Video Marketing: When Men in Advertising Are Idiots

While watch­ing tele­vi­sion tonight, I couldn’t help but notice that every sin­gle com­mer­cial — along with most nightly sit­coms — por­tray men (and hus­bands) as stu­pid and women (and wives) as intel­li­gent. Would the tar­get demo­graphic in this video mar­ket­ing want to be dat­ing a mar­ried man like this?

Gen­der and Advertising

The more I thought about it, the more I real­ized that I had seen such com­mer­cials for as long as I can remem­ber. Per­haps it started with Homer Simpson.

It seems I’m not the only one (see here as well). Has any­one else noticed this? I won­der: Why is this a trend in advertising?

Men in Advertising

I see sev­eral pos­si­bil­i­ties: 1.) Today’s politically-correct cli­mate makes it impos­si­ble to make fun of women (and, let’s face it, mar­keters exploit gen­er­al­iza­tions); 2.) Fewer men are watch­ing tele­vi­sion, so adver­tis­ers increas­ingly ignore them; and 3.) Women in house­holds make most con­sumer pur­chases, so mar­ket­ing pro­fes­sion­als focus on them.

Are there any other reasons?

Related: Men Ver­sus Women and Tell Them About the Dis­count, Harry! and Cri­tiques of Fem­i­nism: Argu­ments Against Fem­i­nism Essay. Else­where: The Times of Lon­don looks into the anti-male bias in adver­tis­ing.