Women In Super Bowl Advertising

Since its inception in 1967, the Super Bowl has amassed millions of viewers in the United States and across the globe. Friends and families gather around television screens at homes, in bars and restaurants, and just about anywhere else one can be placed, to watch the big game, the halftime show, and the commercials. Fifty years later, the trend continues, with over 111 million U.S. viewers watching the game live on television in February 2016. (Nielsen, 2016) This number does not include international viewers, viewers at bars and restaurants, and viewers using recording for future viewing. With approximately one-third of the country tuned in to the same event at once, the Super Bowl can easily be surmised as a cultural phenomenon that captivates a significant portion of the …show more content…
O’Barr (2012) stated, “Given the large number of men who watch the game and the overall macho, heterosexist orientation of the event, it is no surprise that a great many Super Bowl commercials feature attractive women and put their bodies on display.” One of the most infamous companies for doing this over the last decade is Go Daddy. The online domain registration site often features attractive women in scandalizing dress. In 2012, the company released a commercial with NASCAR driver Danica Patrick and fitness trainer Jillian Michaels painting a presumably naked female (BestSBCommercials 's channel, 2012). Patrick and Michaels talk about the site’s push to sell “.co” domains as they paint, and when they step back, the camera goes over the body of the painted model. This is one of dozens of examples of women’s portrayals in Super Bowl commercials. “[These commercials] depict women as men presumably want to see them—beautiful, sexy, scantily clothed, receptive. For female viewers, the images in the ads are models of what men supposedly expect of them.” (O’Barr,