Stereotypes In Advertising

Words: 486
Pages: 2

In the 1960’s era Madison Avenue marketed advertisements that pushed women to be excellent housewives. There were ads that represented women as the weaker and more emotional sex (Edwards). The thought that American women are fragile and emotional can be traced back to the Mayflower. Ever since a woman stepped on the New Land she was to keep a good house and raise the children (Collins).

Advertisers furthered the perfect housewife image by having adverts that suggested women wanted appliances for Christmas. One such ad suggests wives to circle what appliances they want and then tells husbands they’d better purchase the gift before their wife cries. Another ad suggests that a husband buy their wife a hoover for Christmas because that will make her the happiest (Edwards). These ads prove Gail Collins point about how women were seen as emotional because a wife would cry if she didn’t get what she wanted.

Freud states in his thesis that women would only feel fulfilled when they were able to create a Technicolor home for their children and husbands. Advertisers to market products to consumers would use Freud’s thesis (Miller). Everywhere women looked they were being fed a stigmatized idea by the media. Women were taught that a happily married life meant they give up any work outside the house (Collins).
…show more content…
Airlines marketed the job as a “glamorized” life but still kept with the “housewife” stigma (Collins). Being a stewardess didn’t de-stigmatize women due to ads like one whose headline read “think of her as your mother.” The ad explains how the stewardess will provide a warm blanket and a cool drink for the traveler. The photograph accompanying the ad is that of a beautiful young women sitting down and has a coat draped over her and her hair up, the picture portrays an image of a warm mother