Exemplification - Stereotyping - Essay Example

This essay assesses the cognitive approach that classification is an important cognitive process that unavoidably leads to stereotyping in the media and gender. Adverts are created with a specific audience in mind. In spite of being designed to appeal the bigger majority in the target audience, there is no finance, resource or capability to market each unique person. Advertisers mostly exploit stereotypical types of genders with the aim of producing advertisements that have the biggest appeal.

For instance, in the vast part of the United States, it is believed that men are more aggressive than women. With that mentality, men are mostly used in adverts with the intention of such adverts appealing to a bigger audience (Hawkins-Dady, 2012). It is therefore, important to distinguish between gender, sex and stereotype for research purposes. As a matter of fact, sex is the biological difference between males and females. For gender, it is the social, psychological and cultural characteristics of being a male or a female.

In such a case, stereotype comes as a standardized image or conception of specific group of individuals or objects. For example, Bond and Desoto adverts show some exaggerated masculine. The men in the advert seem to be strong, tough and free. The coca cola adverts portray women as caring mothers, socially refined and serving housewives. Additionally, the Levi advert portray women as being sexually promiscuous. Also, the Hitachi telephone portray women as secretaries (Faust, 2013). Coming to the United States made me realize that women are today portrayed as being confident, independent and successful.

Most adverts in the papers in United States portray the mentioned qualities, but beauty in women is still linked to being successful. Although, there is a move from this notion as noticed in one Dove advert. This advert seems to go against the norm which portrays women as thin model. The advert uses a fat woman in advertising the