Women being used as "appeal" in advertising

[OrlandoWoolf]

Everywhere you look. Victoria Plumb bathrooms - woman in the bath.
Sofa - woman sat alluringly on sofa.
I've just looked for a printer and there's a picture of a young attractive woman in the top right.

Naturally - young and attractive women.

I suppose an ugly bloke sprawled on a sofa would be a bit unappealing?

Be fair now. If you want to imagine an ad with a male model with some hope of selling anything, he wouldn't be an "ugly bloke sprawled"--you've got to make him equivalent to the young and attractive woman. Now why isn't it easy to think of how a man might be presented so as to be attractive, whereas with a woman it's easy?

I know OP, women are put into adverts like a ribbon (or one of those shiny adhesive xmas bows...what the hell are they called, do they even have a name?) is put on a parcel...something inoffensive, decorative, and almost inanimate. So depressing.

While we're on adverts...A while back a few of my friends on FB were getting giddy over the Southern Comfort ad with the hairy, overweight, sunburnt older man strolling down the beach. They were commenting how refreshing it was to see a 'real' man on an ad, not just a model. Er, where were the older, fat, hairy women? No, that would be totally ridiculous; no one wants to see that The ad itself had young, slim women in bikinis, which is fine, I 'spose but it pisses me off that some people seemed to think the advert was revolutionary!