Got mad?

The California milk board recently launched an advertising campaign saying that milk can help relieve the symptoms of PMS. However, rather than targeting this campaign at women, they've taken the indirect approach by roping in our boyfriends to help tame us crazy bitches.

Other taglines include:
"I'm sorry for the thing or things I did or didn't do."
"I'm sorry I listened to what you said and not what you meant."
"Let's agree to disagree with me." and
"We can both blame myself."

Now, this is interesting, because my first response is "Well, this is sexist, offensive, and demeaning to women." It may sound like a feminist kneejerk response, but you only have to have your opinion dismissed with the words "it's her time of the month" a couple of times before you want to remind the world that our opinions don't magically become irrelevant just because we have uteri. The whole wandering womb syndrome (the ancient Greeks' explanation for female hysteria) was disproven some time ago, you know.

Luckily Steve James, executive director of the milk board, has foreseen my response. The following quotes are taken from the New York Times article on the subject:

That the campaign is intended to be “funny, good-natured” ought to defuse criticism, Mr. James says, and “the humor will allow people to laugh at themselves.”

“If you do a microsite about how cute puppies are,” Mr. James says, “you’ll get feedback that says, ‘You’re exploiting puppies.’”

Mr. Goodby [co-chairman at the ad company responsible for this campaign] was reminded of some criticism six years ago of the “Milk to the Rescue” commercial as sexist.
“I wish I could say everybody’s got a sense of humor since then,” he says.

Great. Not only am I irrational, terrifying, and in need of careful placation, I am also minus one sense of humour. They're passed it off as an attempt to "start discussion," but unlike the product they're trying to promote, this leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.