Ava Zhang’s article, “Ethics: Sexism in Advertisements”, caught my attention not only because of the photo of boobs looming over it, but from my fascination  in how sexism plays a role in marketing.

In order to capture the buyer’s interest, a business must emphasize a feature of its product which connects with the buyer. In Nando‘s case, it was the word play from the new Double Chicken Breast Burger. The South African advertisement, released in 2008, featured a “dumb blonde” who struggles to reach the french fries concealed by her gigantic boobs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0atgOxcxqwE

Nando’s isn’t the only business who used sexism to enhance their advertisements. Then how about sexism against men?

When I searched “sexist advertisement” on YouTube, all videos discriminated against women and none against men. Yet I recall advertisements that portray men as horny beer-drinking hooligans or monotonous working fathers – practically mirroring the dumb blondes or cranky nagging mothers. Are such portrayals of men approved by society, whereas these portrayals of women are not? Advertisements have an undeniable influence on the perspective of sexism, indicating that businesses must take caution in how they portray each gender in the eyes of the buyer and, consequently, society as a whole.

Sources:

Ava Zhang’s article “Ethics: Sexism in Advertisements” (photo included): https://blogs.ubc.ca/avazhang/2012/10/09/ethics-sexism-in-advertisements/

Nando’s website: http://www.nandos.com/index1.html

Nando’s advertisement in 2008: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0atgOxcxqwE

YouTube search results for “sexist advertisement”: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sexist+advertisement&oq=sexist+adv&gs_l=youtube-reduced.3.0.35i39j0l3.65457.66616.0.67710.10.10.0.0.0.0.135.740.8j2.10.0…0.0…1ac.1.UMlRwJuCCNk