Yes. I noticed this one over the last week or so... I don't have cable and don't watch a lot of TV, but it seems to be on constantly. Anyway, I can't quite put my finger on why it bugs me, but it definitely does.

Yup, saw it and immediately didn't like the message. I don't know what's worse, the message that women should expect men to buy them stuff, or the mom's surprise and what I think is admiration at her daughter's skills of manipulation. I get the impression that the girl has no intention of even talking to the boy, but find the idea that her behavior implied some kind of reward for buying the sundae disturbing. I don't go to DQ anymore anyway, but I would stop going to a company that uses 8-12 year old female sexuality to push its products any day. Enough with the gendered stereotypes as well!!

It would be tacky and dumb enough if they weren't pre-pubescent children, but since they are it's just creepy. And I agree, Voila, the mom's seeming approval is extra creepy.

Actually yes. I'm not sure why companies think I'll buy their product if they tell me that I'm manipulative.

Agreed- these tired sexist cliches need to go. I flat out do not accept any free drinks at a bar- 1) who knows whats in it 2) I don't think a man needs to buy me a drink to hold a conversation 3) I have the money to buy my own thanks. Seeing the "boy must buy girl treats/drinks" dynamic reflected in children is even more disturbing.

wow. what a bad idea for a commercial.

So very very wrong on so very many levels. Yick.

Many girls don't want boys to spend on them. Most boys spend on girls purposely to impress them and at the end to break any relationship, they use this an excuse saying,"you bitch, you exploited me financially".

I'm tired of the general "men will buy me stuff because I'm a beautiful woman" message, but I find this even more disturbing because this girl appears to be about 9 or 10 years old. And the mom is so proud of her little darling's ability to manipulate boys for free food?!?

Wow! I'm not a big DQ customer anyway, but I'll still be adding DQ to the places I won't patronize.

I can't let this go...it's like they are trying to bring back the 50s or something, too. Like make that era seem all innocent and squeeky clean. It's like Dairy Queen's backlash against feminism ... I'm going to Shake's.

I actually thought it was cute ("the gentleman in the donkey shirt") UNTIL the girl sort of rolls her eyes and says, "It's like shooting fish in a barrel." Gross!

I think they could have carried this commercial off successfully if they simply focused on the cute kid sending over an ice cream, as opposed to making the girl out to be a manipulative little shrew. (who, of course, will grow up into that sitcom stereotype of the hysterical wife who calms down when her husband buys her something).

Argh! Advertising is all kinds of problematic...

Please tell me you guys are joking. "I don't go to DQ anymore anyway, but I would stop going to a company that uses 8-12 year old female sexuality to push its products any day." I see no sexuality in this ad I think you need to ask your self why you are seeing this girl as sexual. What if the sexes were revered you guys would be criticizing the stereotypes of the male player who uses and abuses girls. When I first saw this ad it threw me off because the girl is coming off as a gold digger with the line she says. Then I saw it again and thought maybe she knows this boy from school, all they did is wave at each other, maybe he is her secret boyfriend. Her mother looked shocked at what her daughter says not approving. This is what irks me about feministing sometimes they seem to find fault in and over analyze the most mundane things.

Awful, awful, awful! I agree with Maggie, it could have been cute - maybe. But this, the manipulative sexy little girl? I know several people have put her age at 9 or so, but she doesn't look much older than the girls in my 5 year olds preschool class. Not that I would feel better about the commercial if she were 16, but it would take away some the icky-ness of it.

Speaking of which. The weekly in my town just highlighted the following shock-and-horror website:

http://myfreeimplants.com/

That's right. Generous "benefactors" can buy you a boob job (and other cosmetic surgery!) if they like the pics you post of yourself. Seriously, read the FAQ.

I watched it without the sound on, and it's still sick.

The concept reminds me of the disturbingly mature young boy and girl in Airplane, but the undertones in the ad are creepily unironic rather than satirical.

Hard candy- I get what you are saying and think its totally applicable, particular in the instance of the Cyrus debacle. But, here, I don't think the issue for at least some or most is that we are seeing the girl as sexual, but recognizing that the commercial people's motives were to put the commercial together that way--they made it strikingly similar to a cultural narrative that is often sexual, usually takes place in bars, and also in beer commercials everywhere. It is just too similar to a narrative, a stereotype, that we are all uncomfortable with because it says hey girls, use your looks to get stuff, and hey boys, you are suppose to do anything for a pretty girl, the end.

I also agree with Maggie. I thought it had the potential to be cutesy (in a blech way) until that last "shooting fish in a barrel" line.

Are we supposed to be identifying with the little girl who uses her "wiles" to score an icecream from a boy she clearly doesn't like? Because all I feel is sorry for the little boy who spent his money on a little girl who is clearly not worth his time.

All this commercial makes me want to do is turn the channel.

Yeah, ew. This commercial airs regularly where I am and every time it comes on I feel a wave of self-loathing. I work for these fuckers, and I'm not even joking, my supervisor selectively bonds with male staff over GTA4 (not the parts which sound cool, the shooting hookers and strip club bits - it just seems so calculated to be a feministing nightmare). Wahh...

Wow. They're practically trainning young girls to manipulate guys and teaching boys that if the girl doesn't "reciprocate" (aka, go out with him or whatever the guy intended to get)then she must be a manipulative shrew. I mean, jeez.

I agree with Maggie... the commercial was cute until the "fish in a barrel" line.

And also with HardCandy... I don't necessarily see this commercial as explicitly sexualizing the little girl but it most certainly calls in the "women want men for their money" stereotype.

I was kind of icked out by it in general though.

I agree with Maggie... the commercial was cute until the "fish in a barrel" line.

And also with HardCandy... I don't necessarily see this commercial as explicitly sexualizing the little girl but it most certainly calls in the "women want men for their money" stereotype.

I was kind of icked out by it in general though.

Hardcandy & laurenly, the stereotype of women as gold diggers is based on women using their sexuality to get stuff from men. The stereotype is that women will have sex with men that front enough assets. the girl doesn't have to be presented in a sexual manner, but this is stereotypical dating in miniature. The girl used her sexuality to flirt with the boy, giving him the impression that she was attracted to him. He then bought her a sundae to impress her, and that implies that he finds her attractive too, though I'm not saying he wants sex, but maybe he'll expect her to "put out" a hello or a hand hold.

And if the sexes were reversed, I don't know how we would be discussing it. We might discuss what would probably be considered satire. And if we were discussing a male player that uses and abuses girls, well that's the same thing as a female player that uses and abuses the boys, and I'm pretty sure we'd be criticizing DQ for using a little boy's sexuality to sell a product, although that kind of thing is rather rare.

And look at the commercial again. At first the mother does look shocked, but then her expression changes. You can read her body language however you want, individual interpretations will vary, but I read her expression as impressed. If I were the mother, I would also be impressed with my daughter's skills, but the moment would pass and I'd make her go over and apologize while paying the boy his money back. While I think it's sad that girls are expected to act this way, I also see it as a survival skill in out current social climate, but I wouldn't want my daughters thinking it's ok to manipulate people to get anything, especially stuff they can get for themselves.

Lol, is it wrong that from the "womanhood" mentioned in the title I thought the girl got her first period so her mom was taking her out for ice cream?

Yeah, not really into that commercial. Kind of pissed me off, especially since they could have made it just pathetic and cute- but they had to go for sick and mean.

It rubs me the wrong way. And the first time my mom saw it she said, "That's horrible!"

Good timing, I just saw this for the first time today and was pretty icked out.

At first, I thought the girl was refusing the sundae because she wanted to look dainty and skinny for the boy, and I was like, "Ugh, that's bad." Then when she got the sundae from the boy, I was like "Oh, okay. No wait...BAD!"

i like it. yeah, perhaps it can be construed as a girl getting a boy to buy her something (which personally i don't see much wrong with, but moving on..), but what i see is a young girl who is confident, eating ice cream, and feeling no kind of self-consciousness or shame about it, in front of boys. and yes, the like about shooting fish or something was stupid. but in general, i think it was cute, and i agree with those who said before that the girl is *not* being sexualized, and those who believe she is might possibly be projecting just a bit...

I saw this commercial and my eyes just about rolled out of my head. Usually every commercial makes me roll my eyes in disgust but this one was by far the most insane. I don't see it as much anymore but that doesn't mean it's not still playing...Hopefully not on the Disney channel.

I truly wish this situation were a stereotype, but it's sadly the norm.
I'm sure the daughter even learned that trick from her mother, since the "Mom" does nothing to correct her daughter's disgusting behavior.

DQ you ought to be a shamed. This ad is not cute, and whatever benefit of the doubt anyone could give your company went out the window with that "fish in a barrel" comment!

There's a discussion of this ad at commercialsihate.com. I use the same name there, so you can see which comments are mine:
http://forums.commercialsihate.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=437

I sent this video and that link to Cara at the Curvature yesterday . . . it creeps me out.

The first thing that bugged me when I saw this ad on TV was that the little girl wasn't buying the ice-cream to begin with- her mom was paying for it. What 6-year-old tries to save her mom's money?

Violet,

That commercial is bad, but those panties... Arrrrrrgh! And at walmart no less. I thought they were "Family values" and all that crap.

Is sex really doomed? Is it gonna forever be about money or control or dominance or manipulation. HollywoodFem, where are you when I need you?

Nice, I was going to point this one out, actually, but I couldn't seem to find it online...
The thing is that the kid doesn't have a sense of paying her own way. And the mom doesn't stop her from getting something from some boy who presumably is a complete stranger... the little girl has a sense of entitlement to it... I don't know the whole thing creeps me out.

My little brother and I saw this ad for the first time the other day, and we just stared at it in shock. And then my brother went, "That's... sick. SICK!" We started ranting to each other about how horrible it was until The Colbert Report came back on.

For those people who think that we're projecting... really? This is an ad where a little girl tells her mother not to buy her ice cream because she knows a little boy will buy it for her... because the little boy likes her. She's using that to manipulate him into buying something for her, and then she makes fun of him by saying, "It's like shooting fish in a barrel."

That's not projecting. The ad might not be overtly sexual, but the implication that it's appropriate or acceptable or cute and funny when a 9-ish looking girl manipulates a 9-ish looking boy's feelings in a way that plays RIGHT into the gold digger stereotype... Like my brother said, it's sick.

Little girls should not be portrayed as manipulative gold diggers. Little boys should not be portrayed as toys or pets for the little girls to manipulate. Little kids in general should not be portrayed as fitting nasty adult stereotypes.

I actually interpreted the mother's expression as "what the hell?" rather than approval at her daughter's machinations.

This definitely would have been cutesy/pathetic instead of creepy and offensive if they'd left out the idiotic fish-in-a-barrel line.

This is particularly disturbing because this commercial will appeal to young kids (Dairy queen, the actors are their age). So it's teaching them that women are conniving little bitches who use their charms to manipulate innocent, gullible guys. I FRIGGIN HATE COMMERCIALS.

I personally see this in the category of "kids do the darnedest things." Who hasn't seen a kid imitate adults to a degree that seems so inappropriate in context that it comes out humorous? Tons of humor has been derived from this concept, and I believe this commercial to be an example of it. Rather than sexualizing young ones, it focuses on them acting like adults in the whole guy sends over a drink stereotype. To me, the implication is that the kids saw this ritual on TV and are now replicating it without proper understanding of the ritual's meaning in our culture. Now, the ritual itself may have issues, but I believe it to be separate from this specific concern about kids being sexualized.

My two cents.

Dragonclaws, I see your point, but I disagree. It is meant to be humorous because of the juxtaposition of adult bar themes mixed with kids. It does not appear that the kid is blindly repeating something she's observed, she shows an understanding with her snide "like fish in a barrel" comment. So it's basically the stereotype of manipulative- shrew - in- a -bar only, HAHAHA with kids!!! How adorable!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I see what you mean after rewatching it. I'll refile it under "weirdly disturbing."

Did you catch the very subtle emphasis in the voiceover? "...and whipped topping..."

Tacky.

HardCandy, I refer you to one of the B-Movie critics' rules: if the audience has to invent a backstory on their own in order to make a script palatable, the writers have failed.

Besides, even if the little boy was this girl's "secret boyfriend" or some such, how is her contempt for him justifiable?

Violetlightning -- I love how everyone on that board is blaming the girl for being a "gold-digging little whore" and a "floozy," as if she's not a character in a fucking scripted commercial who's being written to act that way.

Anyone who has trouble believing that the profusion of gender stereotyping on TV feeds into people's prejudices and/or thinks we're "reading too much into it" need look no further than that discussion.

Also, chalk up yet another commercial where males are portrayed as hapless rubes (think the "donkey" reference was incidental? 'Scuse me miss, this is from the jackass in booth 2"), and females are portrayed as openly contemptuous of them.

I really don't think the mom is outright approving her behavior. When the man brings her sundae out, the mom is sort of looking at the situation and her daughter, probably thinking that this is something really sweet and that the boy over there is someone she knows/likes/is a crush or something. But then mom realizes her daughter knew what she was doing after hearing the "fish in a barrel" remark and reacts with a look of total shock. And since it's a commercial and we don't get to be privy to what happens NEXT, I'm at least a liiiittle comforted that mom reacted appropriately, rather than patting her on the head or something and saying, "THAT'S MY GIRL!" How gross would that be!

But that whole "donkey" and "whipped" thing really irks me. Siiiiiiiiiigh..

Here's what pisses me off: we're all trying to have a constructive discussion about how to fix fucked up advertising that screws with people's minds and either creates in part or at the very least perpetuates social constructions of gender, race, etc....

...and inevitably, one person will come along and say, "Dang, you ________ [feminists; racial awareness activists; People of Color; professors] just wanna see inequality in every little thing, don't you?"

And one person will be all it takes. All of a sudden , our most nuanced and well-thought out arguments are as ashes in the brains of the vast majority of the populace, who nod and say "yeah, God, can you believe how they harp on the dumbest crap?"

I've seen this happen in "real" (i.e. not internet) life too many times to count.

Please, to all those who try to make these arguments, STFU(nobody on this board).

I'm so frustrated that I could pull my eyelashes out.

THE LITTLE THINGS THAT MATTER, TOO. SOMETIMES, MORE.

Those little things are the things that stay with us, sometimes for the rest of our lives. Like color-coding gender for baby gifts.Like the fact that 99.9% of household cleaner and laundry detergent and diaper ads feature WOMEN, of childbearing age, no less. Like the fact that 80% of hair advertisements in _Essence_ mag are for perms, and that 9 times out of ten, every ad for every product of any kind features a light-skinned female.*

The "little things" are the most insidious and sometimes even the most damaging because they inhabit our daily lives and take up residence in the passive corners of our brains, where we internalize them.

Thank you for posting this DQ ad, but I don't need the aggravation. I almost had a coronary of disgust when I saw it for the first time two weeks ago on TV.

HOW do we reach people who would dismiss our arguments as petty carping or over-analysis? How can we demonstrate to people who scoff at the idea of a Cultural Studies major or ridicule a grad course deconstructing gender and ethnciity in Pee Wee's Playhouse that what's on our magazine and in our entertainment and news counts?

I'm genuinely at a loss. Any ideas?

*Statistics pulled out of my butt to make a point, but real ones I've read were comparable.

I didn't read the mother's reaction as approving at all. To me, she looks skeptical and amused when the sundae arrived and she realizes her daughter flirted for it. Like, "OK, kid - clever. But watch it."

Then, her second reaction (to the fish-in-a-barrel comment) strikes me as very surprised and taken aback.

I think the girl character has gotten the impression (from adult examples, but not necessarily her mom's) that manipulating guys to buy you stuff is cool, fun, and useful. Hopefully in their little fictional world, it's just a phase, and the girl will grow out of it.

Okra: agh, your comment is kind of heartbreaking. And very true. I don't know... sometimes I think you just CAN'T know how much little things matter until you are the one targeted by them, slowmotion avalanche style. But I hope I'm wrong and that people respond with ideas.

Man, that commercial is annoying. It's not offensive enough so it tends to fly under the average radar but also manages to perpetuate stereotypes quite well. I hate the whole gold digger thing, unless you're actually sifting dirt for gold. I remember hearing a girl say, "Boys buy me drinks because I'm a cute girl." And she said it in her best little girl voice. She was like 20. Ugh! When I said that I would buy my own damn drinks my friends were like why? Of course, then I had to explain that nothing is free, there is always a cost like to my pride and the fact that the guy usually wants something.

I was actually just thinking about this, a few decades ago women couldn't easily enter the workforce or have jobs with decent pay so they had to marry a man who had a good job. Thusly, the gold digging and why the man had to pay for everything. Of course, the woman who wasn't able to earn her own money and so resorted to gold digging is the manipulative shrew.

kokadaimon, you are too right about needing stuff directed at you to hit home (personally, I try NOT to focus only on those things that affect non-Europeans and/or women and try to branch out by joining advocacy groups, etc. for European minority cultures, GLBT issues, etc. Though, really, if you're a humanist, all of this stuff is realted anyway).

This is why I really do empathize with those European-American men who feel put upon and under attack by "the new multiculturalism" (whatever that is). Because I am an ethnic minority and a woman, I KNOW what it's like to get the short end. And I don't want "White" men to go through that either. But my empathy goes twirling down the drain when it's accompanied with a permanently embattled attitude that refuses to acknowledge the pervasive elements of misogyny and racism at work simply because they are expressed subtly and in ostensibly innocuous media. I really don't know HOW to find common intellectual ground with someone who wants me to acknowledge that men are made fun of in sitcoms but who wants me to relax about the many rap songs relating to "golddiggers" or a button that says "Rape: It's just surprise sex."

Speaking of the former, Micing, my friend asked me to see the movie Made of Honor with her. I have nothing against romcoms per se, but suffice it to say, many of them disappoint and disturb me. Anyway, I went. And the whole time the gold-digger theme was playing out (a wealthy man in his seventies marrying a chain of women with large breasts and little *apparent* active intellect), I kept whispering to my friend: "Okay, so the woman is marrying him for his money. He's a rapidly aging and never-all-that-attractive man who feels it necessary to BUY the affections of a companion, who knows that every time she performs a sex act, she is doing it out of obligation and not out of shared attraction. How f-ing sad is that, and how much sadder that society as a whole has no comment on this man's part of the equation, only on the woman's?"

Oh, and this charming little movie also had an exchange wherein Our Hero Patrick Dempsey and said older man [Sydney Pollack] accuse each other of being "pussies," over and over, in reference to cowardice. "Misogny," I said aloud [don't worry, nobody was nearby for me to bother].

I have a pussy and guess what? I am courageous, plain-spoken and unafraid of speaking my mind, as these characters were.

Gentlemen, please leave my genitalia out of this.

One more gold-digging example:

Mariah Carey marries Nick Cannon. A man of my acquaintance begins huffing and puffing about how she's after his money and will you look at that big old rock on her finger she conned him into.

Whaaaaaaaat the Fuuuuuuck? Mariah Carey could buy and sell Nick Cannon's piddling little entertainment "empire" 10-12 times. Let's face it, kiddies, except for those of you who watch Drumline twice a week (no hate), Nick Cannon is not what I imagine a "gold-digger" dreams of at night.

Carey--a brilliant self-marketer and entrepreneur along the lines of Madonna, by the way, to say nothing of damn talented--is the gold here, got it, fellas? The woman is the gold.

yep.

yep.

and I got a letter from them:

Dear Ms. Boyd,

Thank you for contacting International Dairy Queen, Inc. (IDQ) with your comments regarding our commercials featuring Waffle Bowl Sundaes.

I am truly sorry that our commercial has upset you and that we have disappointed you.

Your concerns have been documented and forwarded to all appropriate IDQ personnel for their review. We are taking your comments seriously and will take them into consideration as we review our advertising plans for the remainder of this year.

Best regards,
Carolyn Kidder
Senior Consumer Relations Manager
INTERNATIONAL DAIRY QUEEN, INC.

I wouldn't "cannonize" either half of this couple. Celebrities for the most part are yucky people and these two are definitely birds of a feather. Strike 1 against Nick is that he actually dated a Kardashian. Strike 2 is that he can't seem to stop his compulsive cheating. If the "spoils" of fame are your thing then stay single!

As for Mariah's "brilliance", she didn't exactly make her 200 million by selling sand in the desert. While Madonna' s "blond ambition" has demographic limitations, Mimi's African, Irish & Latino "product" knows no bounds. I'm sure Carey's mobster/music exec 1st husband realized the possibilities of the then 23 year old. Either way both celeb ladies use way too much titillation to make profit. And titillation from profit is why this thread got started in the first place. Looks like the Dairy Queen commercial is just art imitating art.

The reason I say he is her secret boyfriend is because I don't know any little boys that would buy little girls they don't know (even if they are cute) anything. They both waved at each other like they knew each other. Now answer me this how in the world did she manipulate him. I keep seeing that word thrown around and I don't understand why. What did she promise him, he is the one who bought her the ice cream she did not say a word to him (secret boyfriend?)? Are we now buying into the women/girls manipulate men/boys with their looks (or hand waving) because I though we long gave up on that one.

You know what maybe that is what the commercial wants us to believe that females manipulate males with their looks and it seems to be working, even on so called feminists.

You know what maybe that is what the commercial wants us to believe that females manipulate males with their looks and it seems to be working, even on so called feminists.

As Misspelled said everyone here is jumping on the girl's back saying her mother should have said something to her or she is perpetuating a gold digger. HELLO the boy did not have to buy her anything he made that decision but we are attacking the girl for accepting it. Are women who go to bars or clubs and accept drinks from men trifling? No. Accepting something from a man or boy does not make one a gold digger, if he didn't want her to have it then he simply didn't have to give it to her. We feel sorry for the boy because he spent his money on a girl that probably doesn't even like him. Why are we not criticizing the boy for believing that buying things for someone will make them like you? To me that is the saddest part of this. She is using her looks and he is using his money. So I guess using your looks is worst than using your money. Right?

The first thing that bugged me when I saw this ad on TV was that the little girl wasn't buying the ice-cream to begin with- her mom was paying for it. What 6-year-old tries to save her mom's money?

Seriously! I thought the same thing. And what about the little boy? Did he actually have his own money to buy the sundae or did he use his dad's? And how did he get the server to come over there, anyway? Yes, I realize DQ didn't want me to analyze the commercial this much and their ad team probably didn't anyway, but maybe they should have...

HardCandy, no one is criticizing the characters. They're fictional. We're criticizing DQ and its ad team for creating this commercial.

Oh, and Okra, I meant to say I agree with you and really, really wish I had some ideas. With animal rights and environmentalism I try to lead by example and explaining my motives for what I do, but I don't know how to do the same with feminism...

Children mimicking an adult ritual is a recurring gimmick in advertising and other mediums, and I don't think this instance of it is any more sinister than a baby driving a car or kids running a teddy bear hospital. The ritual itself is objectionable, sure, but all the objectionable parts of it have been removed from the commercial to the image itself, to say nothing of what it refers to in the real world, is completely sterile.

Did she say "it's like shooting fish in a barrel"?! Is this a fad expression I haven't heard, or just a popular expression I'm missing because of my lack of pop-culture-attention-span (no tv, no commercial radio - but I do read feministing...)? I'd like to be up on the lingo, but ads like this make me pretty happy to be tv-free.

Wow, another issue that I agree on with everybody posting here.

"Like shooting fish in a barrel" is a fairly old, well-known expression which is meant to indicate that something is very easy to do.

YES! I for one thought it was totally fucked up, and I wrote about it my blog at the beginning of this week after having seen it incessantly on TV all weekend. For anyone interested, I have a link to sign a petition to send to Dairy Queen.
I saw it both as the sexualization of kids and replicating and naturalizing awful gender assumptions about manipulative women (girls) and easily taken advantage of men (boys).

Okay my thoughts. I go to the middle road.
I possibly think it was cute and child like really until she said the shooting fish in a barrel line(what child uses that kind of lingo? its very adult male kind of wording) to show the intent was more to get a free icescream and not the children being friends before or after.

I find the add in its completion discusting and most likely thought up by a bunch of men tossing ideas around on how to do this add. I think most advertisments are thought up by a bunch of men because so many I have seen(I dont have tv anymore)are extremely sexist, or in the situation from the point of veiw of a guy. Why I don't believe we(male/female)are that much different in the begining so much ginder control and bias that they invade adds and so on (i tried to rewrite that a million times to try and get it ironed out, I give up. hope that part makes some fragment of sence some what)

The important thing however I wanted to say is I don't see the mothers look at the end of the comershal as shock and almost discust that her daughter just said/did that. I really don't see any aproval in her face or actions. they cut the add short of her vocalization of the situation. She'd be in some serious hell to pay if that was my child. Id politely refuse her to accept the treat and give her a real good talking to about the situation. She certainly also wouldnt be sharing my sunday either. what a way to ruin a kind mother daughter situation. id be anoyed that she felt she had the right to ruin the kind gesture of her mother to go out on a nice day for sundays together."thanks for the kind gesture mom, but I'm going to milk a free sunday off the boy in the corner, rather than milk you for the sunday instead.

gah. the more I think about it, the worst it gets. so cute in the begining but by the end of it, its really very gross.

blech

I don't even ... know what that means. It's goofy and dumb on so many levels that I'm not sure if I'm offended by it.

That said, I see that it's still fetishizing little girls and showing it's apparently acceptable for them to be sexualized and inducted into the heternormative culture at ever younger and younger ages.

Also, "like shooting fish in a barrel"? LMAO. What an idiotic metaphor to use while you're sitting in a Dairy Queen eating ice cream. The ad's really playing off some kind of women's empowerment rhetoric: Those silly men (or boys) are stupid enough to buy into the idea that money and favors will get them the girl, but little do they know she's on to that game and has got them wrapped around her little finger! She's actually not girly and cute at all, like the boys thinks. She uses metaphors that conjure thoughts of guns and killing animals.

The ad's just plain stupid. I don't like it. But lots of other ads, including recent lines of Virginia Slims magazine ads, have appropriated feminist/women's empowerment rhetoric to the end of getting women to buy shit.

By way of comparison, here a couple Virginia Slims ads I found on Google:

http://www.rsingh.net/gender/images/virginia2.jpg
http://it.stlawu.edu/~spapson/archive/x0mhenr/parody_virginia_slims_car_and_makeup.jpg

These are relatively mild examples; there are much more egregious offenders, including ones that basically suggest men are idiot animals or should do whatever a woman wants and cater to her needs with no consideration for his own in a relationship. Not exactly what feminists are about when they say "equal" and "non-hierarchical."

Misogynist and sexist. men set up this dynamic and then call women manipulative.

Hmmm...

I dunno, I got squicked out far earlier than "fish in a barrel".

Notice how, after smiling at the boy, the girl tells her mum just to buy one, and later confirms that she didn;t "want to share" with mum. She knew from the off what she was doing.

"Hey, there is a boy! I'll flirt with him and get my ice cream for free! Haha, so easy!"

That the advertisers thought this was a cute idea? So, so wrong. That, plus I always find overly adult behaviour, when enacted by child actors, really creepy.

It could have been cute if, I dunno, the girl had gotten a seat while mum gets ice cream, and girl smiles at boy whilst mum buys. Then when mum comes over with the ice cream, the girl already has some of her own and is sharing with the boy? Perhaps a bit more cutesy look-they-made-friends than icky look-at-the-manipulator?

My first reaction to this commercial was not related to the sexualization of the girl, or her apparent "gold-digging" but a feeling similar to "I don't need you to open doors for me." The message that females can (and should, apparently, judging by the mom being impressed with her daughter's methods) get special treatment because of their gender/sex (and good looks, etc.) perpetuates a lot of stereotypes where men are strong protector/providers and women are weak needy consumers....or even worse, dolls in need of decorating or perpetual children deserving of special treats....like ice cream, coincidently.

If men allow themselves to be manipulated, we deserve to be manipulated. There are more important issues than simple men losing money in some stupid quest for sex.

"Children mimicking an adult ritual is a recurring gimmick in advertising and other med