Part #1. A Copy of the Original Ad

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-496827/The-outrageously-politically-incorrect-adverts-time-equality-forgot.html

Part #2. Brief Written Analysis

The advertisement that I chose to work on for this Cultural Jam Assignment is the advertisement of the new Del Monte ketchup. The advertisement conveys gender inequality from the following two ways. First, the underlined word “woman” in the sentence “you mean a woman can open it?” conveys gender inequality because it does not make much sense when one says, “you mean a man can open it?” The sentence presupposes that women are usually not strong enough to open a ketchup lid and, surprisingly, the new design of Del Monte ketchup lid enables women to open it. The advertisement implies that, if women can do it, then everyone can do it. That is to say, women are ranked the lowest among all groups of people. The advertisement ignores the fact that there could be women who are strong enough to open the ketchup lid and there could be men who are not strong enough to open the ketchup lid. Gender inequality is embedded in the advertisement. Second, the fact that the advertisement specifically targets women as the buyers of the new Del Monte ketchup conveys gender inequality because there is only one woman with a surprising and happy face appearing in the advertisement. It presupposes that women are assumed to be housewives who prepare meals regularly and they are more likely to use and buy Del Monte ketchup than men. However, everyone may be a buyer of the new Del Monte ketchup. Women should not be thought as people who mostly stay at home. Gender inequality is embedded in the advertisement.

Part #3. My Jammed Version of the ad

http://socialdance.stanford.edu/syllabi/different.htm

Part #4. Brief Written Explanation

In my jammed version of the ad, I altered two things according to the two points I made in part #2. First, I changed the underlined word in the sentence from “woman” to “everyone” in order to eliminate the gender inequality layer from the original advertisement. When “everyone” is emphasised, the advertisement no longer indicates a particularly weak group who are usually not strong enough to open a ketchup lid. The new design of Del Monte ketchup lid simply enables everyone to open it. Moreover, the advertisement does not imply “if women can do it, then everyone can do it” any more. Although, due to physical differences, women may have less strength than men on average, it should not be something being depicted by a commercial advertisement of ketchup. If everyone can open the ketchup lid, then it means it can be opened by all subsets of “everyone”, such as men who are strong enough, women who are strong enough, men who are not strong enough, women who are not strong enough, the elders, and the kids. Therefore, I think equality is ensured by the use of “everyone”. Second, to match the wording, I changed the photo of one surprising and happy woman’s face to a photo of a bunch of people with smiles on their faces so that it shows the readers that anyone may benefit from the new design of Del Monte ketchup lid. It saves time, energy and trouble. Furthermore, everyone (all races, all genders, all skin colors) should be included as the targeted buyers of the new Del Monte ketchup. Everyone may buy groceries, including bottles of ketchup. The jammed advertisement does not attract female buyers in particular.