The Wiserhood is a club I would be ashamed to be a member of.
For the uninitiated, The Wiserhood is the fictional "Society of Uncompromising Men" from the Wiser's Whiskey ad campaign.
The latest commercial in the series features a man at a movie theatre checking out a display for a new action/horror flick called Swan Song, with the tag line "Death is back for an encore," which he obviously wants to see. When his girlfriend shows up and suggests that Swan Song "sounds romantic," he agrees with her, even though he knows full well it's not what she thinks it is.
As she runs off to get the popcorn, the viewer hears the slow clap from off-screen and the camera pans to a group of men applauding and toasting him as the voiceover says, "Welcome to the Society of Uncompromising Men."
In an earlier edition of the campaign, the scene opens with a man putting on a sweater he doesn't want to wear. He intentionally rips a hole in the armpit. When his wife walks in and says, "that looks great, I love it," he replies, "I love it too, but look at this hole I just found." Slow clap, etc.
People actually find these marketing abominations funny enough that they've made five of them now. I don't find them the least bit funny; they are an affront to men and women alike.
In the first place, this behaviour is not uncompromising. It is selfish, deceitful and manipulative and, in fact, it is the epitome of compromising because it compromises the men's integrity. If they really wanted to be uncompromising, they would say, "sorry, honey, I am not going to see a romantic comedy," and "sorry, honey, I do not like this sweater and I am not going to wear it."
Secondly, since when is uncompromising a desirable trait to begin with. There are plenty of other descriptions for men like this, most of which are unfit for publication in a community newspaper.
You can say, "Thom, lighten up, it's just a commercial," but I would disagree. This kind of advertising perpetuates negative stereotypes of both men and women.
Are men so insecure they feel the only way they can get what they want is through lies and manipulation? Are women so fragile or shrewish that they can't handle the truth? I think not.
Furthermore, compromise is what makes society possible. It is a quintessentially human value. Without it, we would either be an extinct species or still scrambling around scavenging for survival.
I generally don't drink whiskey, or any hard liquor really, but if I have occasion to buy some at any point I will almost certainly avoid Wiser's.
They're not the only company, either. It actually appears to be fairly common in the liquor industry. Consider the Captain Morgan "Got a Little Captain in You?" commercial "Missing." In this ad, a group of men are shown ordering drinks in a bar then one asks, "how long do you think before they realize we're gone?" Cut away to their wifes/girlfriends discovering they have replaced themselves with dummies.
"Ah, we've got all night," another one says as they strike the Captain Morgan pose and the voice over says, "got a little captain in you?"
If by that question they mean the captain is a jerk, I get it. The irony is all these companies end their commercials with the obligatory "drink responsibly" disclaimer. Really? Is there anything that says irresponsible drinking more clearly than the message these ads send that men will go to any length to escape from their women to go out drinking with the guys?
We've come a long way in addressing these regressive attitudes, but we have a long way to go. Advertisers should not get a pass in the name of entertainment. As consumers, we should all think critically about the messages they are conveying and send them a message with our purchasing decisions.
