Misogynistic candy?

[jay]

While in Gibraltar two weeks ago, I was looking for examples of British culture... not Milton or Shakespeare, but the sort of ephemeral culture that one can buy in a convenience store. Digestive biscuits. Tabloids. Bovril. And a couple of yellow-foiled candy bars... "Yorkies", some kind of honeycomb bar. Their slogan, blazoned across the bottom: "It's Not For Girls!" accompanied by a red slash through a miniskirted figure with a purse. On the reverse, next to the nutritional information was a smaller no-females icon with the slogan "Don't Feed The Birds!".

The latter is mystifying... unless somehow bird = woman in Yorkshire slang. The candy was made by Nestle, at an address in York. For anyone reading from the UK... have you seen this? Is this kind of perceived anti-female sentiment commonplace in advertising there? Am I reading too much into a simple confectionery?

Comments

[feline.livejournal.com]

I stumbled across your journal and yes, in fact, 'bird' is slang for woman. I'm not from the UK so I couldn't answer teh rest.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Thanks, and welcome :-).

[mhw.livejournal.com]

No, you're quite right. "Bird" = "woman" in English slang, most often in a sexual context. "Let's go clubbing and see if we can pull a couple of birds" would be readily understood here.

See here (http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/tv/misc_tv/yorkie_bar_quot_not_for_girls_quot/) for discussion on the campaign.

No, I wouldn't say that that degree of blatant misogyny is a common feature of UK advertising.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

The link is very informative, albeit unsurprising. Thanks... although the use of "pull" in that context still sounds funny from this side of the Atlantic.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Bird is common British slang for a woman, Nestle are a big chocolate company here, selling Yorkie bars. Their ad range in the 80s featured a big hunky trucker, with the idea that a Yorkie bar was such a hunk of chocolate it was a man's thing. I've not seen the recent ads, but chocolate ads in the UK have been passing strange of late so I wouldn't be surprised. Its supposed to be ironic, I would imagine, or just the usual surreal stuff dreamt up by ad-men..

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

A macho chocolate bar? Seems strange to me, too. (shakes head) And I'd never heard "bird" used in that context (poisoning pigeons in the park with Yorkie bars? Don't feed the birds?)

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Bird in that use is probably the *most* common alternative term for woman in many parts of the country - "'ere, you looking at my bird?" often being the precursor to some post-pub altercations between blokes.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

That's useful... if I ever travel to the (main islands) UK, I'll now have an idea why I'm getting in trouble before I'm clouted ;-).

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

::giggle::

[ame-chan.livejournal.com]

We are rather fond of Yorkie Bars and in fact, my girls both eat them with great relish and defiance. My oldest, So-chan, has one of the wrappers up on her bulletin board with all of her Girl Power stuff. I think it's pretty harmless.

bird does = girl in Britspeak, too.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

my girls both eat them with great relish and defiance

Heh. Having met them, I can just imagine. Harmless, but it could almost work as negative advertising -- women buying them precisely in reaction to being told they shouldn't, that sort of thing ;-).

[mousefeathers.livejournal.com]

"women buying them precisely in reaction to being told they shouldn't"

Precisely, indeed! Marketing has all kinds of approaches to getting and keeping products in the check-out lines. Activating "oh, yeah? I'll show you" is just one of 'em. It does have to be used carefully, and in moderation, of course--but getting folks defiant tends to make 'em more likely to act.

I would think that most folks see it as a humorous attempt to grab the contrarian tendencies of the buying sector by putting a self-referential skew to a long-running older theme. This should spruce up interest in an otherwise boringly familiar stand-by--or so the advertisers must hope.

Seems to be working? :-)

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Working? Can't say as regards the UK... as far as my purchase went, I only had a few minutes and was looking for something different from the usual Cadbury and Nestle assortments that I could find in the US or even in Spain. I hadn't seen these "Yorkie" bars anywhere before... so I guess that the shiny foil wrapper worked ;-).

[p3aches.livejournal.com]

what are the hard rock cafes like in spain?

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Ulp. I don't know... I couldn't find the one in Madrid. You can throw something at me... or I'll try again to get your T-shirt next deployment.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

I don't really get this campaign, either - I mean, why alienate half your potential customers?

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

And you live up in the North, near York, too? Besides, I've thought that demographically, adult women bought more chocolate than adult men...

[trinker.livejournal.com]

There's a Pocky flavor called "Mens Pocky", which is dark chocolate.