Rosie the Riveter & Microsoft

“We Can Do It” Becomes “You Might Just Get Beat By A Girl”

Some ads are really just meant to shock and awe a potential customer into buying a product.  I think the audacity of this Xbox Live ad speaks to this.  Rosie the Riveter is an icon; a symbol of an entire generation of American women.  For those younger people who are not familiar with the significance of Rosie, she is the face of all the women who replaced the men in factories who went off to fight the Germans in WWII.  This poster was supposed to empower the women of the 1940’s.

I think Microsoft has a lot of gumption to take away its original title, “We Can Do It!” and replace it with “You Might Just Get Beat By A Girl!”  This certainly takes away from the significance of what Rosie symbolized.  Furthermore, sitting around playing video games is quite the opposite message that this poster was originally sending.  Not to mention, people who buy and play Xbox are typically on the younger side of the spectrum. Those young people probably have no idea who Rosie is and what she stood for.  The dichotomy between these two messages is almost disturbing.

What do you think?