Women in Advertising: Then and Now

US advertising agency The Ludlow Group posted a great comparison of sexist vintage advertising to current ads that still have a long way to go.

THEN:

AND NOW:

This Miller Lite ad acknowledges how ridiculously sexist it is by including female characters who are visibly disgusted by the whole scenario. As Feminist Frequency points out, this ironic approach to sexism is popular among advertisers: “It’s really the normalization of sexism through the use of irony. It’s the ‘they know that I know that they know, that they’re being sexist.’”

Does acknowledging that you’re being sexist make it more okay? Or is it just a cop-out to continue using women’s bodies to sell products?

See The Ludlow Blog for more examples from the past and present Sexism In Ads: Then And Now.