Letter to the Editor: De-Sexualizing Advertisements Would Still be Effective

Dear Editor,

According to a Nielsen data, 47 percent of people who watched the 2015 Super Bowl were women. A 2015 article in the International Business Times (IBT), written by Sarah Berger, posed some excellent points on how advertising, especially during sporting events, is missing a huge chunk of the market.

The commercials were filled with appeals to men, including lots of sexualized portrayals of a woman’s body. Some were subtle, but then there was the advertisement of a naked Kate Upton in a bathtub.

These advertisements can even be offensive to women. I’m not saying these advertisements were not effective from an economic perspective, but with almost half of the viewers being women, there is a huge chunk of untapped potential to reach significantly more consumers.

Berger writes that a potential reason for this farce is that the people in the creative departments of these companies are primarily men. Despite Neilson’s clear evidence, they are not taking advantage of almost half of the viewership. 

If companies want to shoot above their competition and reach new markets, they need to be doing anything they can. That would not just create more revenue, but would also be good publicity for a company that shows they don’t think sports is a man’s game.

Sincerely,

Gage Parsons

Junior

Journalism (Advertising/Public Relations) &

Communication