Gender and Advertising

I have thought a lot over the years about gender in the media, particularly on television. For a class I took about 6 years ago, I logged roles played by actors of different genders and races in the programs I normally watch. Basically, I was pleasantly surprised by the representation I observed in shows such as Law and Order, Criminal Minds, House, CSI and so on--much better than I expected.

I really assumed that, aside from the annoying smart beautiful wife/goofus husband overkill, ads on tv had come a ways also, and they have, if you look back to the 60s and 70s. I noticed in viewing ads for our upcoming class, however, that there is a weird hard-working, solve-it-seemlessly-without-anybody-noticing trend in portraying women. "Happy family" is oblivious to mom's hand in making their day charming and idyllic, but as mom happily looks on, we just know no thanks is necessary. That's really not all that different from the 60s.

I also found that at the end of a commercial, I really wanted to watch it through another time or two. In other words, when we take deliberate notice of the details, there really is a lot of stuff at work in these messages. In terms of gender, I'm specifically wondering how much the creators' choices simply reflect our current society (it's simply portrayed realistically in the eyes of the creator), and how much is deliberately crafted to influence or sustain current notions about gender?