Criminal #13: Stouffer's Skillet Sensations

It's been ages baby, but I'm back and I'm just as infuriated as ever. What now, you ask? What could have possibly pissed me off now? Well, the hard truth of the matter is this: I work in a mall, worse than that, I have a job that involves the two main industries responsible for stereotypes as we know them (hello movies and music). As much as I'd like my first post after a long hiatus to be a huge rip into the company I work for, I think that would be a bad idea so I'll just say this: The amount of things I'm seeing on a daily basis that piss me off are phenomenal. The list is getting longer by the day.

Today's criminal is one that I happened to see numerous times the other day while I was home with the flu. Stouffer's Skillet Sensations. What's wrong with a fast, easy, and healthy meal you ask? I'm sure the meal is fine, it's the latest advertising ploy that's making me sick.

The Hunt for the Sensational Husband Challenge

Okay, sure, I'm all for trying to hunt sensational husbands down, get them to stop hiding and whatnot, but I think, I think they may have gone about it the wrong way. Unfortunately I couldn't find a clip of the commercial so bare with me. Essentially the commerical is suggesting that A) Husbands never cook and/or need to be persuaded into doing it B) Cooking dinner once makes you a sensational husband and C) Men are too dumb to handle anything that isn't prepackaged and ready to be tossed in a pan. (See guys, I'm standing up for you here!)

Visit the site http://www.skilletsensations.ca/en/men/ to take a look at the contest. It's very straight forward, every six weeks Stouffer's will send a postcard to your home, inviting the man of the house to make dinner (right after he finishes his ice cold martini and you get his slippers for him). Bla, bla, bla, you win prizes, yadda, yadda, trip for two to Australia. Sure, it sounds appealing, but what are the undertones of the commerical saying?

Cooking is a womans job normally. Men need things prepackaged. Women and men alike should be amazed and consider him to be sensational for doing a task that really ought to be shared in the house anyways.

Sorry, we fought for equal rights for how many years and people still believe a womans place is in the kitchen? I don't think so. And what about single fathers, do they order out every night or do their children just starve or is it even remotely possible that they *gasp* have cooking skills and are capable of feeding their children every night?

It's a subtle commentary on our society today. No matter how modern we consider ourselves, commercials like this keep pulling us back with the simplest suggestions. Here's a challenge for you, Stouffer's: Visit a real home where both parents are working nine to five monday through friday. Visit a real home where man and wife (wife and wife, man and man, wherever you live, whoever you love I dont care) work together as a team to take care of their children and put food on the table every night. I hope I find one of these commericals to post because it basically explains itself.

Stouffer's, you're on the list.