You are now entering Ad Space, a realm of commercials, brought before us so we might examine how they work, and discuss why we both love and hate them so. So it is written …

The Product:
Maxwell House instant coffee

The Promotions:

The Pitch:
Stay in the kitchen and make me a sandwich some coffee, woman!

Some TV commercials from the 60’s can be pretty sexist – shocking, I know. But what fascinates me about these ads is how many different ways they find to be sexist.

There is, of course, the core assumption of these ads that buying and/or making coffee is the wife’s responsibility, and in order to be a “good little Maxwell Housewife”, they must make coffee that satisfies their man.

Then there’s that phrase “good little Maxwell Housewife”, with its infantilizing tones … infantilizing tones that get kicked into overdrive during the ad set on a sailboat. What with the woman being filmed from overhead, wearing pigtails and an impish grin, and being subjected to chin cupping, finger wagging, and cheek pinching in short order, the footage would feel a lot more at home in an ad about fathers & daughters instead of husbands & wives.

Then there’s the whole notion that men need to take a firm hand and control their women. Said sailboat ad has the husband really relishing how boat captaincy lets them give orders to their wife (and hubby choosing this for the first weekend after their wedding suggests they’re trying to establish a power dynamic early). But, really, nothing in these ads sums it up better than “Woman, leave that poor man alone and make us some coffee!”

Then we get to that last ad, and it all gets cranked up to a nightmare level. Between the possessive, controlling attitude in referring to their child as “my son”, and the way the wife cowers and clutches the child in fear as the husband approaches …

… like, I’m beginning to think Maxwell House’s pitch really was “If you don’t want a fist in the kisser, keep your man happy with Maxwell House coffee.”