Gender Roles In Advertising In The 1980's

The 1960s to the 1990s was an era when there were strict gender roles to be followed. Companies have always used advertising as an outlet for selling their products. These companies have one aim, that is to target their audience and make them want to buy the product. Corporations such as Coke and Marlboro have been successful at finding an audience and then directing their ads towards the people thus making a large profit. Public surveys conducted by Gallup through the 1980s showed that peoples faith in advertising was in decline through out America, particularly in the years between 1970 and 1979, according to a 1994 Journal of Public Policy & Marketing article by John E. Calfee and Debra Jones Ringold. Studies by Harris and Associates found
that in 1976 that “a majority of respondents felt... that most or all of television advertising was seriously misleading,”even though feedback had been evenly mixed just a decade before. For years, companies have used images associated with masculinity and manliness to sell their products to both men and women. When targeting women, advertisers used to lure the opposite sex into purchasing products by using masculinity to symbolise the strength of their products by associating their brands with sex appeal. When selling to men advertisers took a different approach. They merged a brand with aspirational imagery and attempted to convey the message of 'if you buy this, then you'll obtain the pinnacle of manliness”.