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Is the New Droid Ad Anti-Women and Anti-Gay or Just Plain Idiotic? Actually, All Three!

by Kara Swisher
Posted on December 5, 2009 at 12:24 AM PT

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droid2

What in the world can one make of the new ad for the Droid, the Motorola (MOT) smartphone with Google (GOOG) Android software on the Verizon Wireless (VZ) network, which apparently put out this commercial?

Here’s what: It aggressively calls the Apple (AAPL) iPhone a dumb blonde and then a prissy dude in need of a beatdown.

Let’s put it this way: The 30-second clip makes Glenn Beck look like Gloria Steinem and Adam Lambert combined!

Earlier advertising for the Droid has been clearly aimed at the he-man demographic, with a beer-commercial tone and a growly-voiced announcer.

So what? That’s marketing 101. But this one–titled “Pretty”–goes entirely too far.

“Should a phone be pretty?” it begins, using an odd series of images that is packed full of random misogyny. “Should it be a tiara-wearing, digitally clueless beauty pageant queen?”

Then comes all the manly imagery–a racehorse, a powerfully pointed Scud missile, bananas and buzzsaws to represent the Droid. A surging missile, as well as several creamy explosions too. Get it?

And let’s not forget the bunch of fey, effeminately-dressed mannequins, with one getting bashed with an ink-filled ball thrown by some tough masked thug with the line, “Is it a precious porcelain figurine of a phone?”

Then back to anti-women name-calling, saying an iPhone is a “princess,” unlike the Droid, “a phone that trades hair-do for can-do.”

It is true that sometime a phone ad is just a phone ad–but, in this case, sometimes it’s just appalling. It would be funny, if it weren’t so mean-spirited.

But, please, you be the judge of the video of the television commercial, which is on Verizon Wireless’ YouTube site:

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  • Christoph Kummer
    Love that commercial...would never have seen it without this rant. Went out and bought a Droid yesterday and cannot put it down. So much fun. The princess commercial gets the Droid... Off topic: why does the WSJ have REALLY old people in charge of writing about gadgets... it's like listening to Gramps Walt and Kara :-)
  • jlinden7
    Swish,

    You're out of your element hear, stick to writing about technology not social issues. I have a hard time understanding how a commercial focused on capabilities vs fashion design has anything to do with anti-women or anti-gay. I have 2 beautiful daughters and a beautiful wife, all 3 are princesses in my eyes. The manikin was a mall fashion model. Since when does a man dressing fashionable make him gay? Making that statement seems anti-gay to me. Why do you feel the need to stereotype?

    Leave your PC comments aside and write about the things we all enjoy you writing about, technology.
  • tits_mcgee3
    ...I also am intrigued by all the comments telling you to "get a thicker skin," "stop being so PC," and that this was a stupid/waste of time/bullshit thing to write about, and why don't you write about something that matters? If this was such a stupid thing to write about, why did everyone read it and comment about it? If the messages in this ad, and others, are really so inconsequential, then why is everyone acting like it's blasphemy that you are critiquing it? It's common knowledge that the tech fields are dominated by men, why is it supposedly out of the realm of tech-related subjects to address gender stereotypes that are perpetuated by the tech industry?

    Oh, and for all the people who love to throw around the term "PC." Can someone tell me what they it actually means? Just wondering.
  • tits_mcgee3
    I think this commercial is awful, the latest example of the increasingly overt degradation of women that has been showing up more and more in major ads lately. The only thing sadder than these messed up commercials is the lack of discourse and outrage in the public sphere - for it is woefully uncommon for even progressive men to chastise other men for their gendered attacks. Why is it that in order to appeal to "masculine" men, companies insist on putting down women, and femininity? Why are companies appealing to men to experience their masculinity as a way to feel superior to women? And why does this commercial insist on showing us over and over just how stupid and clueless pretty women are?
  • destardi
    Um, aren't 'beauty pageants' and terms like 'princess' deemed anti-feminist, and anti-girlpower?

    It feeds into the male power structure. Being against such things make the commercial an equalizer, not an oppressor.

    Oh, but wait..I forgot that Americans tend to think of themselves as "post-feminist". Yea, tell Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin that. FYI - It's just a commercial.
  • George Slusher
    Thanks for your service. I never said that Verizon didn't have the right to make this ad the way that they did, just that it is disrespectful to American soldiers. I also have the right to cancel my Verizon service because of the ad.
  • George Slusher
    In the initial Droid ad, a man is thrown from a horse in a way that, for anyone other than a stunt man, would almost surely result in injury. (I've ridden for 40+ years and taught riding for 34 years.)

    Every service member is my colleague. When any is killed or injured, I am concerned.

    I doubt that Verizon INTENDED disrespect. They just weren't thinking.
  • destardi
    Wow, really? Get over yourself...you have the right to react anyway you like, but that doesn't stop you from being overbearing and basically a tool.

    And for your 'points' about the Droid and Verizon, you're incorrect on most which leads me to understand your later postings which made me laugh in regards to your response towards Verizon's commercial.

    1) True
    2) Um, not paying attention? APPS2SD is already in the works and will be available sooner than later.
    3) Touchdown? Virus protection? Wipe and locate? You're not that informed
    4) Again, not familiar with LINUX huh?

    Seriously...I doubt you're a Verizon customer. No one would post such misinformation and 'faux outrage' at a silly commercial unless they had an ulterior motive.
  • George Slusher
    Maybe you missed the point: the Droid is sold only in the US, but Verizon used an enemy weapon that killed American soldiers. What will they say, next--"Sleek as a Boeing 757" and show the impact on the World Trade Center?

    As for "worked," it sure did. I've been a Verizon customer for 5+ years, but will be leaving them soon because of this ad.

    Also, APPLE didn't "come out with" a jewel-encrusted iPhone. There are many companies that modify the cases of iPods, iPhones, and MacBook Pros.
  • George Slusher
    1. You should tell Verizon abou this. They told me that you cannot access email or the web while on a call with the Droid on their network--not using VOIP.

    2. The limitation for games, etc, is not the processor but the memory. Android Marketplace apps can be stored only in the built-in RAM; the OS (as it comes) will not let you store or run apps from an SD card. It's unlikely to be changed, as it will facilitate stealing & sharing apps.

    3. The Droid doesn't have even the security features of the iPhone, much less the BlackBerries.

    4. The multi-tasking makes the Droid wide-open for malware, as apps can run in the background without the user even knowing it. One of the most popular Android apps is TasKiller (I hope that I have the name correct), which can show the user which tasks are running and give the option to kill them, assuming that the user can figure out which task does what.
  • slickmcfavorite
    This awful blog post is a perfect example of one of many things that's wrong with our society these days. This feminazi, extreme-PC way of thinking is disgusting and the fact that it is not only accepted but shared by others is disheartening to say the least.

    Oh and George, where exactly in the Stealth commercial did they show civilians being injured? And the only "damage" it caused were those droid pod things plunging deep into the ground. Are we now claiming that Verizon's message is that they're trying to destroy the earth through their advertisement?

    Seriously, find something better to do with your time, people.
  • destardi
    Actually, you're totally wrong with the 'feminazi' comment first of all.

    Second, the author is far from a true feminist otherwise she would hardly be arguing against an add that ridiculed beauty pageants.
  • I watched the ad a few times trying to see what was wrong with it. The ad calls the iPhone a beauty queen and the Droid a robot. That's spot on. The iPhone is beautiful and the Droid has been criticized by many for being so angular, black and like a machine.

    I'd go a step further and say that iPhone is a cheerleader and the Droid a nerd. Who wins? It was too long for a comment so I wrote about it at http://dlew.is/dr1
  • shawncooke1
    I think you really need to grow up and take things the way they are. If VZ wants to (hurt) themselves by singling out men as their buyers, so be it. Women and gays have more and more rights everyday, but dont try to make everything sexist, or racist. I dont get mad when a clothing store uses good looking, built people to sell their product. I know it wont look that way on me. So i just go on with my life. Maybe you should take advise instead of give it.
  • jenn21
    The most offensive thing about the commercial is that someone has taken the time to blog about it as if the commercial has a negative affect on anything. If anyone was offended they need counseling and in-fact the poster should enroll in some as well if she felt this was a necessary piece and that a company looking to sell a product would actually attempt or set out to demean groups of people who would be prospective customers.
  • JHrumph
    Kara: Who cares? You actually wasted 300 words on this idiocy?!
  • The problem with the droid ads is that they don't interest me at all in the phone. I like verizon's network, although i've been dealing with cell phone companies too long to think that any of them have a customer service motto other than:

    "Rat-fuck the customer until they can't feel us vacuuming their wallets dry"

    They all suck, but Verizon has paid more attention to coverage than most.

    But there's nothing in the ads that makes me vaguely interested in the Droid itself.
  • zegwin
    Wow.... Ok... You people look into things way to much.
    When I was in high school my english teacher told me a story where a guy read a book by, I believe, Washington Irving and wrote him a long letter about all the symbolism and meaning in it. The author then wrote back saying you are wrong. I just wrote a book. Sorry that I can't quote exactly but I think I make my point.

    Personally I think you are doing the exact same thing here.

    Oh and scud rolls off the tongue better then tomahawk.
  • iiimegamaniii
    Oh my gosh--grow a pair!

    It's a commercial, and if I pointed-out every single male-bashing advertisement / sitcom / show / book / etc. I've seen in the last 30 years I'd have you trumped in spades. Stop this "PC" and overly-sensitive B.S. mentality and see it for what it is--a commercial which pokes fun at the iPhone without mentioning it by name. It's called creative marketing and if you could see through this dark cloak you're wearing you might actually get a chuckle out of it too. Sheesh...
  • darlaj
    The ad is homophobic in that it's trying to capitalize on anxieties of males as to whether they are being perceived as heterosexual. Motorola might as well be saying, "If you carry an iPhone or a Pre, you'll look sissy." This is a tried and true advertising tactic that goes back to the days of Listerine's "Even your best friends won't tell you." The Droid is implied to symbolize machismo. Other phones are effete in the Droid universe, by virtue of their attractive design and good ergonomics which the Droid purposely lacks. The writers of this ad are promoting the logical fallacy that if something is attractive, it is by definition weaker and less effective. (Yes, that does have misogynistic implications.)

    This is not a revolutionary ad. Motorola and Verizon are experimenting with a variety of approaches. At the end of the day, the Droid is going to have to be a good device, and it's going to have to appeal to people who either don't have a penis or don't consider theirs in their electronics buying decisions.
  • groovyd
    how did you pull those thoughts out of that ad? it is like growing a bean stalk from a jelly bean... i think you are the perverse one here...
  • techmom2010
    It's a phone ad -that's it!!! I was the prom queen, own a DROID and think advertising is advertising. I choose to pick my causes a little more carefully. For example, maybe you should spend time saving pets, helping the homeless, etc. etc. Nobody is calling anyone stupid (digitally clueless) does not mean a person is "dumb". And to distort the ad as "anti-gay" OMG. I don't think Verizon is targeting the Gay community. GET REAL and worry about things that are truly important. This debate is a total joke and waste of time. Can't believe I read this pointless article. Gotta go and work on something I believe in.
  • JamesKatt
    Alienating all women and all gay men is going to reduce Verizon's market by 60-70 %.

    Way to go, Verizon!
  • rotfl123
    All politics aside for a moment, do you own an iphone? I believe it would be hard to write an unbiased review of anything anti iphone if you any vested interest in its success. For the record I don’t own either phone however I do think the debate is pretty funny.
  • I'll confess to liking the production values of the ad, but I'm shocked that they'd equate the product's speed to Scuds! Clearly the copywriters were babies or not yet born during 1990's Persian Gulf War where Scuds were Saddam Hussein's missile of choice for bombing Israel. So, maybe we should add anti-semitic to the list of offenses? (I was seriously considering buying a Droid, but I'm an intelligent, successful and reasonably attractive woman who now sees the Droid as the telecom equivalent of a blow-up doll.)
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About Kara

Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference. Read more »

Ethics Statement

Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.

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