Pros And Cons Of Stereotypes In Advertising

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Blinded to Stereotypes
Stereotyping has become an almost societal norm. Everything we see when we go somewhere has advertising involved in it somehow. Advertising companies have made a lot of money off of stereotyping in their ads. Many ads today are focused on certain categories, a big category being gender. They create stereotypes to make their product seem better to a certain gender.
We see advertising everyday in our lives. One of the biggest ad venues is during the NFL Super Bowl. Companies spend $4 million for only 30 seconds of advertising and $8 million for 60 seconds during the Super Bowl. Over the years people have started to watch the Super Bowl just for the ads. This wouldn’t be a problem if so many of these ads weren 't stereotyping
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Companies such as Victoria 's Secret, which sells women’s clothing and underwear, is famous for their annual fashion show. This show features women called, “Angels” who are women dressed in mostly underwear that walk down the aisle. This show does wonders to promoting Victoria’s Secret lingerie and other clothes. This wouldn’t be a problem, if the models were more realistic. All of these “Angels” are top of the line women who we would ever rarely see. This mixed in with ads for Victoria’s Secret creates a hurtful image to many women. It tells women that they should look like that, when the average woman is far from it. This damages women’s pride and self-esteem. Women start to think that they have to look like the models to be able to wear Victoria’s Secret, or just to be beautiful in general. The models in this fashion show are sometimes so skinny, that other girls that want to look like them actually starve themselves. This makes sense when we look deeper into the models …show more content…
The first step would actually be realizing what is going on in the advertisements around us. Once we open our eyes to this we can pass it on to others. Companies use ads like this, because they catch people 's attention, even if they don’t realize the meanings behind them. Attention aside, the deciding factor is money, if something is selling the ads for it will continue and maybe even multiply in number. So to make companies change their approach we have to take away what they all want: money. To do this enough people have to stand up to these outrageous ads and stop buying the product behind it. If anyone sees a dehumanizing, objectifying, or sexist ad quit buying that company 's product altogether, and let all your friends and family know so they will too. The only way to get companies to change what works for them, is to make it not work anymore. To do this we must work together in society. We need to put our differences aside and do what is morally

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