Project: Canadian Club - Your Mom Had Groupies
In honor of Mother’s Day, Stark and I have been working on a multimedia project. I’m hoping that it can really grow and expand, and that lots of people will participate. Here are the basics:
While I was out for a run recently, I saw a new ad for Canadian Club Whisky. The campaign is called “Damn Right Your Dad Drank It,” and features photos of white men doing manly things circa the Seventies. There are several of these ads. One reads “Your Dad Wasn’t A Metrosexual,” another reads “Your Mom Wasn’t Your Dad’s First.” The one that really annoyed me was “Your Dad Had Groupies.”
Here are the ads, click on the thumbnails to enlarge:
I find this campaign offensive on so many levels. First of all, if Canadian Club is attempting to change their image to increase sales, I find it odd that they are being so exclusionary with their re-branding. Apparently, the only people invited to the Canadian Club Club are White Males, Ages 18-30, women and people of color need not apply. It’s not that surprising to me that a company is aiming at that small demographic, but the way they’re doing it is truly offensive. Basically, they are appealing to men who miss the days (whether or not they were born yet) of grabbing the asses of their secretaries, playing a few rounds at the all-white private golf club, and then going home to their wives, the happy homemakers who would mix them drinks, cook them dinner, and wait on them hand and foot. None of this women’s lib, civil rights, limp-wristed liberal bullshit that men are expected to follow these days. No, let’s go back to the days of rampant sexual harassment, before women could expect to be seen as equals and before the gays turned all those masculine men into pansies with waxed eyebrows. Let’s return to the days when men were men. Please.
Adding insult to injury, visitors to the site are invited to “Put your own dad (or yourself or your friends) into one of our Damn Right ads. It’s downright easy to do, and when you’re done you can download your ad and send it to your friends.” This Ad Maker is where I got the idea for the following project: I was going to remake the ads, but with women. Women who were old enough to be my mom or my grandmother, and with tag lines like “Your Mom Didn’t Shave Her Legs” or “Your Grandma Built Fighter Jets.” The first one I made was “Your Mom Had Groupies.” I included a selection of female musicians that I love, some that were well known, others that were not. Here is my version of the Canadian Club Damn Right ad (click the image to see a larger version):
The musicians are, starting at the top and going counterclockwise:
The Raincoats, an all female post-punk band, who started making music in the late Seventies. Here’s their page on YouTube. Buy: emusic or Amazon
Jesse Mae Hemphill, blues artist and electric guitar innovator. Watch her sing “You Can Talk About Me” on YouTube. Buy: emusic or Amazon
The Go-Go’s, all-girl rock band. Reunited after so many years, check out their homepage. Buy: Amazon
Precious Bryant, Southern blues singer songwriter. Visit her website. Buy: emusic or Amazon
Joan Armatrading, English singer songwriter. Visit her website. Watch on YouTube. Buy: Amazon
Okay, so that’s the end of my contribution. Here’s where the fun participatory multimedia project comes in. As I was working on my version of the Canadian Club ad, I thought, “Hey, wouldn’t it be great if lots of people made new versions of the ad, just like Canadian Club intended, but replacing all the men with women that they find inspiring or influential or whom they love?” So I’m throwing this out to all of you - make a new Canadian Club poster. Put together a “Your Mom Had Groupies” poster with your own set of female musicians. Who would you pick and why? You can make your own poster, or you can just leave a comment, telling me who you would choose, or posting a song that you love. To make it easier, I’ve made a template that you can download. Click to download the larger file:
Here’s the whisky glass to add as a new layer when you’re done putting in new photos.
If you want to play with the other ads, that would be fantastic as well. Put in photos of your own mom, make up new catch phrases, anything at all. Maybe at the end we can send what we have created to Canadian Club and show them how much potential business they’ve lost by not making even one ad catering to women, or we can post our own ads around cities, showing our disgust with the campaign. If I get enough musical selections together I might make up a playlist that will be available for download. So, go forth and be creative! Whatever you make, you can post it wherever you like, but leave a link or an image as a comment here, so that I can pull everything together.
And we now have some of the first reader contributions to the fake Canadian Club campaign (click for larger versions):
“Your Mom Built Fighter Jets” and “Drunk Driving Is Illegal For A Reason” were made by my partner Stark
“Your Mom Had Groupies” was made by Robbie, from the fantastic music blog Womenfolk (featuring appearances by Cyndi Lauper, Nina Simone, Chrissie Hynde, Stevie Nicks and Kim Carnes)
“Your Mom Wasn’t A Stepford,” “Your Mom Played Sports,” “Your Mom Was A Pilot,” “Your Dad Wasn’t Your Mom’s First,” and “Your Mom Wasn’t Your Dad’s First” were made by Photoshop addict Trancer21
“Your Dad Was A Real Man” was made by Wonko.
“Your Dad Wasn’t Your Mom’s First” and “Your Dad Had a Van For a Reason” was made by Coolbyrne.
“Your Asian Wasn’t Quiet” and “Your Dad Doesn’t Buy It” were made by Resist Racism.
“Yours Was the Best” was made by RedHeadInRed.
“Your Mom Knew About Poisons” was made by Elena Landriscina.
“Your Dad Always Apologized” was made by Mental Hygiene.
“Your Mom Was Your Dad” was made by Roman_Machine.
My comments on the spread of the project across the Internet can be seen here
show them how much potential business they’ve lost by not making even one ad catering to women.
Not just not catering to women, but actively promoting the oppression of women, not to mention queers. It’s just a lame ad campaign.
I have ideas for this, but you already know that.
Comment by stark — May 11, 2008 @ 6:52 pm
love what you’re doing here, michelle. I can’t wait to participate.
Comment by robbie — May 11, 2008 @ 8:57 pm
Bravo! What an awesome idea!
I hate those kind of ads, and this is one snappy comeback.
What about “your mom kept her last name”? “your mom had a job”? Or, a modification on that famous Napoleon Dynamite phrase, “your mom went to college”?
Comment by Cyn — May 11, 2008 @ 8:59 pm
These are great. I thought the “Your Mom Had Groupies” one was especially interesting because when you switch the gender in that ad, it has such a different connotation - ie when the CC drinker/rockstar is a woman, the message seems sorta empowering, rather than a reinforcement of super disgusting masculinity.
Comment by Thea — May 12, 2008 @ 10:07 pm
Dude, I thought the ‘Your Mom Wasn’t Your Dad’s First’ was creepy but ‘Your Dad Had A Van For A Reason’ takes the cake. Like someone else said ‘how does learning my Dad was a ho make me want to drink Canadian Club?’.
Comment by trancer21 — May 12, 2008 @ 10:48 pm
[…] Michelle Schwartz has spearheaded what I think is an awesome way to protest. Infuriated by Canadian Club Whisky’s recent ad campaign depicting dated pictures of men with slogans like “Your Mom Wasn’t Your Dad’s First,” and “Your Father Wasn’t A Metrosexual,” Schwartz has embarked on her own version of the posters, encorporating images of music’s most influential women as a way to fight back. […]
Pingback by Womenfolk | Your Mom Had Groupies — May 13, 2008 @ 12:25 pm
[…] men with daddy issues could put their own daddies into the ads. Michelle Koenig-Schwartz began Project: Canadian Club - Your Mom Had Groupies in […]
Pingback by derivative work » Blog Archive » damn good alterations — May 14, 2008 @ 7:53 am
[…] posted a fantastic critique and project in response to Canadian Club’s idiotic “Your Dad” ad campaign (like repackaging […]
Pingback by Starkpages Blog » Your Mom Built Fighter Jets — May 14, 2008 @ 11:17 am
[…] though, Project: Canadian Club - Your Mom Had Groupies has put a beautifully inclusive, humorous spin on this otherwise pointless, misogynistic, […]
Pingback by the good old days » Blog Archive » Fuck You, Canadian Club — May 22, 2008 @ 7:58 am
You are so great! I’m rushing off to make one of my own right now.
Comment by Kirsten — May 22, 2008 @ 11:31 am
These are awesome. It makes me want to start a subvertising blog.
Comment by Leigh — May 23, 2008 @ 1:34 am
I’ve just heard about these via the F-Word (http://www.thefword.org.uk) and they are just utterly fantastic, very powerful responses to the vomit-inducing originals! I fancy going on a spree with some copies!
Comment by Steph Jones — May 23, 2008 @ 2:01 am
This is BRILLIANT. And these ideas are 3000% more creative than the originals. Congratulations!
Comment by Milly — May 23, 2008 @ 2:37 am
[…] Michelle Schwartz has spearheaded what I think is an awesome way to protest. Infuriated by Canadian Club Whisky’s recent ad campaign depicting dated pictures of men with slogans like “Your Mom Wasn’t Your Dad’s First,” and “Your Father Wasn’t A Metrosexual,” Schwartz has embarked on her own version of the posters, encorporating images of music’s most influential women as a way to fight back. […]
Pingback by Your Mom Had Groupies | Developer Home — May 23, 2008 @ 4:16 am
[…] Michelle Schwartz Chronicles » Project: Canadian Club - Your Mom Had Groupies “Apparently, the only people invited to the Canadian Club Club are White Males, Ages 18-30, women and people of color need not apply.” (tags: advertising marketing sexism feminism adbusting CanadianClub white male peopleofcolour) […]
Pingback by links for 2008-05-23 « Canadian People of Colour — May 23, 2008 @ 6:35 am
I loved these!
I’m no graphic designer, so won’t attempt to create this one, but an idea for those inspired - how about “Your Dad was a Real Woman” (or vice versa)?
Comment by SnowdropExplodes — May 23, 2008 @ 9:49 am
[…] for feminist subvertising! Take that, Canadian […]
Pingback by Feminist Law Professors » Blog Archive » “Project: Canadian Club - Your Mom Had Groupies” — May 24, 2008 @ 1:44 pm
You are so wonderful!
Comment by MNObserver — May 24, 2008 @ 6:07 pm
This mom is not so good with the photoshop, but I’d like to invite someone else who is to celebrate alcohol’s role in domestic violence with a picture of a woman’s bruised face and “Your dad always apologized the next day.”
Comment by laffriotgrrl — May 26, 2008 @ 9:21 am
[…] After I posted the initial entry there were some responses from the Livejournal community, where the project was also posted, and by […]
Pingback by Michelle Schwartz Chronicles » Project: Canadian Club - Your Mom Had Groupies Spreads Across the Internet — May 26, 2008 @ 11:31 am
Not so cheerful remake now available, based on my own reaction, and laffriotgrrl’s comment above… one possible downside of alcohol.
I was originally planning to write a blog post around my image, but I’m struggling to put thoughts together. It was a lot harder to make than I expected.
Comment by the good old days — May 27, 2008 @ 10:28 am
Great, great work!
How can I change the text in the template? I’m feeling inspired.
Thanks!
Comment by Kat — May 28, 2008 @ 9:06 am
[…] Michelle’s Canadian Club Adbusting Project has spread its little wings and flown throughout many unexpected places on the internet. I guess we […]
Pingback by Starkpages Blog » Canadian Club Project: Whisky and Vans are not a good mix. — May 29, 2008 @ 10:25 am
[…] several new ads for the campaign, including three very bleak ones that I’ve added to the original entry. It’s amazing how this project has evolved. I had this idea that it would mostly focus on […]
Pingback by Michelle Schwartz Chronicles » Project: Canadian Club - The Only Thing I Ever Talk About These Days — May 29, 2008 @ 7:17 pm
[…] Also via Sociological Images, I see that Project: Canadian Club continues to grow! Check out the newest kick-ass ads here. […]
Pingback by Smite Me! [.net] » Blog Archive » elsewhere on the internets, 2008-06-05 — June 5, 2008 @ 11:45 am
this is awesome! my mom loves CC&Ginger - and she was mortified by the ads!
I love your spin! Can’t wait to make my own!
Comment by bridget — June 6, 2008 @ 11:41 am
Wow, these are awesome! I love this spin on those stupid ads - these make me feel empowered.
Comment by lucy — June 9, 2008 @ 6:41 am
These are great. I think my fave is “Your Dad Had A Van For A Reason,” but they’re all great. Thanks for doing this!
Comment by Haddayr — June 9, 2008 @ 8:21 am
Of course all this is free publicity for Canadian Club… good or bad they are getting attention, and that is what they wanted in the first place. They’ve now had probably 100 times the attention their initial investment for the ads could have ever generated alone, and so I’m sure they are thanking us all.
That said, I think that Canadian Club’s ads were/are irresponsible, distasteful, disrespectful and demeaning both to men and women alike.
I sincerely hope that “we” see an apology from Canadian Club, though I’m sure we won’t.
In the meantime, please continue as I think you’ve raised an important social issue, and one that should remain in the limelight…
Comment by Sheila — June 9, 2008 @ 11:35 am
any woman who finds these ads offensive, needs to get a sense of humor. and also: a life.
Comment by elizabeth ellen — June 12, 2008 @ 3:17 pm
canadian web site marketing…
I can’t believe that I missed your point, I will have to do some research on this….
Trackback by canadian web site marketing — July 4, 2008 @ 2:08 pm
@29: Sheila, you have a point, but now a lot of people are aware of CC and going out of their way NOT to partake of their product and asking their friends to do the same.
There is such a thing as bad publicity.
Comment by Gloria — July 8, 2008 @ 4:49 pm
[…] out this post at Michelle Schwartz Chronicles. While I was out for a run recently, I saw a new ad for Canadian […]
Pingback by Subvertising. Your mom loves it. — July 16, 2008 @ 1:07 pm