Print Ads and an Update to the Lego Post

Talking about advertising in class, I was actually quite shocked to see some of the ads that ran a few decades ago. Some of the copy printed on the ads was just terrible! The sad thing is that the way women are portrayed now in advertisements hasn't really changed all that much. They are still often dismembered or simply an object. Dr. Pepper is even going so far as to excluding women altogether in their new campaign for Dr. Pepper 10 - apparently NOT for women...This in itself is insulting. Not that I want to drink this particular soda, but just to exclude consumers based on their sex is wrong. You would think in the 21st century ad executives could come up with a better campaign to entice the male market segment to buy their product, without discriminating against women.

I also found another interesting article about the new Lego Friends line I had talked about in an earlier post. In this article they talk about the backlash against Lego for engaging in such obvious gender-based marketing. It also showed an ad from the 80s and one recent one. It's amazing how that changed.

While back then it was not only okay for girls to wear jeans and a normal t-shirt, they were also 'allowed' to play with the regular Lego pieces of all colors and build whatever came to their minds. Today, girls are only wearing tank tops in girly colors, and play with pink and purple colored pieces and more girly sets such as the cafe featured in the ad.

I think while it is really bad that advertisers primarily portray women as half naked objects, who are only good for seductively gazing at the camera selling various products, it is really bad what the advertising industry is doing to the children. Little girls are younger and younger when they learn to look sexy, be skinny and how to cook for the man. While we should empower little girls and get rid of the notion that 'girly' activities are worth less in the male dominated society, we push girls into these stereotypes, robbing them of their imagination and setting them up for future image and self-esteem problems.

Below is a short video, in which a 4-year-old questions why girls have to buy only pink stuff. If only marketers would listen...