Portrayal of Women in Super Bowl Commercials
Monday February 4, 2008
Women are responsible for 83% of household buying decisions. So when it comes to television's most expensive real estate -- commercial advertising during the Super Bowl at an average cost of $2.7 million per 30 second spot -- what's more important: to create the biggest buzz at the water cooler on Monday, or to appropriately portray (and appeal to) the women who will make or break you in the marketplace?
One national women's advocacy group is happy to weigh in with an opinion. The NOW (National Organization for Women) Foundation monitors Super Bowl TV commercials with the assistance of volunteer observers and rates them in terms of their depiction of women.
As the NOW Foundation notes, "The portrayal of women and girls, people of color, and other disenfranchised groups can affect how they are viewed in society and how they feel about themselves."
TV spots are judged on the following:
- representation/diversity
- sexual exploitation
- violence
- social responsibility.
Comments
I read the NOW commentary on Super Bowl commercials, and their accompanying ratings of those commercials. It strikes me that NOW needs to rediscover their sense of both humor and proportion. First of all, not every commercial has to feature women. Also, physical comedy has a long history in this country (and others) and many of us find it genuinely funny. I had no problem with any of the commercials aired during the Super Bowl. In fact, some of those that NOW found offensive, I found quite funny. This may seem incongruous in a self-identified feminist of nearly 60 years of age, but I learned long ago to laugh not only at myself but at the foibles of my fellow humans. NOW should do the same, or risk losing yet another generation of young women. NOW is in danger of becoming (dare I say it?) staid and humorless and thus fulfilling the opinions held about feminists as a whole over the years.