From television commercials and product placements to billboards and posters, thousands of advertisements bombard the average American every day. To be effective, an advertisement must capture the consumer's attention, maintain audience interest, create or stimulate desire, and create a call to action. These advertisements can be small enough to fit on a three-inch screen or large enough to cover the side of a building. But no matter what the size, in this world where attention spans and patience levels are increasingly short, advertisements must be effective in representing their ideas. To successfully represent certain ideas, advertisements rely on shortcuts. These shortcuts usually involve stereotypes. In the media, stereotypes are inevitable because the audience needs to understand information quickly. Stereotypes reduce a wide range of different groups of people into simplistic categories. Stereotypes create reality from assumptions. Because of this quick method used by the media to simplify their messages, however, it is assumed that the media relies too heavily on sexist images. What kind of impact does the constant bombardment of degrading images have on the public? Does it really make a difference to the public's consumption patterns? The concepts of gender and sex, although used interchangeably, have different definitions. Sex is a biologically determined factor: one's body can be male or female. Gender is a culturally determined factor: you can be male or female. Gender roles are the general beliefs of our culture that constitute gender. Stereotypes in advertising conform to these gendered patterns. To be feminine in the United States means to be attractive, deferential, non-aggressive, emotional, polite, and interested in the people in the center of the card. images that are sexist enough to be recognized and attract attention if they can lead to a decline in sales? Research suggests that only advertisements perceived as sexist influence the viewer. And, even though the viewer might be offended, they will remember the name of the company. In the world of consumerism, name recognition equates to higher overall sales, unintentional or not, it seems true that “there is no such thing as bad publicity.” ?displayGroupName=Viewpoints&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=OVIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010388238&mode=viewhttp://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Viewpoints&disableHighlighting=true&prodId =OVIC& action=e&windowstate=normal&catId= &documentId =GALE%7CEJ3010388239&mode=view