JBL Ad Portrays Gen Z Women as IDIOTS?!?

We attended a rooftop party in Hollywood where JBL unveiled 13 new products, including five AV receivers and eight loudspeakers. Our initial impressions were positive. However, we were disappointed by JBL's tasteless ads targeting Gen Z women and portraying them as being idiots.

This video generalized stereotypes and made the audience seem clueless, wasting an opportunity to engage young people in HiFi. We feel JBL's approach was misguided and ineffective. What do you think?

👉 Read our First Impressions of the JBL NEW Stage 2 Speakers & MA Series AV Receivers:

Recommended Headphones:

Recommended Subwoofers:

Recommended AV Separates

Recommended AV Receivers:

Recommended Powered Speakers:

Recommended Center Channels:

Recommended Speakers:

Audioholics Recommended Cables:

Disclaimer: Audioholics earns commissions from qualifying purchases with the Affiliate Links used in the description of this video. We appreciate your support.

Follow us on:

Patreon:

FACEBOOK

TWITTER
#womensrights #audiophile #music

[ultrarealism]

the ads don't explain the product well, that's what i couldn't stand.

[andrewforsythe]

20 minutes on this subject. Guess the advertising worked 100%.

[TMac]

Meanwhile in reality every other commercial depicts a stupid father / male character. Gimme a break. It was “jarring”? Really? It was refreshing imo.

[dentman]

Sounds accurate to me. Sounds exactly like every woman i know

[johnodonoghue]

Most household consumer products companies have been doing this to men for the last 20 years.

[davestevens]

So what? Hundreds of commercials portray the Husband as a DF and the Wife as the "smart one". Like how does the mortgage ever get paid?

[tonmeister]

I watched these commercials several times now, and I don't get why people are so offended.  Maybe what was intended as a light-hearted, meme- spoof on Gen Z is being taken too seriously? But what do I know since I am old male boomer.

So, I asked my 25 year old Gen Z daughter who just graduated from University and she didn't find them offensive. She said maybe the scripts were written by a 35+ year old person b/c the language wasn't exactly how she and her friends in California talk - a demographic she said the commercials are clearly aimed at. I asked another Gen Z (30 years old living in NYC) who is a writer, and she described them as "fun".

This seems to jive with most of the reactions below.

[Bob.martens]

Except for those women who work in music-related industries (under 1%, my guess), women are just NOT into sound.

[jC-kcsi]

I'm reminded of the VDub Das Auto commercials with Helga, those also got people's attention,

[kewlbug]

They could have just had hot models listening to speakers, and it would work 100x better

[hawkins]

I'm a 56-year-old male. I watched all 4 ads in their entirety. No. I don't like the speech pattern presented. But I don't think the main character was portraited as air head. Air heads are not capable of telling you about the system. But then I'm not the target audience. I don't know the sound quality. But the receivers industrial design looks nice with a cream white option. WAF is probably higher. But why the MA7100HO and MA9100HP only have black option?

[povertyspec]

Women who are into high end audio are rarer than smooth roads in Indiana 😅

[nachowifi]

Disagree here. Its def a spoof. I just watched the latest JBL ad on AV Nirvana's channel and the same ad shows her to be VERY knowledgable and explains home theater VERY well.

[rdvadar]

That was absolutely spectacular and utterly accurate at about 99% accurate. The wealthy speak like this, the middle class speak like this and so do the poor class. It is rampant. Your' Guest Gene, Emiko, is not the norm but the exception. JBL employees sound exactly like that when I spoke to them, I had to yell and complain to speak to someone in management because that is exactly how they sounded in customer service. Not surprised.
JBL Nailed it, showing exactly the level of idioticness rampant today everywhere! portrayal of Gen Z could not be more accurate.

[B.A.Audio.]

Wow! This really is disappointing that Gene is playing into this political sensitive BS that is out to divide people. The add is and is ment to be funny. No one by any means is calling women idiots or incompetent. Humor is always exaggerated and on the edge. There’s nothing wrong with the JBL add what so ever. So disappointed that people today are so uptight and can’t enjoy life without being “offended”. Just ridiculous. Big fan of your audio channel and webpage Gene, but come on…….

[jonespcnrepair]

Lots of young girls speak like this, I'm not saying I think this ad was good, it wasn't but don't kid yourself that there are not lots of young girls that do sound like this.

[TrueLies]

Totally accurate representation of modern women's ignorance hidden as pretentious arrogance.

Go stand in line for something and just listen to people talk. It sounds like this ad.

[markkirschling]

My advice to the world. “Don’t take any advisement’s seriously”
Your life will be better for it.

[Iank]

She could have her mother and law placed in a dodgy seat telling you how good the sound is.

[SwirlingDragonMist]

At first take, I found it kind of cringe. Then I watched your vid on it, and then spent some time at Crate and Barrel in the local Mall (was looking for Nambé brand stuff) and I noticed their JBL sound-system and the stores creamy-beige esthetic, which I feel is the root of this ad campaign’s vibe, then I rewatched the add again today and I’ve warmed up to it.

I think we forget how diverse the US is, the Valley-Girl culture is a real sub-culture that thrives out in California, and has it’s own sense of humor, which I think is on expose in this add, and which initially caught my midwest sensibilities off guard.

I think this Crate and Barrel insight I shared is 10000% the origin of this add campaign. Because I think JBL has a formal relationship with them, and JBL is salivating at the idea of their speakers being sold in their stores. The styling of this set, the styling of the speakers, the demographics of wealthy trust fund babies. It all adds up.

When I was there a lady bought a lamp for $1, 200! It was a black rectangular monolith with a shade on-top. 6”x6”x50”

I think the cringy quips in the add, are a self-deprecating style of humor in a mature self reflective kind of way, that wealthy women who do lots of yoga are all too familiar with. Again the demographics are at play, you’re probably just too poor and low class to understand lol :P… but seriously I think it suffers being “a bit too familiar” where it takes some personal shots that between friends is good for a laugh, but comes off as rude from a stranger in an add.

And also there are definitely places where people talk like this, I wonder if JBL is headquartered in California or perhaps their add agency, but being that it has such strong Crate and Barrel vibes, I feel it must have allot of in house direction and is probably not outsourced.

Hit up a Crate and Barrel and report back ha ha or even better fly out to visit one of their locations in Cali… Obvi.