Stereotypes: HaHa or Hurtful?

If you watch television at all you have undoubtedly realized that advertisers and media buyers have product placement down to a science. Shows geared toward a male or female audience tend to feature commercials selling products that are specific for each respective gender.
If you’re a man and you watch Monday Night Football or anything on Spike, you’ve probably seen countless beer commercials for Budweiser or Miller Lite. If its instant animal attraction and a guaranteed one night stand you seek, then by now you know that Axe body spray is the product for you. Perhaps you’ve added a few extra pounds over the years and need to shed them quickly so you can squeeze back into that banana hammock you wore back in the 80‘s. If so, there are countless fat burning products as well as exercise gimmicks promising overnight six pack abs.
For the women tuning into to Oprah and Grey’s Anatomy, you’re well versed on the benefits of Tampax Pearl, winged maxis or Secret deodorant, which is strong enough for a man, but made for a woman. Women’s programming is also more likely to advertise some Nicholas Sparks tearjerker or Julia Roberts romcom than Transporter 3 or the most recent reboot of Friday the 13th. For the seniors tuning into the Hallmark channel or some Dick Van Dyke movie of the week, surely you know that AARP offers you specialized car insurance and that Wilford Brimley pronounces diabetes, “diabetus.”
But for as each commercial that is well placed and reaches it’s target audience, there is another that is born of some antiquated stereotype. Why are baby diapers and household cleaning products still advertised primarily during women’s programming? Same for men’s programming with power tools and motor oil. As I sat watching The Ultimate Fighter last Wednesday night it became painfully obvious that advertisers believe that only video gaming couch potatoes watch Spike at ten o’clock at night. One hour long broadcast featured ads for Gears of War, Call to Duty on top of numerous other wrestling and street racing games.
Watch TV during the day and you will see numerous ads for commuter colleges like Education America and ITT Tech. Apparently, if you are lazy enough to be watching television on a Wednesday afternoon in stead of working, you are too lazy to attend a four year school and get a career instead of just a job. Daytime programming is also filled with ads for check cashing services and work from home scams. Advertising executives must really think that people at home during the week are losers.
I’ve always believed that stereotypes were somewhat based in reality. If you pull up to a Camaro or Trans Am at a stoplight and there is some 80s heavy metal song blaring from the speakers, the driver is most likely a white male. Hell, its probably me. If you go to a Cher concert and see a bunch of men who aren’t being dragged along by their noses by their wives, they are probably gay. Finally, if you’re at the movie theater watching a horror flick and there is a woman screaming at the top of her lungs whenever something even remotely creepy happens, its probably a black woman. Sorry, its all true. Don’t shoot the messenger.
Stereotypes, although funny sometimes, can be offensive too. Why are cleaning products advertised to women or power tools to men? I actually do quite a bit of cleaning and laundry around the house and Tina is the Mrs. Fixit of the family. Does watching sports make me obligated to sit around and play video games? I don’t even own a gaming system. If I’m not mistaken, Logo is the name of the network for gay people. Would they be offended if pharmaceutical companies were advertising an AIDS prevention pill or Birkenstocks? I imagine so. What if every other add on BET were for a bail bondsman or overnight paternity tests? That would be highly offensive.
I guess my point is that advertisers should be careful when painting their target market with the same brush. Do women still do most of the cleaning around the house? I don’t know but my guess would be yes. Maybe it isn’t even that they do the cleaning though. Perhaps the commercials are aimed at them because they do most of the shopping. Who knows.
Either way, as fun as playing with stereotypes can be, it can be equally as offensive.