This advertisement by General Motors promotes the sale of motor vehicles by discouraging people to ride bicycles, and does so by exploiting preconceived notions of masculinity and femininity in men. The ad features a man on a bicycle hiding his face in shame from a pretty girl in a car who is giving him a rather derisive look, suggesting it is somehow shameful for a man to ride a bicycle. This ad none too subtly suggests that not owning a car makes a man unattractive to women, and a large part of what is considered masculine is the ability to attract the feminine. The man on the bicycle appears to be wearing a button-down shirt and a tie, but any idea that he is at all professional is completely undermined by the condescending amusement displayed on the face of the female. The message is clear: buy a car, or you aren't cool, professional, or desirable.
Another integral part of this advertisement is that the reader cannot see who is driving the car. Why might that be? There are a few reasons which might contribute to the stereotypical notion of gender built up in this ad. First, the reader is clearly supposed to identify themselves at first with the bicyclist and feel shame, but when one considers buying a car, they might envision themselves as driving the car with the beautiful girl in it. By not showing the driver, the ad wants you to imagine being the driver, sitting next to the girl. The driver of the car isn't another female for two reasons: two girls laughing at a man is too much, and this ad isn't at all intended for women. Two women laughing at the man runs the risk of injuring masculine pride too much, but having only one woman there suggests she could still be interested in the man... if only he had a car. And not that GM doesn't want women to buy their cars, but this ad is all about making oneself more desirable through the gains of a car, and clearly the ad is about making oneself more desirable to women. Both women and advertisers know it isn't what kind of car a woman drives that keeps a man interested, but cars are an important identifying feature for masculinity in our consumer culture. Masculinity has come to be associated with things like cars, large wristwatches, expensive shoes and clothes; things that can be desired and paid for.
The words "REALITY SUCKS" are there to give the reader the impression that GM is exposing a hard, but inarguable truth to them, as if the idea that needing a car to be attractive didn't come straight from GM. If the ad could speak it might say something like this "Well it may not be fair, or it may not be ideal, but the fact is women don't want men who don't have cars." Thanks GM, for your helpful insight into femininity. This ad not only reduces masculinity to its basest elements, but also femininity. How? Well for one, the ad shows women merely as other objects to be gained. Want a woman? First you need a car. And it reduces all women to superficiality incarnate, as if the only thing women care about in men are material goods. This ad from GM reduces human relationships to yet another something to be bought.
This ad makes it really easy for the consumer, by telling you exactly what you should fear, and exactly what you should desire to protect you from that fear. You should be afraid of being undesirable to women, afraid they won't take you seriously. You should want a car to prevent that from happening. You should want one of our cars. It's almost too easy for GM, aiming this advertisement at college students and giving them a discount on a car. For a lot of undergraduate males, attracting women is priority number one, and GM is telling them that without one of their cars, they needn't bother.
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