Women Who Eat Burgers and Men Who Make Copies? Madness!

A few weeks ago we had a discussion in class about the responsibility that marketers have to promote healthy gender roles. Throughout the discussion, our class decided that marketers are trying to appeal to consumers who are seeing themselves how other people see them, known as metaperception. By reinforcing gender stereotypes advertisers are enabling consumers to think that these stereotypes are true. The following are examples of such advertisements: Burger King's "I am Man" commercial followed by Xerox's commercial about the subordinate office assistant. In class we also discussed how women can more easily align with men's actions than men can with women's actions. This is due to the fact that women's role in society is still being established. Thank goodness we've made moves from this day and age, ladies.