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Many people watch the Super Bowl game for the ads as much as the game itself, and rating them has become a national pastime. What's been missing so far is an accounting of how the ads portray women. That's why the NOW Foundation is proud to present this, our first-ever feminist review of the Super Bowl commercials.

The National Organization for Women Foundation, and its sister organization, NOW, have long recognized the importance of media in women's lives. The portrayal of women and girls, people of color, and other disenfranchised groups can affect how they are viewed in society and how they feel about themselves.

Through the Watch Out, Listen Up! campaign, the NOW Foundation has been monitoring primetime television programming for the last three years. This year, we decided to branch out, urged on by a number of calls and emails we received during this football season, complaining about the prevalence of sexist ads.

What We Found: Few Surprises
Comments from the Feminist Monitors
Best Ads (Top 15)
Worst Ads (Bottom 15)
We've Got a Long Way to Go

What We Found: Few Surprises

Men were again the big winners in the Super Bowl ad extravaganza—many more men than women were employed to act in the commercials, and much of the content of the ads was directed at the male viewer.

The humor was clearly aimed at young men, with women being the butt of many jokes. A number of ads featured exclusively male casts, while others had only one or two female characters. The large majority of movies advertised were violent, male-oriented action flicks. The ads did not feature or appeal to a wide age range, starring mostly young, thin and able- bodied actors.

No female sports stars appeared in any of the ads, compared with at least six male athletes. And male celebrity spokespeople outnumbered females as well, though by a smaller margin. Exploitative promos for ABC programs came under fire from viewers, as did several of the "message" ads, which our feminist monitors felt were manipulative and misleading.

On the positive side, monitors noted that a significant number of people of color appeared in the commercials this year, and that racial diversity was prominent in several ads.

Almost every monitor expressed disgust with the Anheuser-Busch ads, noting how much better overall the Super Bowl commercials would have been without them.

Comments from the Feminist Monitors

• "All the 'watchers' in my front room agreed that Budweiser should NEVER be purchased by any self-respecting woman."

• "I was generally either bored or disgusted with most of the ads."

• "The overall diversity in the ads seemed surprisingly good, actually better than television ads in general."

• "Women are irrelevant, invisible, stupid, or body parts. There were about three real, empowered women. Others were overwhelmingly ditzy. There were also a LOT of very stupid men. Someone's idea of equality."

• "Even the somewhat funny ads were at the expense of women—as if we're stupid and can by used and walked over."

• "These advertisers and their ad agencies' personnel apparently do not include this consumer in their demographics, for they failed to communicate with me at all."

• "I don't mind the number of male-oriented ads. In fact, I will get worried when the ads are more female-oriented. I prefer to think that not many women care about the Super Bowl."

• "I would not drink a Coors of a Budweiser if it was the last beer on Earth ... When it comes to these two companies, they seem to be in competition for which can create the most sexist, degrading ad. I'm sure the contest is not over."

• "The movie ads were all violent. Even though I want to and will probably see a few of them, looking at them as a whole I was disturbed by the amount of violence contained in the ads."

• "These ads are by, for and about a violence-practicing society."

Best Ads (Top 15)

#1: Sierra Mist — Baboon gets cool

"Very creative, interesting visually."

#2: Pepsi Twist — Ozzy Osbourne's nightmare

"It was clever and made me laugh out loud."

#3: Sierra Mist — Dog and man cool off at fire hydrant

"I thought this was cute; creatively done, without offending anyone."

#4: FedEx — "Cast Away" spoof

"Good to see a woman be on top of things, showing the man that he should have been smart enough to open the package."

#5: White House Office of National Drug Control Policy — Subway rider sees victims

"Powerful, diverse, way to view casual drug use differently."

#6: Yahoo's HotJobs.com — Workers sing about rainbows

"Excellent diversity!!!!"

#7: myFICO.com — People urged to see themselves "how lenders see you"

"Nothing special, but extremely diverse actors, and non-violent (relief)."

#8: Visa — Yao Ming is a tourist in New York City

"Good on diversity. Humor aimed at ethnic/language differences, but not in a necessarily degrading way."

#9: George Foreman Grills — Various people use grills

"Variety of people ... trying to sell grills, not women's bodies."

"Good use of non-English-speaking representatives."

#10: AT&T Wireless — Gilligan's Island

"The wireless phone and its great uses were illustrated with a twist of humor."

#11: Anheuser-Busch — Clydesdales and Zebra

"Cute use of graphics and animal ... did not offend anyone."

#12: GM — Man and Cadillac travel through time

"Nice use of time in a commercial for a change. None of the usual insane rushing or pressure. A pleasant trip."

#13: Levi's — Bison stampede

"Skinny, pretty people. I did notice, however, that when the bisons came through, they each individually stood their ground, instead of the woman clinging on to the man."

#14: Chrysler — Celine Dion

"Although she is a superstar, I thought it was positive to show a woman driving down the road, by herself, singing ... I thought it showed independence and joy. I would like to see the 'average' woman driving in that ad, though."

"Nice to see a fully-clothed woman driving the car instead of an almost naked one draped over it."

#15: Sony Electronics — Retired man blasts off

"One of the few older people in the ads, and one of the few seemingly intelligent people. Nicely shot, like a mini-movie."

Worst Ads (Bottom 15)

#61: ESPN — "Without sports, there'd be nothing to wear."

"Terrible, black hip-hop stereotypes; woman with cleavage grinding her hips; what was it advertising?"

#62: Philip Morris — Dad and son play baseball

"The ultimate in PR hypocrisy."

"No real mention of the long-term damage of smoking, even if you start smoking after the legal age."

#63: Anheuser-Busch — Reggae act

"Pokes fun at Jamaicans; relies upon racial stereotypes."

#64: Anheuser-Busch — Michelob work-out

"Put an intimate portrait of two thin, attractive people, of course a woman and man, and everyone will buy the beer—and lose weight while they're at it!!!"

#65: Anheuser-Busch — Guys try to pick up women with conch shell

"Guy gets two women and acts as if he expected this."

"The women do not talk. Men do most of the talking during the football game commercials. It's 'women as decorative sex objects' time."

#66: Anheuser-Busch — Guy in clown suit drinks beer

"Gay bashing ... no need to make a homosexual joke in order to sell a product."

#67: Coors Light — Viewer fast-forwards to "The Twins"

"This is the most horrible commercial and the lowest of lows."

#68: White House Office of National Drug Control Policy — Pregnant teen and parents

"Teen use of marijuana may impair judgment, but it doesn't make you pregnant ... Creators of ad have impaired thinking."

"I think this is a scare tactic, and that the government wants to blame something for unplanned pregnancies, since of course they won't blame their abstinence-only education."

"Abortion is an option that is not acknowledged. Suggests that marijuana is the only reason teens get pregnant. No effort to promote safe sex, which is really the problem."

#69: Anheuser-Busch — Strongman contest

"Once again, women get to be window dressing, showing skin and reacting to men. Sexist and exploitative."

"Makes fun of weak, old, little people."

#70: Anheuser-Busch — Man with three arms

"This commercial would have been good and funny to anyone, men or women. But in that last scene, the third arm just had to grab the woman's ass."

"Insulting that a woman would sit there and have dinner with this freaky, beer-drinking caricature of a Black man who, later, uses his extra limb to grab her butt."

#71: Anheuser-Busch — Guy's mind wanders to sports while girlfriend talks

"Very disrespectful; we need to encourage more respect for women and ads like this certainly don't help."

"Women's concerns are not important and she is perceived as being clueless to the fact that her date is ignoring her."

#72: Reebok — Linebacker Terry Tate roughs up the office

"Bad use of diversity. Stereotype of African American being used for his muscles in a position where he should be using his brains."

"Funny but excessively violent."

#73: Anheuser-Busch — Two men gawk at women in yoga class

"Sexual exploitation. If I were a guy I would be insulted by this ad."

"Crotch humor with a new age touch."

#74: Anheuser-Busch — Guy wants to date girlfriend and her roommate

"Shows 'pretty' woman fulfilling guy's fantasy of 'having both'—yeah, right."

#75: Worst of the Worst: Anheuser-Busch — Guy sees girlfriend's future in her mother

"The commercial implies that overweight women are unlovable. It was a truly tasteless commercial and there is no need to offend so many people to sell a product."

"Misogyny and fat hatred defined!"

Honorable mention for awful ads: ABC's promotional spots for "Alias," "Am I Hot?" and "The Bachelorette"

"I was especially disgusted by all of the ads for 'Alias' with Jennifer Garner traipsing around in bikinis and underwear. What was once an interesting show with a strong female lead, has been reduced to T & A for the football game."

"Sexist. Violent. Disturbing. If this is what the network is doing to try to improve ratings, we should be very concerned."

We've Got a Long Way to Go ...

Women still have a long way to go in today's commercials, particularly where beer is concerned. The NOW Foundation encourages television viewers to talk back to advertisers: If you call or write the advertiser and the TV network every time you see an ad that offends you, together we can begin to create an environment that is more welcoming and positive about women and girls.

Ultimately, it is up to the viewer to decide whether she/he wants to purchase products advertised by companies that have so little respect for their female consumers.

Credits

This analysis was prepared by Lisa Bennett, NOW Foundation Communications Director, and made possible by volunteer ad analysts from across the U.S. Thank you!

Footnote: Methodology

Our feminist monitors all volunteered for this project. They reviewed and graded a total of 75 commercials that aired during or directly before or after the game. The monitors viewed these ads using guidelines in four categories: diversity, sexual exploitation, violence and social responsibility. After tallying all of the monitors' scores, we ranked the ads from #1 (the best) to #75 (the worst). All of the quotes in this report come directly from our monitors' reports.