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Adidas promotes sexism in their "all in" campaign
Tags: gender, inequality, marketing/brandssports, commercial, femininity, masculinity, 00 to 05 mins
Year: 2011
Length: 2:00
Access: YouTube

Summary: This Adidas commercial is from their recent "all in" advertising campaign. It is an excellent short clip for getting students to think about how binary gender, masculinity, and femininity are constructed in popular culture and sports. For example, the male athletes are depicted in more physically aggressive/extreme and high contact sports, and while female athletes are present in the video, they are vastly under-represented and their bodies are almost always sexualized (e.g. in cheerleading or dancing). Possible exercise: have students write down descriptors of the men and women in the video then share with the class and discuss. Possible topics of discussion include how these stereotypes/portrayals are harmful to men and women, objectification of men and women's bodies, and heterosexism and sexism in the media and sports industry. Using commercials in this manner offers several benefits, including a quick assessment of student understanding of key concepts.

Submitted By: Anya Galli

 


Comments

08/03/2011 10:41pm

Here is the ad for "Adidas Women Go All In." While we might congratulate Adidas for resisting the urge to depict women athletes as primarily sex objects, note how the gender binary is protected. In this ad grace and form are emphasized for women, rather than power and strength associated with men in sports (masculine). http://youtu.be/ERr9Lorv9ro

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