Advertisements are yet another prominent and integral part of television viewing. Due to its power and charisma, advertising is the best-known and most widely discussed form of promotion. Advertising not only informs but persuades and motivates the consumer about the advertised products, service or ideas. Advertising plays an important role in persuading the public to change their attitudes towards a product, service or idea. The constant flow of advertising images of gender, types of persons, social classes, and other groups influence our social learning process. A quick glance through TV gives a strong indication of how society views women. It is observed that many advertisements portray women in stereotypical roles that limit their capabilities….
Women were overrepresented in advertisements for cosmetics and were less likely to appear in advertisements for cars, trucks and related products. Seventy-five percent of all advertisements using women were for products found in the kitchen or bathroom, reinforcing the stereotype that a woman’s place is in the home. Women as compared to men were portrayed mostly in house settings rather than business settings. Women did not make important decisions and lastly women were depicted as dependent on men and were regarded primarily as sexual objects. Courtney and Whipple (1974) defined sexual objects as, where women had no role in the commercial, but appeared as an item of decoration. Jake Lake and Brad Wadden say, in the portrayal of women in the media that advertisements promote extreme thinness or a thin waist and big breasts, misleading because these models don’t represent the majority of the population. These advertisements have women in them looking good but very seldom are they talking. These advertisements put pressure on women to get that “thin look”. This extra pressure leads to low self-esteem and eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Women are also portrayed as domestic laborers. Women are very seldom showing as career oriented in these advertisements. (Cited in Amber: 2002). Hall et al (1994) reports that in most of advertisement majority of women featured appeared in leisurewear or swimwear. Although the largest category of male apparel in work clothes; very few commercials showed women in work…
