Being a woman and raising daughters has sometimes felt like I was a fish out of water. I kept talking about how my girls and I were strong, competent and capable, all the while billboards and advertising–not to mention movies, television shows and music–still portrayed women as sex objects as often as not.
In a recent blog post, Brianna Kovan picked 10 ads from 2014 that promote women and girls in a much more positive light. A few of them I have written about including GoldieBlox and Sorry.
The significance of these new ads is multi-fold. First, big advertising money is starting to see strong, capable decision-making women as an important market. Feminist ideas are becoming widely accepted–enough to not risk alienating their other audiences.
Yet, what I love the most is the help these ads are giving us at spreading these messages and making them mainstream! Advertising often seduces that a certain beer or car will bring good looking women to men, or the latest pharmaceutical will fix what ails. How wonderful that it now is helping us make women executives, girl scientists, and men doing household chores an expected site! The power (and manipulation) of advertising is strong. Hallelujah, it might work in our favor!
Enjoy watching these ads here, if you haven’t seen them already. They are worth it!
