Sexism - Advertisements

Advertising is a dangerous thing. It can cause racism, sexism, and stereotypes. In our world today we have to have advertisement or nobody could stay in business. We all need to be careful about the pictures we use and the things we say in advertisements.

For professional advertisers it is their job to put these ideas into people's minds. They do not worry about causing controversy, they only worry about selling a product. Selling things to men and women are two completely different things. Stereotypes come into play when trying to sell the same item to each sex. Women are perceived as more wordy, while men are thought to like things short and to the point. This is one of the bigger differences in advertisements.

Women are more wordy, they pay attention to details and they like bright colors. This is what professional advertisers expect. They will use a colorful background and several pictures. The women's ad will have all of the details about the product. Stereotypes. These are all things that people expect women to like. From my point of view as a buyer, these assumptions are wrong. An advertisement in a women's magazine should have a dark background with a big picture of the item in the middle. The words should be in white or another light shade. Not every single detail is needed. If every detail is shared the first time a product is introduced, there will always be something that will be revealed that the makers of the product did not want revealed, thus leading to failure to sell the product. That is the making of an ad that will catch our attention, make us want to try it, but not drive us away.

Men are short tempered with short attention spans. They don't pay great attention to detail. Most women will disagree with this statement but these are also stereotypes. Professional advertisers expect these things of men. Open any men's magazine and you will see an ad with only two to three colors, including black and white. It will have one large picture of the item. At the top will be the name of the item and at the bottom will be one sentence about why they should buy it. This is very simple and to the point. But it is wrong. I would say that to really catch a mans attention in a magazine, make the ad bright with lots of words and pictures. This breaks the mold and will draw attention to that specific ad.

Professional advertisers need to spend less time focusing on what men want and what women want. They need to spend more time on what people want. We all need to know the same information about a product. Sex shouldn't make a difference when trying to sell us things.