SUMMARY:

Steve Craig’s topic in “Men’s Men and Women’s Women” is gender identity through the lens of specifically directed commercials during different parts of the day throughout the weekday and weekend.. He briefly delves into the fact that the sole purpose of commercials is to expose its target audience with images that associate the product with pleasurable ideals. The businesses want to sell the product to make a profit, and they will go through whatever means necessary to achieve that goal. Craig observes the stereotypes these commercials impose on its viewers, usually both young men and women. In the Men’s Women commercial, Craig notes how the women are simply objects of desire and how advertising companies use sex appeal to attract the audience’s eyes toward specific genders. The portrayals of gender identity seem to be a problem, according to Craig. There seems to be no contact or communication between the genders outside of the commercial world, which allows the ideals in the advertisements slowly become the viewers’ realities.

RESPONSE:

As reading, I’m sure we can all agree Craig’s article is very accurate. for example..“ Pepsi, The Choice of a New Generation" which greatly incorporated the use of sex appeal. Pepsi's main reasoning for this seems to have been that they believed that the society was transforming into a more sex driven place, therefore, incorporating sex would increase product sales. Pepsi's advertising has been geared toward the idea of wealth, weight loss, and the use of sex appeal in order successfully gross large sales for their product, however, they have done so by deceivingly making faulty promises that their product cannot keep. Steve says “ The advertising industry spends countless hours and millions of dollars preparing and shaping the way and place in which a person will view their ad ” Within the realm of advertisements, there appears to be a fundamental difference in the way that men and women are portrayed. Additionally, the design schemes of ads that are targeted towards men or women appear to be different as well.

here is a link from a famous 1991 Pepsi commercial. . Thirst Quenching?

http://youtu.be/B02DGmkqDDU