This Is Literally Still the Worst Ad Ever

"It’s unhelpful to portray women as needing special advantages."

By
George Kamau
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Ms Monopoly

Ms Monopoly

Late last year, Hasbro introduced Ms. Monopoly, a Monopoly version that celebrates female inventors and entrepreneurs. They are also paid more than men.

Hasbro advertised the game with a video that didn’t go so well. The video featured three young female inventors talking about gendered stereotypes around technological and scientific achievements.

At the end of the video, the three girls received $20,580 in real money to fund their own innovative projects.

The ad received a lot of criticism with detractors saying the rules of Ms. Monopolywere well-intentioned but glossed over the gender imbalances in modern workplaces, including pay inequality, and the ways that women’s experiences and contributions have often been played down — or erased altogether — from history.

“Since Ms. Monopoly doesn’t address the causes of the gender wage gap, some critics say it suggests women need a head start simply because they’re, well, women,” CNBC reported.

Here are some of what the critics added:

  • “If money can solve a problem, it’s actually a really small problem. There are a lot of barriers that face women,” said Amy Peng, an associate professor in the department of economics at Ryerson University. “Are you doing this because you think women are not as productive as men and need to be overcompensated?” she added.
  • “It’s unhelpful to portray women as needing special advantages. What women need is to be treated as equals with respect,” said Christine Sypnowich, head of the philosophy department at Queens College and a feminist scholar.
  • “Hasbro can look at the opportunities they provide for women in the company, versus men. Who’s in leadership? Who’s getting promotions? They can take a hard look at their own personnel issues and use that as an example for the real world as opposed to the game world,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

The ad resurfaced on Twitter and people still hate it

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George Kamau
George Kamau
I brunch on consumer tech | first.last at techweez dot com

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