Women are shown to millions of people around the world in advertisements as either sexual objects for men, or useless, unless in the kitchen. They have been portrayed in the same manner for the past 50 years or more, many women are exploited, stereotyped, and used as objects to sell and advocate products.
Advertising is one of the most important parts of the marketing world for any business. Advertising companies spend up to millions of dollars each year, which help in creating new ideas and selling campaigns. Advertisement designers aim to make their work meaningful to their viewers so that they can relate to these advertisements and purchase the items they are trying to sell. Although some designers abuse the idea of featuring women in ads as they are unfairly portrayed to fit the typical stereotyped woman. However, recent studies have shown that the portrayal of women in advertisements has improved and gotten a lot better throughout the years but some are still showing the revaluating image of women the same way that was used in the past.
The most common setting for women in advertisements is in their own private homes. When consumers see these images of women, they assume that women are only limited to their homes and their housework while men have many other places they can. American company, Madison Avenue Cookware, has outraged women all over the world, including me after launching their advertising campaign. The ads show images of fancy kitchenware with bold headlines such as “The only thing that cooks better is a woman”, “Enjoy your time out of the bedroom” and “A woman’s best friend”. These ads devalue women by implying that cooking is our most important role in society. For me it comes really interesting how can a company that target women as their potential consumers insult or degrade them in a hidden context. It is definitely not the best way to advertise a product.
Advertising a product this way not only degrades and insults women, it sends sexist messages in so many ways. First, it implies that women are only good in the bedroom and in the kitchen. It spreads and further emphasizes the stereotypes that women are there to serve their husbands and nothing else. Regarding the phrase “Enjoy your time out of the bedroom” used in one of the ads, it implicitly portrays women as sexual objects, that are there to please their husbands. It is probably a message to the fact that many men see women more as their sexual partners, ignoring that they’re individuals just like they are that feel the same emotions. As I would suspect, they would not like how they are treated if it was roles reversed. For those men, the bedroom is the place where a woman belongs and this phrase conveys the idea that other than being in the bedroom women should be in the kitchen cooking.
Another phrase used in the ad captions “A woman’s best friend”. The picture used in the ad is of an object that is supposedly directly related to women. It implies the message that this object has been personified to be connected to women.
The third one says “The only thing that cooks better is a woman”. This phrase firstly emphasizes the idea that women cook better than men, since women have been mentioned as the only thing that cooks better. This directly states that women are the only people who cook. Moreover, the word “thing” in this phrase is used by the company to describe women, so women are regarded as things, which is a word mostly used to describe nonliving matter rather than individuals. Although this ad is not the only one to refer to women as objects, it’s really interesting how a company that targets women as their possible customers and must assume that their entire market is women offends them in such a way. It is ignorant and is definitely not the best way to advertise a product. In addition to the fact that just by incorporating these phrases the company is narrowing the consumer pool of the product itself, as many men might change their minds about buying their products after reading such sexist slogans where they might become insecure if they believe that they are not part of the target audience and learn that it is made for only women.
Additionally, there is nothing that is considered slightly attractive that can intrigue consumers with the visual imagery of the ad, it is not appealing as it does not include different colors or unique pictures, instead it is only a picture of a pot or a pan. It is not eyes catching.
Overall, the company will not benefit in any way by including these sexist phrases in their ads, emphasizing the outdated belief that the role of women should be to please their husbands or, that the only place they belong to is the kitchen or the bedroom. During this time period, the idea that either a man or a woman belongs anywhere other than what they choose is fading, and Madison avenue should try to contribute to this instead of maintaining it.
