Sex, Lies, & Advertisin g

Steinem's article describes her woman's magazines troubles getting advertisers to place adds in the Ms. magazine. What is most striking about her account is the backwardness of the companies she contacts about advertising in her magazine. In most cases the companies ignore survey and market research when making advertising choices. For ebelieve that xample, car and technology companies are resistant to advertising in the magazine as they only men purchase their products, despite survey and market research to the contrary. While on an intuitive level it would make sense for companies to place adds wherever they can generate revenue, Steinem's account shows that this is simply not true. If advertisements are out of touch with the people they are selling products to, then they must be created around pre-existing beliefs about what kind of groups like certain products. As such, Ms. magazine was constantly being forced to accept advertisements which were counter to their mission as a magazine. Furthermore, there were numerous examples of blatant sexism, as shown by VIP's in Este Lauder and Eastern Airlines. All these examples show how companies pressure magazines to show images in a certain manner which lead to the stereotypes of women and other groups which are seen in society today. Steinem is trying to show that advertisements are sources of labeling which affect the way we see each other, as well as the content of our magazines. Furthermore, this advertising is often biased in what it shows and how it is conceived.