Adgadget: Fantasy fembots market male products
Technologically better equipped than booth babes, fantasy fembots seem to be popping up everywhere in ad campaigns these days. Alcohol seems to be popular with the fembots -- they're employed in ads from both Heineken and Svedka -- but Philips is utilizing them in a campaign for an electric razor as well.
It's pretty easy to be creeped out by the influx of ready-to-serve robots -- and not just because these fembots could be the beginnings of the Singularity in disguise. (C'mon, what more suitable "smarter-than-human brain-computer-interface" would be better to take over the human race than one that offered kegs and clean shaves as a "gift from the Greeks"? And who better to be behind the downfall of society than advertisers?) Misogynist undertones run rampant throughout all the ads, so it's no shock that feminine cyborgs are used exclusively in advertising targeting young males -- they tap right into stock fantasies of complete feminine subservience.Svedka kicked things off in 2005 with a humorous "spokesbot" campaign created by Amalgamated. The brand generated a decent amount of buzz -- or at least enough to inspire Heineken and Philips to give the fembots a go. The ads helped establish the Svedka brand in the US, and earlier this year the company was snapped up for $384 million.
Pushing the envelope of good taste a bit further is Heineken's recent "Draughtkeg" commercial, which features a cyborg-like, beer-dispensing, techno-dancing, short-shorts-wearing robotic woman. The ad leaves a bad taste in plenty of viewers' mouths, even while some might salivate at the prospect of owning the ultimate geek girl. With four arms for precise keg tapping technique, the gyrating gynoid dispenses a glass of beer from her body before triplicating herself across the frame. AdAge asked if Heineken had successfully produced "the most sexist beer commercial ever".
Soon after Philips joined Heineken in this tech-tease trend, releasing a spot for its RobotSkin Moisturizing Shaving System. This subservient sci-fi female extracts a device out of her wrist to ever-so-carefully shave a near-naked showering man. A companion microsite to the Philips campaign is an Animatrix-esque attempt at capturing cyberpunk culture, featuring episodes and extras of alienated characters. Philips at least gives an effort to immerse the user into the sci-fi environment with a few interactive possibilities. Previous campaigns for Philips razor "technology" like Shave Everywhere received high reviews for user-engagement, a willingness to let brand standards of appropriateness subside, and overall hilarity. (We attempted to visit Heineken's marketing microsite for Draughtkeg, but after waiting minutes for the "futuristic beer delivery system" to load, we wrote off the future of delivery systems as apparently being too futuristic for our primitive Earth browser.)
So are the mere presence of gynoids, fembots, and cyborgs blatantly sexist? Well, no; Star Trek: Voyager's Seven of Nine starred as an attractive, intelligent, and far-from-submissive Borg (even if her popularity from male viewers stemmed from her physical attractiveness).
So, where's the line between being turned on or turned off by depictions like this? Gadgets give, and everyone likes to receive, right? As offensive or creepy as the Heineken and Philips ads may seem, advertisers can't seem to help tapping into a guilty pleasure between man, woman, and machine. It may turn out that resistance is futile -- at least until advertisers push beyond marketing male-dominated products and give us our apple-martini-dispensing androids.
Ariel Waldman is a social media insights consultant based in San Francisco. Her blog can be found at http://shakewellbeforeuse.com. Views expressed in Adgadget are her own.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
blade417 @ Oct 1st 2007 8:48AM
do they cook dinner?
DickHardknocks @ Oct 1st 2007 12:22PM
Why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars designing and building fembot GYNOIDS based on Asian women when you could just geet the Asian women and underpay them?
Graham @ Oct 1st 2007 8:50AM
Thats...creepy.
ItsTheOMGShow @ Oct 1st 2007 8:52AM
Futuristic. Delivery System. Draughtkeg. Innovation. H-E-I-N-E-K-E-N
L. Cyphre @ Oct 1st 2007 8:57AM
Dammit, hurry up with these persocoms Japan!
Wwhat @ Oct 1st 2007 8:58AM
"And who better to be behind the downfall of society than advertisers?"
Journalists?
strider_mt2k @ Oct 1st 2007 9:00AM
Sex sells?
WHODATHUNKIT?
suv4x4 @ Oct 1st 2007 10:52AM
I can't imagine having sex with a metal robot. It looks like attempt to combine sex and gadgetry in one, but the result is quite hilarious of you ask me.
But then again, I always laughed hysterically on most razor ads, especially Gillette's.
They're trying to sell me razors shaped like sports car. With a fembot.
I'd rather just buy something to shave with, thanks.
Wwhat @ Oct 1st 2007 9:04AM
Incidentally, the "Seven of Nine" character was solely added for her big breasts, and is probably the most overt catering to sexism in a TV show ever.
That the character had some merit was thanks to the actress being a person and the writers not being equal to the executives that decided to add a big-boob character.
Constable Odo @ Oct 1st 2007 9:24AM
With her pretty face and perfect figure "Seven of Nine" should have been called "Ten of Ten." Well, maybe "Nine of Ten" since I'd have to deduct a point for her not being as submissive as I'd have liked her to be.
Andy S. @ Oct 1st 2007 10:43AM
Seven of Nine?
More like Two of Thirty-Six Double D.
L. Cyphre @ Oct 1st 2007 9:19AM
Never thought I'd say that but...
Ooh yes. Me too!
Constable Odo @ Oct 1st 2007 9:19AM
So these fembots have perfect figures, don't talk, always willing to have sex and dispense beer. Well, then I guess they qualify as the perfect woman as created by man. When are they going to be for sale and how much?
Nick @ Oct 1st 2007 9:21AM
And here I was thinking Svedka did well because it was cheap vodka that was smooth... I would have never thought that the shitty ass advertising and the fembot was the reason why consumers drank the product.
Miller Lite and Bud Light have hilarious commercials and entertain me, but when i go to order beer im not ordering a product because their commercial entertained me... im ordering a product that I enjoy drinking.
John M @ Oct 1st 2007 9:25AM
Who doesnt want a robot concubine??? ummm ME!
Matt @ Oct 1st 2007 9:28AM
It's sorta mind-blowing that someone who write for SuicideGirls expresses so much concern about sexism and exploitation, considering that despite that site's efforts to try and convince people otherwise, they give some of the worst rates and contract terms for models in the industry.
coverjunk @ Oct 1st 2007 9:34AM
The Philips ad is very cool:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6ZSZGUlHZ8
Enjoy!
suv4x4 @ Oct 1st 2007 11:05AM
I laughed. Also, the clip seems pretty obviously inspired by Bjork's All is Full of Love. If you watch the full clip you'll also notice familiar melody/mood.
Check a snap here:
http://unit.bjork.com/specials/gh/SUB-01/aifol20.jpg
Just saying as as a side fact (we all get inspired by this or that).
But this, guys, this is an ad that tries to convince you that Phillips shaving system is like being with an alien robot chick under the shower. Overstatement anyone?
The actual shaving system looks more like a dildo gone wrong. All the wrong impressions.
I'd rather be told "check it out: it's convenient, easy to handle, it's affordable, shaves good. The Phillips shaving system"
Alas, we gotta shout and make up bullshit so people pay attention what's on the screen nowadays.
Randy @ Oct 1st 2007 9:38AM
The day that the fembot is perfected where they can be used for ahem, relations. Women will become obsolete. It's not a matter if, but when....
mdm-adph @ Oct 1st 2007 9:55AM
I wonder if women will welcome having men quit bothering them for sex?
Of course they will -- at first. Then they'll change their minds, miss the attention, destroy the fembots, and bring everything back to the way it was.
Then a thousand years later they'll begin wining about it all over again.
Rinse, repeat.
Rad Hatter @ Oct 1st 2007 11:03AM
Just a matter of when, you say? I've been "voiding the warranty" on my Omnibot since at least 1985.
Dauthi @ Oct 1st 2007 2:50PM
Yeah, but simultaneously there will be fetus-carrying robots and male sex/romance-slave 'bots to satisfy us women.
We will all become obsolete from each other, and savor in the personalization programmability.
briandot @ Oct 1st 2007 9:55AM
"...so it's no shock that feminine cyborgs are used exclusively in advertising targeting young males -- they tap right into stock fantasies of complete feminine subservience."
Funny how the most common sex gadget that requires batteries is primarily for women, and might be said to tap into stock female fantasies of men being unnecessary.
But whatever. Even ads aimed at *women* are catering to their desire to be more attractive to men, so it's not like men are the only ones with anti-feminist attitudes.
Ameya @ Oct 1st 2007 6:45PM
I think the
"Even ads aimed at *women* are catering to their desire to be more attractive to men, so it's not like men are the only ones with anti-feminist attitudes."
can be disputed. Those ads to cater to desires so much as try to inflict the pressing need to be attractive to men. Believe it or not, it isn't really what is on most women's minds all the time, but after watching an hour of tv ad all those commericals, it does make one aware of all the stubbly, flabby, wrinkley, stink-ness that one might possess, plus the subconcious absorbing of how "bad" it is to be those things, and how we must go out and consume the antidotes right away.
& I really don't think vibrators are there to tap into unessesary men fantasies, at least usually. Toys are there for when organic alternatives are not.. or are too lazy to do their job. Happens a lot.
Thanks for the article, engadget! I was pleasantly surprised to find such a thoughtful piece here.
Rad Hatter @ Oct 1st 2007 10:02AM
Check out the assimo on her!
Fank @ Oct 1st 2007 10:11AM
And both Heineken and Philips are Dutch companies! Conspiracy!
AdvidG @ Oct 1st 2007 10:58AM
Coverjunk...that was creepy (...those eyes...) but very cool.
Randy...I agree...to a point. The movies 'Cherry 2000 (1987)' and 'A.I. (Artificial Intelligence)2001)' covered these issues.
In A.I., Reproduction has become illegal. Rouge City is the future sexual satisfaction...'Las Vegas', and Robots provide any and all sexual services.
I think most would welcome a Rouge City. All your fantasy's without the bullshit?! The ultimate adult with robot playground. What this will bring to us all, is another choice or option to get your freak on.
But.... Women will NEVER EVER become "obsolete". They are people. Human beings, and the only way (as of now) to reproduce more.
And, When they too Bitchy, just hop on down to 'RC' for a spell!
Randy @ Oct 1st 2007 4:31PM
@ AvidG
W/ respect to man and woman, I agree, that we will still need each other for reproduction, however, I suspect that "most" guys will want the sex fantasies w/o the BS. Which will drive demand for better, more life-like, ever-subservient fembots. I can also imagine a subset of guys that might want something not so realistic such as an Alien (Species comes to mind) or Hentai type fembots.
I'm thinking wayyyy too much into this, I need to stop....
Neo Senku @ Oct 1st 2007 11:01AM
I find the heineken fembot disturbing
Caleb @ Oct 1st 2007 11:17AM
I for one, welcome our new Fembot overlords.
Jeff Foster @ Oct 1st 2007 12:57PM
that wasn't funny when it was said 15 comments before you got here, and it's not funny now, nor will it ever be.
Caleb @ Oct 1st 2007 12:59PM
You can suck my robot dick.
John @ Oct 1st 2007 11:21AM
I sometimes behave like a male chauvinist but the minute I saw the Heineken comercial I was taken aback. Like others have said, it is disturbing and perhaps the most sexist since the early seventies.
Seventies airline commercial - "Hi, I'm Suzie, fly me."
Dauthi @ Oct 1st 2007 2:52PM
She's even got the '70s hairstyle going on.
JackD @ Oct 1st 2007 11:27AM
The Philips razor ad was actually kind of hot. I feel dirty for saying that now.
sgt_easton @ Oct 1st 2007 11:42AM
This has to be the most well written, pointless article I've ever read on this site.
So, what's the difference if the "objectified" woman is human or a robot made to look like a woman?
And why is someone that is "alternative" watching network television in the first place?
sgt_easton @ Oct 1st 2007 11:44AM
Oh yeah, and bring on the automated beer wenches.
Keats @ Oct 1st 2007 2:06PM
The Philips commercial is innovative, well-made and introduces a new product. Those things alone make it a better commercial than 95% of the other commercials out there. I actually like to watch it!
About the 'fembots'... there's no doubt in my mind that in the future most of us will have robots in their household, and that some of those robots will end up replacing human companions/partners.
These days, it becomes increasingly difficult to find a suitable partner. People want too much, and aren't willing to give enough themselves. Programmable companions are the perfect solution. Either those, or a dog!
GameboyRMH @ Oct 4th 2007 3:00PM
Either those, or a dog!
-----------
Just say NO to beastiality, kids :P
Robert @ Oct 1st 2007 2:20PM
Is "the downfall of society" in reference to "The Singularity"?
That's so negative.
Especially for someone that's tapping into the internet for speedy info and intel.
I'm looking forward to the merger between man and machine.
Traveler @ Oct 1st 2007 2:39PM
I'll probably take too long for them to come into the market.
Plus, I probably can't afford it.
A 5-inch robot costs hundreds; and a life-size rubber girl costs thousands.
The term "affordable" is rarely for the common people.
Shunnabunich @ Oct 1st 2007 8:45PM
And high-end computers aren't considered affordable by most, but there's still a market for them.
I think when things like "persocoms" do make it to market, whether or not they include the ability to copulate, they'll be extremely sophisticated, and thus extremely expensive — tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars — and won't become ubiquitous for many years afterwards. But on the other hand, an interactive, humanoid computer would be kind of a special thing, like a companion of sorts, and most purchasers would likely only get one, perhaps in addition to their other, more conventional computers. It'd be regarded as a significant purchase, both financially and personally. (Then there'd be your multibillionaires with a house full of 'em, of course.) As for sexuality, you can debate the morality of replacing human companionship with that of a machine until the cows come home, but the fact remains that some people won't be able to resist the temptation, for any of a million personal reasons.
Oh, also: what do you wanna bet no humanoid computers sold in North America will come with sexual functionality because of all the outraged Bible-thumpers?
Ethan @ Oct 1st 2007 4:20PM
I think if it's going to fulfil anybody's fantasy, at least it doesn't insinuate that real women are like that (like the gilette ads, or lynx, but who take it seriously?)
thedude @ Oct 1st 2007 4:24PM
I like the idea of a beer dispensing fembot, but I have to insist that it be at least as jiggly as my local Hooters waitress - the big plus would be not having to tip the fembot 15%. As for reproduction we just have to keep reaping ova and perfect the syntho-uterus and argumentative whiny women will become obsolete. I see stem cell research being invaluable here.
Nah, I actually love it when my wife comes in and says " Do these jeans make me look fat" and then when I give her an honest answer she calls me an @$$hole and doesn't speak to me for the rest of the day. Oh well at least the game is on and that will be interrupted with plenty of Heineken and Phillips commercials
Klaus Burton @ Oct 1st 2007 4:46PM
Is it just me or does the song on the dancing parts of the Heineken website linked to from this article closely resemble Daft Punk's Technologic? Seems like a bit of a stolen idea to me
keithwwalker @ Oct 1st 2007 11:52PM
Blatantly sexist? Hardly, women have had vibrators almost as long as there has been electricity! Men get their comeuppance!
johantmn @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:25AM
I for one welcome our sexy female beer dispensing robot overlords!
MasterCKO @ Oct 1st 2007 1:24PM
j-f'n-c, I really want that joke to die already.
hesse @ Oct 2nd 2007 6:13PM
advertising sucks. the philips ad is a blatant rip off of the bjork video. and the heineken ad is creepy. if they want to use sex to sell products, at least they could make it sexy...