Via Jane comes a video that’ll raise your hair: behold the Simon & Schuster promotional videos for Snooki’s new book, which is a nonfiction guide to being a “guidette.”
The Director’s Cut was even more of the same, with shots of S&S employees drinking, drinking, more drinking, or passed out under their desks, with one shot of a male employee dressed in full Jersey Shore style helping a woman get her bag of chips out of the machine. It’s since been removed.
ETA: It’s been uploaded again, if you’d like to watch.
“Stick those boobs out and that ass.” Ah, yes. Nothing like a day at work in publishing, last standing fortress in literary gatekeeping.
I’m presuming that anyone who participated did so voluntarily, but wow. WOW. Who is the audience for this video? I’m going to guess the humor was aimed at other people in publishing. Maybe other people within the industry would find this really funny, but is this really for readers? People who already like Snooki? Who is the audience?
And why demean the female executives of Simon & Schuster to promote a book? As author Tayari Jones said on Twitter, “Is this S&S Snooki trailer real? Who is the audience? Is that REALLY the publisher??”
I’d like to think I have a relatively well-functioning sense of humor, and I’m all for goofy videos, but this just made me cringe.
I noticed that the subtitles only identify the women by their job titles, and not by their actual names. Why is that? Are they already celebrities within publishing culture that we’re supposed to know who they are?
The bigger question in my mind is, would any male executive do this should The Situation get a book deal? Picture that: an abdominal flex-off with the publisher, executive editor, CFO and a few other male executives. Shirts off, everyone!
NB: I want to point out two things. First, as a resident of New Jersey and someone who loves the beaches, the “Jersey Shore” you see on tv represents about 2% of the actual Jersey shore towns. There’s a lot of shore towns that hate hate haaattteee that show, because it hurt tourism like a miniature oil spill for NJ beach towns, only instead of crude oil, it’s tanning oil and hair gel that people think ooze all over the shore. The actual Jersey shore, with the sand and the ocean and the salt water taffy, is awesome. Your hair is just fine the way it is. Come on down (but bring an umbrella, as it’s raining today).
Second, I don’t actually have anything against Snooki herself. She’s made a career out of being a character, and she’s successful at it.
But the publisher’s choice to portray female publishing executives as miniature Snookiees in order to promote the book just makes me bang my head on the desk.
What’s your take? Have a handy poll in case you don’t want to leave a comment.
Falls completely flat for me, but then I’m in the group that finds “Jersey Shore” appalling rather than amusing.
There’s a vague attempt in the video at love-yourself-no-matter-what-the-world-thinks cheerleading (“It doesn’t matter if you’re tall, skinny, or smart”), but it’s really undone by the sexual objectification (“stick out those boobs and that ass”). Not to mention the denigration of everyone who doesn’t fit Snooki’s particular model of fabulousness as “nerds,” “grenades,” and “farty old grandmas.” Sort of a tolerance message without the tolerance…
@Lolwut I thought she said thanks bitch to him, when she gave him her empty glass. But maybe I’m wrong. Either way he is a busboy, acting like a “guido” So he is in a subservient position because of his job. The other women in the video were executives etc, and they are being told to act and dress like a guidette/ or like the subservient man. I think that’s the problem. That the women who earned position of authority are being objectified and told to act like they didn’t earn that position. And I don’t believe a male executive would to that, or that a video showing that would even be suggested.
I think the man in the video was an actor, because there is no title given for him. I could be wrong, he might work there. But I didn’t notice a title for him. Also he isn’t being told to flex his pecs or stick out his ass.
FYI for those of you who were curious, or unaware of urban dictionary a “grenade” is: “the ugliest girl in a group of girls that are out. Her friends will not even think of leaving her unless they know she is getting action herself. Therefore, someone in your group of friends sacrifies himself by hooking up with the grenade in order for the rest to have a chance of having sex with the hot girls.” Never watched Jersey Shore but I’m guessing they say that about women on the shore.
You didn’t have an option for “30 seconds of this made me fear for the future health of my neurons so I stopped watching,” so I chose other.
I vote that it’s too boring to watch more than ten seconds, and the ten seconds I saw were too dumb to warrant further comment.
This kind of show makes other Americans think poorly of people from NJ, but once it’s released into the world the international audience doesn’t think “all people from NJ are like this”, they think “all people from America are like this”.
In a world where we can place geographical restrictions on accessing ebooks, why on earth can’t we place geographical restrictions on tv shows like this?
If that video is any indication to what I’ve been missing on The Jersey Shore, I’ll thank S&S for the public service warning.
Oh wait, that was a book trailer? Yikes.
Gah. So, that’s what the owners of Simon and Schuster think of women. I guess I’ll have to start checking the publisher before I decide to buy books now.
time48 – You’d think the time had been set back to 1948. Or maybe 1848.
I just watched it wondering if the female employees had been ordered to participate. There’s no way this doesn’t come up in a search if/when you look for another job. I’m not sure they could explain this away even with a “participate or be fired” letter.
Just disgusting. Snooki is an embarrassment. To Jersey, to women, to everyone. Someone please turn the spotlight off.
Jonna Rae
I’m gagging here. I still have trouble understanding how anyone can watch Jersey shore, let alone further the nonsense by giving Snooki a book deal.
Yikes. So this is what one of the Big Six is up to these days? I continue to weep for the future of traditional publishing.
Have you seen snooki’s new red hair color? Check out this picture of her:
http://www.becomearealitystar….