Gender Roles and Stereotypes

I would declare myself as a progressive thinker and feminist, so I am really passionate about this topic; gender stereotypes in advertisements. It really upsets me when I see sexists ads, it's just like seeing racist ads. Once again, we have come so far, women have come to far, that it's upsetting to see such setbacks occur in such a public way. You will notice that every cleaning brand will have a commercial where there is a lady is cleaning, doing the dishes, making sure the house is organized, etc. You never see a man doing house chores.

There is one ad that does stand out to me though that breaks this mold and it's the ad for Tide and Downey. 

This ad really breaks the stereotypical mold of women staying at home with the children and doing the laundry. I was delighted when I saw this commercial on TV. 

Another way gender roles are played in the media are through objectification. One ad campaign that really rubbed me the wrong way are the Carl's Jr. commercials. I really, really dislike that they use female bodies to sell their products. And the sad thing is, these commercials really work! I think making the women just sexual objects and exploiting their bodies is wrong and distasteful.

Women are not the only ones that are objectified in advertisements, there are quite a few ads that objectify men as well. A current ad campaign out right now is for Kraft's Zesty Italian salad dressing:

There's one more campaign that really sticks out to me and bothers me and that's the the Dr. Pepper 10 campaign. I understand their market is for men, but the slogan "It's not for women" is just blatantly sexists and really turned me off from the brand. 

Gender stereotyping and objectifying are common in advertisements. Some are comical, others can be offensive. The sad thing is, is that these techniques work and that is why this will most likely continue on into our future. I just hope more commercials such as the Tide and Downey one continue to pop up to remind us that we don't always have to be obedient to our gender stereotypes.