Race and Gender in Advertising

Here are my findings from advertising in the media that deals with race and gender.
I chose these sources because these are what I look at on a weekly basis in comparison to others which I would never really look at unless I was bored.
US Weekly Magazine- celebrity gossip and entertainment magazine-
An advertisement for Three Olives Vodka that shows two woman making their O-faces. This is sexualizing women and there are no men in these advertisements.

Marie Claire Magazine- women's magazine-
An advertisement for GAP which is called "27 Colors" and it has a diverse group of women from all different races fashioning the same kind of t-shirt in many different colors.

Cosmopolitan Magazine- women's fashion and entertainment magazine-
An advertisement for CoverGirl which features Rihanna and she appears to be lighter skinned than she normally is probably due to photoshop.

US Weekly Magazine- celebrity gossip and entertainment magazine-
An advertisement for Nic's Sticks Paint and Go Nail Lacquer that features three girls from high school musical in order of race starting with a white girl, hispanic girl and then a black girl.

Cosmopolitan Magazine- women's fashion and entertainment magazine-
An advertisement for Calvin Klein which shows three people a female and male African African and then a Asian woman. The Asian lady is off to the side while the African American couple is gazing into one another's eyes basically completely ignoring the other person in the ad. They are portraying an same race relationship instead of an interracial relationship when it could have been just as easy to make it a relationship between the Asian woman and African American man. Although CK probably didn't do this on purpose, it still makes me feel like they are too scared to show an interracial relationship.

2009 commercial for Carl's Jr. with Padma Lakshmi-
2009 Commercial
This commercial shows Padma, which is of a foreign tropical ethnicity, licking her fingers and licking the burger very sexually while also lifting her dress higher to make sure she doesn't get sauce on her clothes. So they are showing her in a very over sexual way eating a burger and afterwards they say the line "more than just a piece of meat" and you really don't know if they are referring to her or the burger. I, myself, thought this was a very degrading commercial.

PC commercial for Windows with the four year old Asian girl-
2009 Commercial
In this commercial it shows a four year old little Asian girl editing pictures on a computer program, which used to be so much more difficult in the past but now it is so much easier. What is interesting about this commercial is that it is an Asian girl and they have been known to be stereotyped as nerdy and this commercial kind of makes it the little girl to appear that way. Obviously, she is just a child and it is supposed to be cute, but if it was an older Asian female or male the stereotypical Asian nerd might be more obvious.

Dolce and Gabbana Commercial featuring Adam Karst of Cannon Karst Products-
2009 Commercial
In this commercial is shows Adam watching a Hispanic woman dancing on a stage. She is just dancing around is a sexual way while he is just sitting back and fantasizing about her. At the end of commercial, all that the show is just a pair of shoes that the girl was wearing laying there as if they are trying hint to the audience that something sexual might have happened between the Hispanic woman and the Caucasian male.

PETA commercial 2009-
This commercial shows three Caucasian women in barely anything licking vegetables with captions below them saying that if you become a vegetarian you will have better sex. This ad was eventually banned. Once again, like many other commercials and advertisements, I believe that this commercial demeans women and makes them look like the only thing they are good at is representing a sex symbol for men.

Mastercard 'Priceless' Commercial called "Meet the Family"-
2008/09 Commercial
This commercials shows an interracial couple, a white male and Asian female, discussing what will happen when their two opposite families realize that they are getting married and what their reactions will be. Many people had an issue with this commercial because mainstream media in this day and age are still portraying Asians and Asian women as "exotic" and un-American. I thought this commercial was great because the couple, although they need their families might have an issue with them getting married, they didn't care because they were in love and really didn't care what other people thought in the end.

People always say that sex sells, but I don't think that this is still the right way to go about advertising. Too many people are only worried about money and how they can get more money, especially through advertising, and this is just really makes me sick to my stomach. Money seems to make the world go round and I wish I could do something to change that, but sadly enough, I don't think anyone will ever be able to. It was really hard to find ads that had women or men of other races besides Caucasian. When I thought about it, I realized that many ads that have people of other races in them, they are usually the role of the best friend or sidekick of the main Caucasian role. There are also unlimited amount of commercials that show women as the stay at home mom that caters to her children and husband and that is all she really does with her life. Men in commercials usually play the single, bachelor role or the "bring home the bacon" to the family role. Obviously, these are not politically correct in every case, but that is all that is ever advertised. In general, I'm not a big fan of advertising because it is so revolved around just making money.