With insightful and under-appreciated media analysis, FedEx in a 2005 Super Bowl advertisement identified ten items needed for a television advertisement to be top-ranked.[1] One of those items was a kick to a man’s groin. Assaults and other traumatic impacts to a man’s genitals are a staple of media action and humor. For example, the 2004 Super Bowl television broadcast included a Bud Light advertisement in which a man prompts his dog to rush up to another man and bite him in the genitals.[2] The 2008 Super Bowl television broadcast featured an advertisement in which Justin Timberlake gets his crotch rammed against a post repeatedly. Super Bowl advertising spots are the most expensive advertising spots available to advertisers. Exploiting traumatic impact to a man’s genitals doesn’t provoke outrage about abuse of men, but rather helps to sell products.
Traumatic impact to one’s genitals is a common experience for boys. A representative, scientific survey conducted in 1992 estimated that 7% to 11% of boys ages 10 to 16 experienced at least one assault on their genitals in the prior year.[3] A representative, scientific survey conducted in 2002 estimated that about 8% of boys ages 2 to 17 experienced at least one assault on their genitals in the prior year.[4] Most men have probably experienced at some point in their lives an assault on their genitals. Such assaults are barely recognized as a public problem.
A major reduction in traumatic impacts to boy’s and men’s genitals would require a fundamental social revaluation of males. That’s unlikely to occur. Nonetheless, individuals can still exercise some freedom. Honor and cherish men’s genitals!
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Read more:
- World Bank ignores men’s struggles
- today’s elites kick ordinary men in the genitals
- valuing men’s lives higher makes men more heroic
Notes:
[1] The ten items for advertising success identified in the FedEx advertisement:
- celebrity
- animal
- dancing animal
- cute kid
- groin kick
- talking animal
- attractive females
- product message
- famous song
- bonus ending
The “groin kick” is more accurately described as a “kick to a man’s groin.” Showing a sexual assault on a woman wouldn’t lead to advertising success. While this FedEx advertisement obviously is meant to be humorous, its media analysis is quite accurate.
[2] This advertisement is widely available on the web and apparently remains popular. It’s commonly described as a banned Super Bowl commercial. That’s not correct. This advertisement was actually shown during the 2004 Super Bowl television broadcast.
[3] Finkelhor and Wolak (1995) p. 1694 shows point estimates of 9.2% and 9.1%, with 95% confidence intervals of 7.5% to 11.0% and 7.1% to 11.2% for the first interview and follow-up interview (which occurred on average 15 months later). The corresponding figures for girls are point estimates of 1.0% and 2.2%, with 95% confidence intervals of 0.4% to 1.6% and 1.1% to 3.3%.
[4] Finkelhor et al. (2005) p. 9, Table 1, shows point estimates of 7.8% and 2.9% for boys and girls, respectively. No confidence intervals by sex are given. For children not differentiated by sex, nonsexual assaults on genitals increase significantly across the age groups 2 to 5 years old, 6 to 12 years old, and 13 to 17 years old. Id. The wider age span in this study contributes to a lower overall estimate of assaults on genitals. Moreover, since such assaults are less likely to be sex differentiated for children ages 2 to 5 years, the wider age span also implies less of a gender protrusion in assaults on boys’ genitals relative to assaults on girls’ genitals.
References:
Finkelhor, David, Richard Ormrod, Heather Turner, and Sherry Hamby. 2005. “The Victimization of Children and Youth: A Comprehensive, National Survey.” Child Maltreatment. 10 (1): 5-25.
Finkelhor David, and Janice Wolak. 1995. “Nonsexual assaults to the genitals in the youth population.” JAMA: the Journal of the American Medical Association. 274 (21): 1692-7.