The difference between men and women in ads has, in my opinion, started to change over the past 5-10 years. For the longest time, men were known as the king of the house and the money/decision makers. However, our society is changing and now there are more and more ads featuring stronger, independent and leadership roles for women. Is there still a long ways to go? Yes, of course there is, but we cannot dismiss the progress that has been made so far. Such ads as, Progressive featuring the character "Flo" there was a time that a woman being the lead role in a commercial was unheard of, on top of that Flo doesn't have a model like body or beautiful face as compared to models and actresses. She looks just like a normal woman that you would see everyday walking around. Even in movies now, you would have never heard of a woman being the lead role in a movie and it revolving all around her. But now you have actresses like Jennifer Lawrence, Scarlett Johansson and others having movies made and they are the main characters.
Again, I'm not saying that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done so that ads are balanced out, but as Samantha Felix from Business insiders say, "From housebound drudge to sexpot to business leader, ads are constantly arguing with us about women's role in society." which is what we should be doing, we should be constantly questioning how ads portray not just women, but men as well. Also lets be clear, that if a woman in a ad is being subservient to man and that is frowned upon, then a man should not be subservient to a woman in an ad either. But as a society when we see that later, we laugh and snicker about it. So lets make the ads neutral and boring, which can eventually happen if as a society, we from time to time take a step back and not try to read in to things too much and just look at an ad for what it is. A means to sell a product or service, lets leave emotions out of it from time to time, unless its needed.
Again, I'm not saying that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done so that ads are balanced out, but as Samantha Felix from Business insiders say, "From housebound drudge to sexpot to business leader, ads are constantly arguing with us about women's role in society." which is what we should be doing, we should be constantly questioning how ads portray not just women, but men as well. Also lets be clear, that if a woman in a ad is being subservient to man and that is frowned upon, then a man should not be subservient to a woman in an ad either. But as a society when we see that later, we laugh and snicker about it. So lets make the ads neutral and boring, which can eventually happen if as a society, we from time to time take a step back and not try to read in to things too much and just look at an ad for what it is. A means to sell a product or service, lets leave emotions out of it from time to time, unless its needed.
Business Insider Article
http://www.businessinsider.com/18-ads-that-changed-the-way-we-think-about-women-2012-10?op=1
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