REFLECTION JOURNAL 2 ( MULTI-MEDIA ENTRY)

STEREOTYPES IN ADVERTISEMENTS

This video is an advertisement and has a stereotype that blonde women are dumb. Commercial companies use stereotypes in order to make their advertisements more funny and effective. They do not create new stereotypes, but they reinforce the stereotypes which people have already known. In my opinion, there are two important points to be mentioned and emphasized in the video.

The first point is about effects of the stereotypes on advertisements. Think about the advertisement in the video. The stereotype which is used in it insults blonde women, but the people who watch this advertisement have fun like us involuntarily. In addition to make ads fun, using stereotypes affects consumers. And also, it may make the product which is introduced in the advertisement more attractive. In my opinion, the companies use stereotypes deliberately because people can find something which is familiar with them. When they watch advertisements in television or internet, finding a slice of their life makes the advertisements more reliable. For example, when a man watch an advertisement in which a woman speaks too much, he says she is just like my wife. This may make the advertisement more reliable and funny for him. In conclusion, because the stereotypes in advertisements affect and attract consumers, the commercial companies make profit thanks to the stereotypes.

The second point is about the opposite situation that is effects of the advertisement on stereotypes. As I mentioned before, commercial companies reinforce the stereotypes which is already known. Because stereotypes are generalization about a group of people or gender, they affect people’s thought about the group. They mostly affect people negatively, and they may make people give a bias to the members of the group. In order to overcome the stereotypes and their negative effects we should forget about them, but it is harder to ignore them because we can encounter with them again and again in a day due to advertisements.  

To sum up, because advertisements use and reinforce the stereotypes, advertisements have more effects on us and may prevent us from overcoming and forgetting about stereotypes. Stereotypes may increase the profits of the commercial companies, but the commercial companies negatively affect our lives and thoughts by using stereotypes in my opinion.