Sexist Much?

Looking back in time I found information that was interesting when compared to recent advertisements. Let's look at what fascinated me most.

As I look at more and more advertisements of alcohol, my mind keeps on drawing its attention to the people associated with the certain beverage. During the 1980's only attractive women and men are use in the adverts. The women are tantalizing and sexy, almost as if they are tempting the male consumers to drink the alcohol and when do, will be pleasured. Most beer adverts were targeted at male consumers as beer was considered to be an alcohol stereotyped for men. Even today the beer adverts show hulking, handsome men who deserve a beer after a hard day's work. Example: Castle Lager. (Just switch on your TV to SABC and wait for about 10 minutes and one is sure to pop up.)

Women were just used in adverts (as mentioned above) for attracting male attention or to be in the background. This is mainly seen in the 1980's but we see more alcohol adverts aimed at women during the 1990's. Vodka and cream liqueur were both beverages which had women as their target market. Certain brands of alcohol were made for women alone. Example: Baileys.

However, men still ruled in the alcohol world and most adverts still targeted them. This is still true for us today, in a world where women are 'equal' to men. We still see majority of alcohol advertisements aimed at attracting male consumers, making them out to be the tough, hard working bread-winner who, after a long day of work, comes home to relax and indulge in alcohol. This may no longer be true in most homes, but the media somehow gets it wrong by protraying it in that way.

That's why, ladies and gentlemen, we should always take whatever the media tells us and add a bag of salt to it. Lesson Learnt.

Over and Out - Laylah