I’ve lived here a fair time now and one thing has been consistent since I’ve been here; the protrayal in commercials of the vast majority of men as dumb, pizza-chomping, pickup truck-driving, overweight, conservatively-dressed dolts. Now, I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not an accurate relfection of reality – how could it be?
Which got me thinking, why do advertisers do it? Admittedly this happens mainly on the major networks, which I rarely watch these days and when you’re in the proverbial 18-25 ‘demographic’ you probably don’t care much what advertisers think about you – I know I didn’t at the time.
But I’m not so naive to believe that they do it solely because it works; if every business only did what worked then there would not be so much need for competition that there apparently is. I think it comes down to the inherent conservatism of the US advertising industry (and presumably the people that hire them). It’s very much a business of bandwagon jumping, where one original idea is rapidly copied by all and sundry for fear of missing out on something, thus diluting everybody’s opportunity in the process. It’s certainly hard to understand how men could be motivated into buying a product after being protrayed as being too dumb to use it.
Still after so long, you’d think that one idea had run its course? Maybe the fact that I so rarely watch the things perhaps proves that it has? Too many questions, I know.
Anyway, a recent, but rare example of the press picking up on the same trend: Fatherhood activists protest TV ad mocking Internet-challenged dad