Do you smell...bull****? (final)

It's not well hidden that women are the butt of the American advertising industry's joke. Crammed into clothes that are too small to sell a product, airbrushed to extremes, and made to look stupid or helpless to make the men (who might one day buy the product advertised) feel better. 

Whatever. What sells, sells. I think the women's movement is past the point of fighting for better advertising, when you consider how ubiquitous it is. 

But there are moments when enough is well and truly enough, and where the advertisement is so ridiculous that there is really no method of defending it.

Above is a Taco Bell ad from last summer, for the Bacon Club Chalupa. 

The basic premise? Two girls walk into a bar. One has a Bacon Club Chalupa in her purse, the other does not. The girl with the bacon is surrounded by males. The girl without the bacon? Yeah, you guessed it. Not a look from any of the guys.

The entertainment industry seems set on the idea that women are simply not complete without a guy around. But the Taco Bell ad takes it one step further. Again, woman walks into a bar with a chalupa in her purse, because 'guys love bacon', and ends up with three of them at her table, ignoring her equally made-up, bacon-less friend. 

Granted, I'll give credit where credit is due for good methods. The idea of smell bringing the guys to the table can be likened to pheromones. The guys are all fairly good-looking (giving credence to the idea that this whole premise might actually work). 

Maybe women want to know how to meet guys, and maybe they're willing to try new things to meet said guys, but I highly doubt that any woman is going to go to a bar, made up in a pretty dress, with Mexican food in her purse, just to get a guy. But because of stereotypes, women are apparently desperate enough to do this and have it be a believable scenario. Just about every woman's magazine has the words "where/how to meet men" somewhere between its pages. And granted, maybe women do want to know what they can do to meet and get new men in their lives.

But the commercial is insulting because it makes it seem like a woman will do virtually anything to get a guy. Ruin the lining of a nice, probably moderately expensive purse, and have it reek of bacon and sour cream for weeks, just so you might get a guy's number? It seems like a little much to go through just for a cute guy you could meet at a coffee shop (bacon free). Of course, no woman would actually ever do that (hopefully) and Taco Bell is not suggesting that a woman would necessarily do this, but because women are always seen as the ones with all the plans on "how to meet somebody", it is us who are the ones doing crazy things in advertisements, movies, and television. Are women really seen as that desperate and insecure, and therefore exploitable for an advertisement? I suppose this ad is funny, if you're a guy (guys do apparently love bacon), but where is the ad that has women crawling over each other to get to a guy? Oh yeah. Axe commercials. Just as flattering.

It all begs the question: will women always be the butt of the ad industry's joke? Or will we see a point where ads play on men's insecurities, men's stereotypes? Or, god forbid, will there be a point where ads actually advertise a product, without any gimmicks?

Target audience: Female consumers

Main point: Women are stereotyped to help advertise a product in a humorous way.