Example of Ads w/ no Overtly Stereotypical Gender Roles

by Jessica Diamond

Monster.com - Beavers
The commercial used a beaver to advertise their website. In my opinion, sexism was not used to promote the site. The beaver had no signs of gender specification. There was absolutely no dialogue in the commercial. The beaver could be either a male or a female. Therefore, there really can’t be any gender role assignment. There were only a few seconds (seconds 24-26) that could be considered as sexism. These few seconds showed the beaver in a hot tub with a blond, affectionate woman indicating the success and fame the beaver had achieved through his violin playing. However, that scene was short and fairly harmless.

Bridgestone - Bachelor Party
This Bridgestone commercial featured three men and a whale in a car. The men, therefore, obtained all of the dialogue. I don’t think this commercial portrayed sexism. There weren’t any gender stereotypes involved. The sole message was that reliable wheels come in handy after a wild, unpredictable night.

CareerBuilder.com - Casual Fridays
The careerbuilder commercial doesn’t seem to be sexist. The main character is a man and has a large majority of the dialogue. The narrator, also a man, has a few lines near the end of the commercial as well. However, both men and women are present in the commercial. The only obvious gender role is that the boss is a male. Besides that, the commercial does not assign gender roles or display sexist stereotypes.

Hyundai - Brett Favre
This commercial advertises Hyundai car and saying that they obtain the insurance of America’s best warranty for the next ten years. The commercial uses a football player (Brett Favre) and his potential retirement as an analogy. The commercial targets the future as being generally unpredictable in contrast to the dependability and predictability of their car. Although the commercial features only a man, the man is a football player which logically fits into the super bowl event. Therefore, this does not portray any sexism. Women are not included in this commercial and there is no gender role assignment or stereotypes. Therefore, I do not think the commercial uses sexism to advertise the product.

Dove - You Are a Man
This dove commercial has many elements. First of all, there is only one man prevalent in the commercial and the narrator is a male as well. However, this is a commercial for a man’s product so this is not a sexist characteristic. The comical song shows a man’s mental development as he grows up into his manhood, accepts his role as a husband and father while finding his identity. Pretty deep concepts for a soap commercial if you ask me! Nevertheless, in breaking down the song, I find that, the steps they use to describe the process of a boy becoming a man and then a man becoming a man “at ease” aren’t sexist at all. They use common obstacles like wanting to be good at sports, training to become strong and learning how to be cool as steps to achieving manhood. These steps might be male gender roles, however; none of the examples look down on woman. Therefore, this commercial does not display sexism.

NFL - NFL Draft
This commercial was 10 seconds long and did not display sexism. It was very short and to the point. Only men were featured because it was a football draft commercial involving male football players. No women were in the commercial and no gender roles of any sort were assigned.

NFL - The Who
This commercial only featured music from The Who. It had no narrator or characters. Its purpose was to tell the audience that The Who would be the half time show at the super bowl. The commercial appealed to both a male and female audience. No sexism was present.