't turning into guacamole?

      Or how about the guy smashing a chili burger into his pie hole, and when his gf points out that he has chili smeared across about 50% of his face, he's like wha? huh? where? wha?

    • 4 years ago
  • idealist
  • sweetontic
  • Hanna144
    • 0
      Hanna144  

    • I've never heard of Carl Jr's, or Sarah Haskins, but she is brilliant, this was hilarious, absolutely brilliant.
      I just hope you had a soft landing off the car..

    • 4 years ago
  • SDLN
    • 0
      SDLN  

    • I love the food at Carl's Jr's. But is it strange that I find Sarah's wit, humor, and intelligence more attractive than the the firm bodies of their vapid models? Good Lord, am I maturing? Ugh!

    • 4 years ago
  • strife_caecus
  • VAZQUEZKARNY
  • SometimesTheFur
  • Denica_Cassandra
    • 0
      Denica_Cassandra  

    • they're advertising to younger men so you really have to wonder why this would be something that Carl's Jr. is betting would be appealing enough to guys that they would buy their "food" more.
      lol... it is a little funny but how many guys that look like models eat there anyway? ;p

    • 4 years ago
  • margarita_coffee
  • mcsquish
  • ny_nj_soulchild
  • Yocheved
    • 0
      Yocheved  

    • Sarah! I'm a big fan. Glad you're finally questioning the increasing misogyny of Carl's Jr.

      This being said, I don't think your pieces critically examine things in as nuanced a way as they used to. Your "yogurt" piece was actually validating to me as a woman who grew up on those ads, always confused why my body needed more than yogurt.

      For instance, in this piece the repeated use of the word "douche" struck me as ironic, and not in a good way-- a douche is something that is used to clean out vaginas. Why is something associated with vaginas a terrible thing? Now, I'm sure you weren't using the word literally, and I appreciate that, but most people don't use the word "pussy" or "bitch" quote-unquote literally, either, but it's still offensive.

      Anywho, I love your stuff, love the way you criticize media, I just hope you can be more critical in the future. For instance, something in this piece about why Carl's Jr. even thought to associate ice cream with handjobs as a viable marketing strategy could have been useful. Is eating food seen as a masculine exercise? Are women associated with food because both are supposed to satisfy men's urges?

      Thanks for everything,
      Yocheved

    • 4 years ago
  • crazyrunner
    • 0
      crazyrunner  
    • Yocheved:

      Douching is actually very bad for you. Douching harms the vagina. It's something you don't want in there. That's why it's not an anti-woman insult like pussy (which is using femaleness as an insult to males and therefore highly offensive to women) or bitch.

    • 4 years ago
  • Yocheved
    • 0
      Yocheved  
    • Yocheved:

      Sarah-- I wanna stress that I love you and I am a huge fan! I look forward to every one of your pieces and watch past pieces regularly, share them with my friends, and really appreciate the way you dissect pop culture through humor.

      I am aware douching is bad for you. Vaginas have their own unique PH balance and disrupting (for instance, with douching) can cause problems.

      Whether or not it is good for you isn't my issue. It's the idea that something is good enough to be used as an insult because it is associated with vaginas. The term douche bag has been used as slang since the 60s, and it wasn't until recently (the 90s) that the medical world stopped promoting douching as a healthy practice. So this means douching has been used as an insult for decades while it was still seen as a positive practice. Douching has been used as an insult regardless of what the medical world is saying about it healthfulness -- so the fact that it is insulting has to do with its association with vaginas and not whether or not it's healthy.

      Sarah also says some people may call douches "assholes". I think this is another slightly problematic term to use because it's associating a body part with body personality characteristics-- but more importantly because it's not very descriptive. We could also explore the term "asshole" when used as an insult: it's often used against someone who is thought to be inconsiderate, rude, thoughtless, and hurtful towards others, and is usually it's only used in reference to men. Because it is only used against men it is a gendered term.

      I think one of the goals we should have as feminists is to unpack the language we use for men and women separately in order to describe and understand them as people. For me, this ties back into ideas of understanding gender as something that is constructed differently in every culture. Once we start using gendered and un-nuanced language that has a lot of emotional charge but isn't very descriptive, I feel we are looking at people through a gendered lens rather than trying to understand the way people are genderized and how that, in turn, influences their decisions.

      The ultimate questions tied up with exploring gender and genderization is -- who has the power to decide what is feminine and what is masculine, and who do these decisions give more power to? In the Carl's Jr. case, it seems men are being encouraged to consume based on ideas of hypermasculinity founded in manipulating women and keeping information from them. Who got to decide this is a "masculine" thing to do, and why?

    • 4 years ago
  • miss_niss
    • 0
      miss_niss  

    • my milkshakes brings all the boys to the yard.... i don't see how hand-rolled icecream milkshakes make a diffrence really. but why would anyone want to drink a milkshake after watching an ad that implies handjobs?

    • 4 years ago
  • mina29
  • MarinaDelRey
    • 0
      MarinaDelRey  

    • Commercials often try to sell to women by appealing to their need to love, nurture and please people (as we saw on Sarah's cleaning segment) but forever seem to be appealing to a guy's inner duchebag. Are guys really more likely to spend money when their worst qualities are celebrated? So sad... Thank you, Sarah, for calling them out on this in such a funny way.

    • 4 years ago
  • SeanCanThink
  • MarinaDelRey
  • redflyer
    • 0
      redflyer  

    • When did Sarah start looking so hot? I mean she's always been attractive, but somethings different now. Hair, weight? She's looking really hot lately!!!

    • 4 years ago
  • J_0
  • iloveme_tatertot
  • furtwintee
  • tomas_el_madrileno
  • proofofconcept
  • hedonic
  • pete275
  • Chicky4
  • vistapoint
  • lordsbassman
  • Cher214
  • joshuaheller
  • Snuff99
  • lordsbassman
  • ninja4hire
  • ahimsapls
  • tablet
    • 0
      tablet  

    • Another classic pod from Sarah Haskins & InfoTV. She's right, douche-ness takes another level with CJ's commercials. I'm surprised when I watch them - I laugh - and they remind me why I don't eat fast food anymore.

    • 4 years ago
  • smurph25
  • St_Alia_10191
  • alivein85
  • samonster34
  • BunnyHaze
  • tateness
    • 0
      tateness  

    • The only thing more awkward than watching Paris Hilton eat... well, anything, is having car washing as the premise for a fast food commercial. I'm going to write a commercial where I take my Jet Dry-ed champagne flutes to my mechanic for a celebratory toast. Carl Sr will help with the production costs.

    • 4 years ago
  • zp
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