Sexism in advertising.

The definition of sexism is discrimination or devaluation based on a person's sex (Smith, 2010). Almost all advertisements contain a mild sense of sexism or gender discrimination, for example, father come back from work, mother cooking dinner in the kitchen and so on. This shows that sexism in advertising has its own function in marketing as well.

Another article found by BeyondJane discussed about how sexism is being portrayed in advertising. Gucci put out an ad of dead and emotionless looking women on the ground with a man walking over her. It promotes domestic violence, sexual assault and other forms of violence against women (Shhark, 2010). In advertising, sexism is often related to the use of female role stereotypes. 

The WKD Original Vodka company has launched a big advertising campaign during the World Cup season in which their advertisements comprised of sexual discrimination contents, that were intended to be funny to the audience (Perera, 2010).

Another examples by watching a football game, usually find an attractive young lady being swept off her feet by a less than attractive man after he opens the beer of his choice. Or, if you are lucky, you can witness several young women materialize on a desert island with the male drinker after, of course, he opens his can of beer. These advertisements present women as a goal, a trophy if you will, that can only be attained with the proper beverage. These women seldom have anything to say besides "Yes," making them seem like unintelligent sex objects. Unfortunately, the exploitation does not stop with women. Beer commercials exploit minorities as well (Shafeeq, 1997).

The issue here is that how has sexism become a part of the advertising trend. The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) controlled to regulate the contents of the advertisements. There is a particular requirement for ads to avoid causing offence on the grounds of sex.Sexism in advertising is often fought back by terms like democracy or freedom of speech. The Section 4 of the CAP codes shows that any type of marketing communications must not contain elements that could cause offence to the people (Committee of Advertising Practice, 2009).

In conclusion, there are countless ads that show discrimination towards women. Like what Perera (2010) wrote for her title of her article, it's time to kick sexism out of advertising.

(Source: http://smilepanic.com/sexism-in-advertising)

1.Committee of advertising practice, 2009, CAP code pdf versions, bcap.org.uk, 14/11/2010, http://bcap.org.uk/The-Codes/CAP-Code/CAP-Code-pdf-versions.aspx.

2.Perera, K 2010, Time to kick sexism out of advertising, guardian.co.uk, viewed 14/11/2010,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/29/kick-sexism-out-of-advertising#history-link-box#history-link-box. 

3.Shafeeq Sadiq, 1997, Racism and Sexism in Advertising, viewed on 14/11/2010, <http://www.deltacollege.edu/org/deltawinds/DWOnline97/racismandsexisminads.html>

4.Smith, S.E 2010, 'What is Sexism?', WiseGeek, viewed 11 November 2010, from <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-sexism.htm>

5.Sshark 2010, 'Sexism in Advertising', BeyondJane, 28 March, viewed 11 November 2010, from <http://beyondjane.com/women/sexism-in-advertising/>