Is all of this even still relevant?

A lot of people might be wondering, "How is women's portrayal in advertisements still relevant? Didn't we already have a feminist movement? Isn't there a better censor on offensive ads?"

While this is true, women's portrayal in advertisements is still relevant, and continues to grow in relevance.


First, it grows in relevance as the advertising industry grows. As time goes on, the advertising industry continues to grow, as more outlets for advertising arise with technological development. Currently, advertising has dramatically increased its presence on the internet - blogs, videos, websites. With more technological advances, advertising increases.

Americans are exposed to an unbelievable amount of advertisements on a daily basis. One study in Arthur Asa Berger's book, Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture, reports:

• American teenagers watch between 360,000 to 500,000 by the time they graduate high school.
• An average American spends one entire year of his or her life watching TV commercials (Berger 42).

Thus, advertising consumes such a large percentage of our lives, that we cannot help but be exposed, and consequently affected, by it.

As advertising continues to grow, so does women's presence on the advertisements. It is especially interesting because we can read a lot about society's attitude about women by looking at the advertisements of a specific time period. Until the 1960s, advertisements emphasizing a woman's role in the house were very prevalent, reflecting the culture's patriarchal society. Later, advertisements primarily used women as sex symbols, reflecting our culture's tendency to objectify women and foster unhealthy perspectives on beauty.

Women's portrayal in advertisement is extremely relevant.