Generalization in Th World of Advertising

Generalizations in the World of Advertising Have you ever watched a particular television show and noticed that most of the advertisements are aimed at a particular audience? Perhaps you watched a cartoon that aired many commercials for toys. A show that is a rerun from decades ago that may show commercials for products geared toward the elderly such as denture cream and motorized scooters. I recently watched the Super Bowl with several family members. This was a diverse group ranging from children to teens, parents and grandparents. Males and females were present in about equal proportions. The Super Bowl has almost turned into a national “sports holiday.” Families and friends gather together to watch the national championship game. We all love to watch the commercials that air during the Super Bowl. Even though the advertising has changed somewhat over the last few years, it was interesting to see that many of the ads were still aimed at male viewers. The marketers that advertise during the Super Bowl are under the general assumption that this is still a male oriented sports event and these males are tough, rugged and like to drink beer. Advertisers make generalizations about the type of people that watch a particular show and target their commercials toward this audience. These generalizations are used for television advertising as well as magazine advertising. Many commercials during the Super Bowl were geared toward the male consumer. For example, there were many automobile ads yet there were no ads for family oriented vehicles such as mini vans. The automobile ads were for pickup trucks and sports cars. This says that men are tough and rugged like trucks and they like fast sports cars. One ad for Chevy depicted an apocalypse with a Chevy truck driving through the aftermath. There was nothing but rubble, a crashed UFO, burning buildings and a tough Chevy truck comes driving through the ashes. The driver of this Chevy truck meets up with his