WomenOlogy

Click photo to view commercial

I can tell you this much. I sure do love flowers, but I won’t sleep with you just because you give them to me. I’m pretty sure the majority of women won’t. Teleflora, I’m sorry, but you’ve missed the mark. When it comes to Super Bowl ads, it’s fairly obvious the things that play well include: humor, family (particularly humorous takes on the family – VW/Star Wars, Chevy), pop culture references, and reversing gender roles because both women and men find them increasingly frustrating and tired. Adriana Lima may be stunning in this commercial, but here’s where Teleflora lost the opportunity to do something truly clever, something charming, something downright funny. Just think of all the things you can do with a super model and references to ‘not getting pricked’ because ‘when kissing, tulips are better than one’.

Adriana’s line: “Give and you shall receive” speaks to all that people despise when it comes to dated stereotypes about men and women. Ideally, we want people to give us something because they love us and are thinking about us. If that’s too ideal for some of the jaded skeptics out there, we, at the very least, want someone to make light of the things that annoy us about our own culture, not normalize and perpetuate them.

We don’t want people to give us something so that we, in turn, have to give them something back. That’s called ‘blackmail’. In some cases, that’s also called ‘prostitution’ and, while some might argue that ‘this is just the way things are’, I will argue back that we create our own reality and if you want to fall straight into that trap, go right ahead.

In the meantime, I will be hopping into the sack with my husband because he treats me well, confides in me, cooks like a Top Chef, and is there for me when things are tough. Flowers are nice, but that’s simply a gesture that works in tandem with the very hard work called The Day-to-Day.

Iris my case.