UPDATED: Nov. 1, 5:16 p.m.

The Syracuse Crunch recently installed a billboard on Interstate 690 East near downtown Syracuse that might make you question what decade you’re living in.

Like vintage ads of the 1940s and ’50s, when billboards would urge husbands to reward their hard-working housewives, the Crunch billboard relies on sexist stereotypes and normative gender roles to sell a product. Its message — “Your wife is hot…cool her off at a Crunch game,” — affirms that advertisers may never learn alienating 51 percent of the population is not a savvy marketing strategy.

Billboard invites ‘hot’ wives to cool off at Syracuse Crunch games https://t.co/4YqNLU7A56

— Oscar Villatoro (@JAVAppliances) October 25, 2017

In this case, the implication that a wife needs to be taken to a game to be “cooled off” perpetuates the stereotype that without men, women are disinterested in sports. While the Crunch’s focus on wives being “hot” was probably supposed to be an attempt at irony given the sport at hand is ice hockey, the billboard implies a woman’s worth is based on her looks, on how “hot” she is. It seems the organization isn’t inviting all its fans to bring their wives to the game, but only those considered normatively attractive.

Crunch media management did not reply to multiple requests for comment on the billboard. But the fact that this ad was likely OK’d by multiple levels of management prompts discussion.

In the moment of social media campaigns and more candid discussions about the pervasiveness of sexual harassment, this billboard feels even more egregious. It seems no matter how much progress is made, sexism is still ingrained in every aspect of our lives. We are subject to sexist comments not only in the workplace and at our social events, but also on our drive home.

It’s easy to call those offended by this billboard “snowflakes”  — but even women Crunch fans think the billboard as sexist. Likewise, they might argue this column proves the success of this ad, that all publicity is good publicity.

That may be true. But it does not excuse advertisers’ continued appropriation of our outrage to promote their products. And until more consumers come forward to resist misogyny, sexism — like sex itself — will continue to sell.

C.C. Hendricks is a doctoral student in composition and cultural rhetoric. Her column appears biweekly. You can reach her at crhen100@syr.edu.

This story has been updated to confirm that the billboard had not actually been taken down at time of publication.

Published on October 30, 2017 at 10:18 pm