Advertisement and it's many sexisms.

As a bit of a follow up a few previous posts on gender and advertising, below is a short clip from the BBC comedy series "That Mitchell and Webb look." I find the dialog that ensues in the comments section interesting, especially the notion of "reverse" sexism through the use of stupid men in advertisement - which is something I've heard discussed in an intelligent fashion on Terry O'Reilly's Age of Persuasion.

O'Reilly mentions that the "why are men portrayed as morons, while women are portrayed as brilliant?" question in one of the most common posed to him as an ad expert. In the radio piece on this topic, he suggests that as women are the main consumer decision-makers in most households, depicting the women as the "comic foil" in an advertisement meant to sell products would constitute "biting the hand that feeds you." Further, as this remains a Man's World, it's simply funnier to see men as the butt of the joke, whereas it's not generally understood as funny to kick a (wo)man when s/he's down. Advertisers, in their creepily intense understanding of human psychology, get this and suggest that guys should just grow a pair and learn to deal with this mostly silly form of advertisement.

Comments on Terry's page with regards to his explanation behind this kind of "reverse" sexism, are still called "lame" by an astute/anonymous poster (who naturally provides no additional understanding of the topic). One thing not addressed in the piece, which I think is also important to point out, is how these ads in being humorous or silly, are in no way suggesting that men should start acting like morons - or that there would be some kind of advantage to this sort of moronic behavior. It acknowledges the power dynamic in the home by directing the advertisement to the women and makes a simple joke at the man in the advertisement's expense. While it may imply that men are morons, it's not suggesting that this is a good thing to be. This is in contrast with the kind of sexism generally directed towards women in advertisement, which tends to far more persuasive if not subtle and is often meant to encourage behavior change in women. Purchasing in this case comes from repeatedly pointing out supposed shortcomings in the target population and suggesting that the product in question can help one overcome these shortcomings. And it's this very point that this little bit of sketch comedy seems to really get.