Media Cliché no. 2: Ladies, did you know that chocolate is just like sex?

Oh advertisers, get over yourselves! The oldest cliché in the advertisers book is the old “chocolate is like sex” cliché. From the 70’s and 80’s flake adverts that depicted women sucking the life out of a phallic piece of chocolate to these much more enlightened times where advert ladies wrap their chops round a big ole Magnum, yes, that’s right, we’ve really come a long way. These days though, ladies, it’s all about “empowerment”, it’s all about taking control of your own sexual pleasure and all those other therapy buzz words and self-help speak that advertisers use to try and persuade us that they are not exploiting us ladies, but reflecting our go-getting, career-ladder-climbing, multi-tasking, wife/mother/lover,having-it-all, Sex and the City fabulous lives. Look at me -  I'm Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda! Gee! It's exhausting being a sexy modern lady!   

Today’s pick to demonstrate this point is one that, whilst irritating, never fails to amuse. Galaxy. Oh, you cheeky monkeys! You put out an advert innocently purporting to be about one girl’s love of her chocolate, and how her girlie flatmates sometimes steal her irresistible confection, but, thankfully, she has a spare bar hidden in secret place.  The ad has a slightly creepy and obviously sexual undertone - from the cheesy and suggestive opening line as the girl reclines alone on the sofa (“Mmmmm...I know what I feel like.” -Yes, we get it, a good wank) to the moody lighting, and the vaguely sinister “which one was it this time?” as she looks at a picture of her bosom pal flat-mates (are they really pals, or are they something more…? Or, do they really hate each other?) Now… replace the chocolate bar she is searching for with a sex toy and the ad takes on a whole other meaning. These ladies have no boundaries it seems and are happy to share sex toys. Ew! Fortunately she has a spare hidden in a special box that her friends don’t know about…. Thanks, Galaxy! Not sure if it fits in the so bad its good category, but it certainly gives me a simultaneous cringe and chuckle every time.