Walmart ads offensive?

Question

Am I the only one who is offended by the Walmart back to school ads.

There are at least two ads featuring "the perfect mom" talking about how she wants to help her kids go back to school and learn to succeed. The mom with the boy buys him a computer. The mom with the girl buys her clothing. So is that all that women need to do to "succeed"? Look good? That's all we can hope for our daughters?

That is just really disgusting to me. It seems we are returning to the fifties aesthetic, where everything is just hunky dory. There was a civil rights movement for a reason!

Answer 1

How do you even notice these things. Seriously...

I don't like wal-mart one bit but I think you took this a little to seriously. I mean it's a wal-mart commercial. They have no imagination and can only put so much into a 30 second commercial. I doubt that they would mean it in that way or they would get no business....

But when you think about it most young women love to clothes shop and they probably thought that it could bump up the sales on their clothing.But I personally would never wear their clothes or buy anything that has to do with wal-mart.

But the founder and family of the creator of wal-mart are very selffish and only care about their profit...They are horrible to their employees to [you should watch that wal-mart documentary]  

I guess I do see your point though...So yes call them up and complain =]

Answer 2

Good point.  I haven't seen them.  I don't get my values or my ideas of what I can be from the tv, but unfortunately many of our young women do!

Answer 3

The Civil Rights Movement as I recall had nothing to do with equality of the sexes; moreover, it dealt with racial issues and equality of blacks and whites.  Before that people of colour had their own separate areas to sit on buses  water foundations etc.  The Women's Movement dealt with the equality of which you speak.  Am I personally offended by Wal Marts ads, not at all.  Because I realize that it is all just imaginary and not real.  If indeed society was to return to a more traditional nuclear family then it would certainly not be that bad a thing.  Sorry that you are so sensitive about the purchases of this mother, but there are just as many ads now adays that show the males of society as being far more stupid than their female partners.  And that should be considered offensive to both sexes.

Answer 4

spending way too much time in front of the tv....get a life.

Answer 5

Well, if you want to be successful, it's a good idea to dress the part.

There are all different sorts of jobs in which one can be successful --  some require wearing overalls, others uniforms, some you can just wear whatever you want, and there are some jobs where you're expected to look somewhat presentable and put together.

There is nothing wrong with looking decent... it's not like Walmart has the same prices as Bloomingdale's Department Store -- they are cheaper on everything and maybe this is what the ad was getting at -- you can get decent things at their store for less? (i'm not sure, i'm not a member of their marketing department).

I'm not comfortable wearing clothes with holes all over them, which are tattered and filthy, unless i'm doing yard work...  

Other people like filth and looking like a wreck.  

I say, to each his own.

Answer 6

geez

Answer 7

Yeah. I think you may be the only one.

Answer 8

I think you're reading too far in to this.  Besides, do you give your children the Wal Mart ad and tell them to make these pictures their life lessons?  You teach them, not anything else.

Answer 9

Wow.I really admire you,I wish there were more people like you.

YOu are really observant.Thanks.

And yea that is offensive,make a youtube video or something and let the people know how you feel.I'd be pissed.

Answer 10

please disconnect your cable.

Answer 11

It's just a commercial! Nobody is the perfect mom! They're just advertising clothing and a child can succeed without a computer for God sakes! It's fine!

Answer 12

OMG Find a hobby. That is like when that dude made the Black hole comment, think about it.

Answer 13

You are rather hyper-sensitive. Stop reading into things and being so whiney.

Answer 14

I think your looking to far into it,It's just a commercial

Answer 15

I think you are reading too much into it. You could also say its being to steriotypical with only the moms shopping! You can turn anything negative it you wanted to. Being politically correct is getting a little carried away... its a commercial either go shop at wal*mart or dont...

Answer 16

My daughter commented on this same thing even though  I didn't notice myself but then I am old. She noticed right away.   After I realized what it was saying or what it seemed to be implying  I agreed too. She said that she was going to complain to Walmart.  You should do the same.  Walmart wants very badly to be seen in a good way by the public and I bet they would pull and  re-do their commercial if enough of us complain.

Answer 17

I do see your point. While I feel that the civil rights movement was a bit extreme and did not help your argument, there is well documented inadequacies in getting young women interested in science (i.e. the computer for the boy)

I think that if wal-mart were more socially responsible, they would do what so many other advertiser do and have boys buying clothes and girls buying computers. However, for whatever reason Wal-mart feels that it is more profitable to market computers to boys and clothes to girls in an exclusive matter.

To me this says a lot more about society than it does about wal-mart. Wal-mart is a business, and it's main and only goal is to make money. The problem here is that we feel that girls succeed through their looks and boys succeed through their brains.

I see a degree of Donna Reed aesthetic here, certainly, that women should be sexually attractive (by buying attractive clothes) in order to find a mate while men are encouraged to be more professional (by buying a computer to do homework) in order to "bring home the bread".

I respect you a lot for looking at ads, but try and remember that advertising is an analysis of society and the advertiser has no responsibility aside from their stockholders.