Commercials are common means of advertising used to persuade the public to use or buy a certain product. Some of these commercials target certain types of people, most dominantly sex. Undoubtedly, these commercials often cause controversy because they seem highly stereotypical. For example, a car commercial aimed at a man usually advertise a sports car or a truck, while a car commercial aimed at woman usually advertise a minivan, and the female would be portrayed as a soccer mom. Companies even show their commercials at a certain time of day to get to their targeted audience. During the day time most commercials are aimed at women because they are assumed to be stay at home moms. Later in the day, and on weekends the commercials are aimed at men while they are watching sports. Commercials are often gendered and target certain groups of people. .
Steven Craig's article, Men's Men and Women's Women (1990) discussed his findings on gendered commercials. He found that commercials he viewed fell into four categories. These categories are men's men, men's women, women's women, and women's man. Men's men commercials are commercials which are obviously aimed at men, there are rarely any important female roles. Men's women commercials are commercials where women are used as an object of desire. Women's women commercials are usually commercials where the woman's need is the desire to attain and maintain her physical attractiveness. In Women's men commercials, the men are more vulnerable and almost treated like a young child being pampered by the woman. Craig analyzed four commercials to come up with these categories. Unfortunately, these gendered commercials still exist today. The super bowl has become a new means for the exposition of commercials. Some companies spend millions of dollars making one commercial to be shown super bowl Sunday. .
ADVERTISING TARGETS.
Many of these companies' commercials fell into one of Craig's categories.