Skepticism

Sarah Haskins: Story Time

I love Sarah Haskins’ bits for Current‘s InfoMania (the rest of the show is great, too), but this is the first one that I didn’t laugh at. Not because Sarah isn’t funny (she always is), but because the subject matter is so astonishingly awful I had to watch twice to really absorb it all. The ads for Milk were created and approved by sexist idiots. I mean, seriously. Idiots. I’m never drinking milk again. Just watch.

Rebecca Watson

Rebecca is a writer, speaker, YouTube personality, and unrepentant science nerd. In addition to founding and continuing to run Skepchick, she hosts Quiz-o-Tron, a monthly science-themed quiz show and podcast that pits comedians against nerds. There is an asteroid named in her honor. Twitter @rebeccawatson Mastodon mstdn.social/@rebeccawatson Instagram @actuallyrebeccawatson TikTok @actuallyrebeccawatson YouTube @rebeccawatson BlueSky @rebeccawatson.bsky.social

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52 Comments

  1. bahahahahaha! grrrrrrr! bahahahahahaha! grrrrrr!

    My husband and I weren’t introduced by a hilarious coincidence involving a commercial product, does that mean I’m not a real woman?

  2. The ads for Milk were created and approved by sexist idiots. I mean, seriously. Idiots. I’m never drinking milk again. Just watch.

    No, it’s ok Rebecca, you can drink the milk here on the East Coast.
    That milk comes from Californian cows. Sexist, Prop 8 voting cows of pure evil.

    Sparkle!

  3. My periods are more of a Godzilla-type thing rather than a flood. Plus, I drink a ton of milk on a regular basis and it isn’t doing a damn thing to help. So I’m calling bullshit on that particular claim.

  4. I love that PMS featured as the monster in a Damsel in Distress story. Far more terrifying than a stupid dragon…

    And I still don’t get how Prop 8 passed in a state where everyone has a gay friend. My reasons were entirely sexist, I thought my friends two mom’s were total milfs…

  5. What! Not one of those commercials addressed the overwhelming womanly need to procreate endlessless, cranking out babies until their eggs dry up & they are reduced to useless beings.

    How could they have been so insensitive?

  6. “Until a wise peasant, without using neither force nor a sword. . . .”

    On top of everything else, they had to pull a GRAMMAR FAIL, didn’t they?

  7. Do they not have Skinny Cow in the States? They must, we don’t get anything in Canada that isn’t primarily targetted at the US, but I thought Sarah would have covered that by now. Perhaps it’s just too horribly obviously wrong (though, those other milk commercials fall in that category too).

    It’s this diet ice cream product line, that is (hilariously) still twice the calories of the no-name brand ice cream sandwiches I have in my freezer, that features an emaciated, udderless cow named “Skinny” . She seriously, and not exaggerating, looks like she was just released from a concentration camp. Bu she apparently looks great to us women, ’cause we all want to lose our secondary sex characteristics and show off our skeletal system, yay! Trolling through the website is an exercise in misogynistic self-flagellation akin to reading Cosmo while watching Style By Jury and consuming any milk product previously featured on Target Women (yoghurt, cream cheese, milk…).

  8. Oh, please. I think I shall hurl.. Then again, maybe I’m just hormonal. Oh, wait…can I get a glass of milk for that?

  9. @SaraDee:

    We have Skinny Cow indeed… and I believe Oprah raves about it.

    In fact, when Oprah tweeted about Skinny Cow, it became a trending topic… it was one of her first tweets.

  10. I wonder what would happen if Oprah said that eating babies is awesome. Would people finally think she’s a crackpot, or would they give it a try?

  11. I hate fucking princess mechandising. My 5 year old daughter wants a princess canopy bed. I’m still trying to figure out how she discovered that particular piece of furniture…

    So glad we don’t have a TV

  12. @MiddleMan: Don’t blame the cows. It was the out of state chickens that influenced the vote for Prop 8.

    And no wonder I’m depressed, no product, no prince. My whole life is an udder failure.

  13. goddamnit. When I am on the rag I expect plentiful ice cream sundaes and chocolate in abundance. One pansy-ass glass of milk ain’t gonna cut it. Now where is my motherfucking prince with my motherfucking heating pad and motherfucking Midol?

  14. truthwalker:
    This sums up my attitude to the whole princess thing.

    Rebecca, those milk ads are the worst thing I have ever seen. I’m trying to think of what the ads for milk are like down here, but I actually can’t think of any at the moment, perhaps there isn’t much of a need to market milk in New Zealand, most of the stuff gets exported anyway.

  15. I’m not sure if I’m angry about the princess ads. It is not invalid to try to inform people that your product may help them, even if it is a gender related thing (although I have no idea if milk actually helps with PMS).

    It probably would’ve been a good idea to have the guy worried about his hair, then maybe their hyperbole would’ve been potentially less offensive.

    I am still mildly displeased that all princesses are female. Just once I would like to see a fairy tale with a male princess (despite it going against definition). It would make it better if the princess were not stereotypically gay as well.

  16. What happened later: The Princess found out she was lactose intolerant. She spent her wedding night farting under the sheets. In the morning her “magic gas” revealed the true identity of her Prince: A gold-digging ex-hedge fund manager who was only after her country club membership.

  17. The ads for Milk were created and approved by sexist idiots. I mean, seriously. Idiots.

    This is true, but perhaps incomplete. I would argue that nearly all advertising is, due to its inherent sexism amongst other things, insulting to women, men, adults, children, seniors, dogs, cats, insects, dust, the earth.

    Seriously though, if one looks closely at, and does some content and subtext analysis of almost all commercial advertising, the depth of insult to not just gender, but intelligence, wisdom, empathy, respect for humanity, even the species, is pretty darn intense.

  18. “Milk will also bring sunshine to a land devastated by your period tears.”

    Probably the funniest thing I’ve heard in a loooong time. I can’t believe Rebecca didn’t laugh at this!

  19. Freakin’ hilarious. I now love this woman and want to sweep in riding a wave of her period tears to bring her a glass of milk, and marry her so she can be my property and squirt out a few dozen children for me. Not that I want children, I just don’t like condoms.

    Sparkle!

  20. I think I’d be happy as punch if my hair grew snakes.

    Those ads are mindblowingly awful. Do they really sell products? Women fall for this? Really?

  21. @tiger kitty: ,@MiddleMan: OH THE INANITY! Please stop with the bad puns. (Actually I’m enjoying them but if I act as though I can’t stand them maybe you’ll make it worse by doing more.)

  22. @MiddleMan: I daresay I had too much milk of amnesia last night night and forgot the whole thing. I remember 1% , maybe 2% of what happened.

  23. Not to mention all new cars are supposed to be delivered to men with hot swimsuit models on the hoods. So where’s mine? ;-)

    Look folks, at least you’re smart and perceptive enough to recognize and laugh at advertiser’s attempts to manipulate you into buying their products. Many don’t see those strategies at all and are what we call “mindless consumers.”

    I once seriously pissed off a young Marketing grad by observing that the last thing this world needs is another person trying to convince other people to buy products they don’t need or want with money they don’t have.

    Guess the truth hurts. :-P

  24. @QuestionAuthority:

    I once seriously pissed off a young Marketing grad by observing that the last thing this world needs is another person trying to convince other people to buy products they don’t need or want with money they don’t have.

    Guess the truth hurts.

    On behalf of the rest of the world, I’d like to award you with this COTW!

  25. The cherry on top for me was the Google ad at the end for a skin care product. Doh!

  26. I’m really lucky the rest of the lab is down at lunch ’cause otherwise the bizare, deafening, muffled laugh I just did may have got me committed.

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