Sexist advertising

Industry advertising doesn't shy away from sexist imagery and allusions. It may include:

• sexualized advertisements, using images of conventionally attractive women to sell geek products to an audience of heterosexual men;
• advertisements aimed at women which are condescending or pigeonholing, assuming that women are interested in household chores, children, beauty or socialising.

Examples

One notorious example of this is the Linux Journal blowjob ad, but other examples abound.

• In an article titled "Gender, Technologies, and Toys 'R Us", Sociological Images noted how tech gear and gadgets are marketed in sexist ways to boys and girls even while giving the appearance of fairness.

• Mediatemple.net ran a full-age color ad in a 2008 Web Host Magazine prominently featuring a nightclubbing woman's breasts and rouged lips (eyes are cropped out of the picture) with the legend "Serious Support."

• Lacie ran a back-cover ad on a 2008 Mac Life showing a jean-clad woman's backside with the legend, "Does this make my aspect ratio look wide?"

• The expression "So simple, even your (grand)mother could do it" crops up frequently. This phrase is common and damaging enough to warrant its own entry.

• Della computers is a (sexist) attempt by Dell to market to women.
• "Ladies' corner" with pink products for women at Norwegian retailer PS.no.
• Go Daddy's advertising
• Advertisements for the medieval-setting online computer game Evony changed from featuring a soldier in armour to increasingly undressed women to, finally, a pair of breasts in a bra: [1]
  • After Evony advertising became ubiquitous, game company PopCap developed parody ads featuring female zombies dressed in lingerie
• The phone company Nokia created a commercial in which a group of women gets on an elevator with a man. Once the elevator starts moving, dance music begins, and the women strip down to lingerie and dance with/around the man. [CW for the comments at that link, which include rape threats and other forms of misogyny]
• These "computer installation" videos from ASRock and MSI.
• Hosting company FORTAcloud tweeted a 50 percent off ad displaying a woman in bed wearing nothing but lingerie and high heels.

Responses

• Market appeal is frequently cited as a reason for this kind of advertising.