Do ads Stereotype?

In class my professor explained to us that commercials and ads have a tendency to stereotype on group of people or another. Even though there statement can be true does not mean it is true for everyone hence it can become offensive at any given time. After watching the television for a while I noticed that my professor was right. There were many ads/commercials that stereotyped women, men, children, elderly, age groups, etc. Some of these ads came off as very offensive to whatever group they were targeting. I also detected that certain channels showed certain commercials. Some channels had more risky commercials than others for example Bravo vs. BET.



While i was watching Spike TV, I caught a couple commercials that were stereotyping a certain group of people. One commercial ad was Lipozene, a diet pill that may help you lose weight. During the commercials that stated that if you had kids, was of a certain age range and more were you more likely to be overweight as well as it was probably harder for you to lose any body fat and that use should use Lipozene. This pill will get your body to were it needs to be. There are plenty of people with kids who aren't overweight and have no problem losing any pounds. It is disrespectful to say if you have or live a certain life style, that you will end up overweight and that you need diet pills to help you. Another commercial ad on Spike was Hanes underwear for men. Here they had Cuba Gooding Jr. put on some boxers that was given to him as a gift from Michael Jordan. While trying to thank him, they had all these Caucasian women stop what they ere doing, turn around and stair while he shouted out "I'm wearing your underwear!" to Michael Jordan. This ad projects that black men share underwear, and are homosexuals. All black men are not homosexuals nor do they all if any share underwear. I'm not going to lie and say I didn't laugh but this commercial was offensive and was stereotyping a black men or all men in general.



As I changed the channel to Bravo, I saw the commercial for Real Housewives of NY. the commercial showed them all acting childish, immature, crazy moms and more. They were all upper class white women. The commercial captured saying we all have great lives and this is who we are. Not all upper class housewives act crazy, foolish, party all day, waist money just because, and try to compete with their teen age daughters and thinks its cute or funny to wear provocative clothes around their sons friends.



After watching that show I turned to BET. Here were plenty of RED BULL commercials and commercials geared to minorities. One commercial was the AIDS commercial that had two young black females texting to one another about their getting tested. The commercial was aired in a all black neighborhood both females were dressed older than what they looked. One of the text said, "R U GOOD?" To black women this is a stereotype that we all live in the "hood", dress a certain way and have to get tested and most of the time we end up with AIDS. Another commercial was a RED BULL were the had two cartoon college students, the male needed to study for a biology/chemistry final while his girlfriend was trying to get close in "biology terms"(making out and what comes next....). She makes a comment that states who needs to study biology/chemistry for school while there is chemistry between the to of us. At the end of the commercial they say "DRINK RED BULL IT WILL GIVE YOU ENERGY TO DO ANYTHING". His drinks the RED BULL and they start kissing. Again this is a funny commercial but it is stereotyping college students especially those in a relationship. It shows that they are not interested in studying but studying each other which is not always true.



~When you look at a commercial check what the message is saying it sometimes is hidden while others it is not. You will be surprised how often a commercial uses stereotypes to get their message across.How would you feel if you were one of those people or groups being stereotyped?

Assignment 1: Check out this Ad

While I was watching television over the break, I seen an ad on the Lifetime channel called How to Look Good Naked. This ad was for their new upcoming show on Friday nights. The ad itself was very interesting, they had women of all different ages, colors, shapes and sizes who were walking up a street behind the host of the show and taking their over garments off until they were in their bras and panties. The was explain that every female should feel and look beautiful in their own skin. I remember hearing him say, "love yourself". Another ad they had were of clippings of the actual show and each woman was learning how to love the skin they were in and finally loving themselves. I thought this ad was one of the best ads I had seen in a long time. For one it had a positive message, that women who look different then the models they see should still feel beautiful. It also dealt with self acceptance which is a common topic rather or not people except who they are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhmKSIdGdio