Sex, Stereotypes and advertisement

This morning I started my day with this article and thought it's time for a little blog. There are two perspectives - the way to look at it as an advertiser and the way to look at it as a politically aware human.

Does sex sell? Does sex not sell? Is it fine to show stereotypes in ads? If it actually does work to "generate sales" through using stereotypes and sex - why does it work?



Probably because we are brought up in a world were kids are forced into stereotypical thinking, you see billboards all over the city that suggest the same and after some generations everyone thinks it's always been that way.

Actually, it doesn't matter if you look at this issue from an advertisers perspective or not because advertisement does trendsetting - it's not as if you could choose to not have an impact. So, if you produce advertisement that suggests a view on sex where men are strong, self-secure and violent while women are objects that only have be "sexy" and innocent then you support violence against women. If you show "pretty" women with eating disabilities people think that's normal and guess what. Many women are going to suffer from eating disabilities just because you made them believe that a women is "pretty" that way and that the only thing that matters about women is their outer appearance.



The funniest part is that most advertisers claim that their advertisement works. When talking about values that are communicated through their ads you're likely to hear that they don't have that much of an impact.

Since this issue is not debated a lot on a serious level we're considering launching a blog only about sexist ads an their impact. Anyone in? Please leave a comment...