- What are the major differences between the two advertisements?
- One of the advertisements portrays a young boy and the other a young girl.
- The ad with the male speaks about the child being a "Scholar." These ideas are demonstrated by the image of the boy in the ad wearing an Einstien shirt and he is happy and outgoing. The male is also wearing formal clothes with typical boy colors such as blue. The ad with the female states they are a "Social Butterfly." These Ideas are shown by the colors that she is wearing such as pink and the girls' facial expression, she looks shy and quiet.
- The ad with the boy states they have a "future" and the one with the girl says they are the "talk of the playground" and won't have a future.
- Did your perception of GAP change after looking at and analyzing the second advertisement? Why or why not?
- I find it pretty bold for GAP to express this sort of sexism, but I think the producers of these ads went with typical social stereotypes in an attempt to appeal to more people. I believe this could have been a deliberately sexist ad or just an attempt to sell more of their products by generalizing.
- How do you think and feel about the ways in which boys and girls are depicted in these advertisements for clothes?
- If you look into the ads you can see that the male is talked about as if he is a "genius" and there is a "future" for him, whereas for the girl in the other ad, they are shown as a "Social Butterfly" and they don't state any sort of professional future for her besides being "the talk of the playground" which is childish and not a way to secure a future.
- These ideas are supported by the use of language utilized in each ad such as "genius" and "future" versus "Social Butterfly."
- The male is shown as happy and outgoing whereas the female is more muted and making the face of a model or someone shy.
- Should anything be done about these advertisements? In other words, are you okay with them? Do you find them sexist or offensive? Or should people just lighten up? Why or why not?
- I think these ads can definitely be seen as sexist. No dought about it. But, I believe that the producers of this advertisement have the choice to make generalizations such as these in attempt to appeal to a greater audience. In this case, I think it is a bit extreme and can be seen as a distraction of character to these children and possibly assuming their future without them even knowing.
- What, if anything, can be done about gender stereotyping in advertising, especially at such a young age? Or is it just something we have to accept?
- I think that there will always be gender stereotypes but even in our generation there have been a lot of changes in thinking and acceptance of different genders doing different things from the usual and at some point there will be a negligible percentage of people that will be sexist towards groups and most of the world will eventually just accept each other. Hopefully.
