GOT MILK?
The backlash against Benna’s advert is absolutely deserved. But in the age of engagement, negative feedback plays in the hands of companies looking for quick profit, becoming less of an effective strategy in encouraging change.
If you are a man and would like to learn more on women’s issues and become a better ally, especially when witnessing sexual harassment in any shape or form, do follow Women’s Rights Foundations and Mediating Women; Balancing the Media.
THE ADVERT
First off, I’m one of those who thinks that the advert, in addition to its implicit sexism, is super passé, poorly produced and lacks any imagination whatsoever. You don’t need to watch the video if you feel it will trigger you. I’m not linking either to minimize engagement, although it’s good to watch it first to understand what I’m talking about, without condoning anything about the advert, content-wise and technically.
In any case, to save everybody some time, long story short: guy and woman bored at work, guy drinks Benna Red Velvet, guy fantasizes about woman co-worker. Like the milk is spiked with some kind of patriarchal hallucinogenic. Finally, trite catchphrase.
One could say the silver lining is that it sparked much valid debate about sexism and the way women are perceived and treated in Malta, inside and outside the workplace. However, I am slowly becoming firm in my belief that debate is just that, debate.
The time for debate is over. More than over, it is redundant. We’ve talked the talk, but the walk is far from being walked.
A VICIOUS CYCLE
Women are rightfully becoming impatient, because every time something of this sort happens, the response is always reactionary and never proactive. Here’s a step-by-step guide of how nothing changes:
1. Controversial material published
2. Backlash happens
3. Some big heads (for eg. politicians) make statements, promise change and debates
4. Publisher of controversial material makes token apology
5. Nothing happens
6. Go to step 1.
It’s just a vicious cycle of continuous frustration and missing the wood for trees. In the meantime, the spotlight is taken away from the victims of sexual harassment to be even able to tell their own stories. And how many more victims need there be for something fruitful to happen?
ENGAGEMENT IS THE NAME OF THE GAME
In the meantime, did we ever consider the implications of focusing too much on the backlash and outrage, instead on the urgent need of action? I was also curious as to how much Benna actually made in sales of the milkshake, despite calls for boycott. Honestly, you got to ask yourself, whatever your take on the advert is, how many of you did the thought of how the milk tastes like cross your mind?
Unbeknownst to Benna, they might have hit the motherload of revenue generation — they have hacked emotion. Yeah, highly doubtful that whoever was responsible for marketing actually thought things out to a T, and if sales numbers are anything to go by, the marketing team just got super lucky, despite the lack of vision.
As we’re stuck at home, our social media consumption increased tenfold. Remember the old adage of “bad publicity is good publicity”? Translated into terms for the social media age, engagement is the name of the game. Yes, even those that called out the advert as sexist — it’s irrelevant whether the feedback was positive or negative, the hype their advert caused helped Benna achieve maximum return in brand awareness.
I know, I know, I’m giving lots of credit where it is not due, but this is not the first time that happened — remember Game On? Anyone? No? Back in 2016 there was outrage, in addition to calls for pro-active action being made, and seeing that we’re back at it again, it would be quite justified to say that nothing proactive happened.
So, to this day, there are still no safeguards to prevent any of this to happen again, or if it happens, the right actions are taken (fines, pulling it off air etc). Outrage is justified, but when misdirected, it is pointless and a waste of valuable energy to be invested in change. Ads like Benna’s are just a part of a series of symptoms. It doesn’t matter the gravity of the symptoms, though. If the cause is not addressed properly, the symptoms will keep appearing again and again and again, because we buy into the outrage, rather than unhacking ourselves out of it. So with outrage alone, not only are issues not properly being dealt with due to no actions being taken, smarter marketing teams will look at this and see opportunity for more profit. LovinMalta is already thriving a lot from this model (though the irony doesn’t escape me when some of my work was featured on the website, I am absolutely sure it didn’t generate as much traffic as this lactose conundrum did).
While I stand to be corrected, according to this report, published in October 2018, there’s still no clear definition of femicide in the Maltese Criminal Code. Femicide? Aren’t you taking it a bit too far? It was just an ad! I would agree with you — it is just an underwhelming, easily dismissible advert, but I would be doing a huge disservice to any women who was at the receiving end of sexism if I don’t acknowledge that the advert is, ultimately, problematic. While the backlash is validated and justified, it is alienating us away from the real question at hand — what is causing adverts like this to still be thought as acceptable?
So basically what I’m saying is, we are, in a sense, investors with a highly resourceful capital called emotions, expressed in outrage. Why are we investing that capital in companies that exploit that capital for profit, instead on investing in initiatives to bring about direly, highly overdue changes to society?
CONSCIOUS RESPONSIBILITY AND PUTTING CHANGE IN ACTION
I am very well aware that the next line will be misconstrued as some dismissal of call out culture. I totally support the issues behind call out culture, but I must admit it is slowly becoming a self-defeating strategy. This question needs and has to be asked — while calling out raises awareness of what is wrong in our society, is it actually taking away valuable resources that should be directed into putting change in action?
This might provoke an emotional response which it is ultimately valid, and I acknowledge it. But if there’s anything I’ve learned the hard way, if we focus too much on how we feel or others make us feel, we think less about solutions to things that are bothering us. In the long run, the value of outrage is mostly short-term. It is understandable that it requires an incredible amount of energy not to give into outrage, but hacking ourselves into focusing that energy charge into taking conscious responsibility will absolutely lead to a much better, more efficient way of problem-solving.
Think of it this way — trolls revel in the outrage they cause, but have we ever considered that this focus of outrage is on the most part alienating? That actually politicians capitalize on this distraction as they’re not held accountable for their work in parliament?
I mean, talk about missing the woods for the trees, and if you allow me to indulge in a bit of call out, the Maltese MP Therese Commodini Cachia’s reaction to the Benna advert is really something. Not only does she put the blame onto the wrong people, the milk farmers, rather than those actually responsible for the campaign — the campaign marketing team, boycotting Benna products will most likely impact those who’ve had the least to say or anything to do with the campaign. What is she going to do in her capacity as parliamentarian? Let’s also not forget that Commodini Cachia made it clear she’s against abortion — not exactly on the forefront on at least jumpstart debate on the need of women reproductive rights in Malta, either.
But, in all fairness, at the end of the day, despite totally disagreeing with her insight, she’s the only one who spoke out, or at least quoted as speaking out. Again, why hasn’t the media asked the take of male MPs in Malta? After all they make out 87% of the Maltese Parliament, so it would be interesting to know their thoughts, since they’re most likely to call the shots on these issues. I’m also not done with the media yet. Again looking at you, LovinMalta.
A COURAGEOUS STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
That being said and out of the way, now it’s time to take into account the most crucial aspect of this whole conundrum — men. Yes, us men. We can say that taking account of our words, actions and inactions will not be enough, that you feel scared and anxious. If there’s anything we should be scared of is ourselves. Do you think it’s right that 3 out of 4 men sexually harassed women at work? What does it say about us when 9 out of 10 men sexually harassed young women in the UK? And yes, I purposely flipped the headlines, because it’s also high time to change the narrative of how harassment is reported — told you I wasn’t done with the media yet.
Taking into account words, actions and inactions, whether by ourselves and others may not be enough, but it’s a courageous step in the right direction. It takes a lot of emotional energy to be vulnerable in a world that seems unforgiving of the vulnerable. But it’s just that, a perception of the world, and the less we worry about how we are perceived, the more we become leaders in our example to other men. We don’t need to rescue women, if women feel safe around us to begin with.
So, once again, if you are a male who would like to learn more on women’s issues and become a better ally, especially when witnessing sexual harassment in any shape or form, do follow Women’s Rights Foundations and Mediating Women; Balancing the Media for resources and more information.
