The theme of the moronic male is pretty prevalent in commercials. For example there is a current Taco Bell commercial where the guy thinks he is getting some special burrito deal, and basically comes off as a complete idiot.
I am sure there are countless other cases like this. But I am having troubel remembering if there are cases of a woman being made to look idiotic. I mean specifically singled out, not some sort of group thing where a bunch of people act like fools.
I once found an old tape of soap operas from like 1990 that my parents had taped. My friends and I had planned to watch the soap operas for cheesy-entertainment value, but actually we found ourselves enthralled by the commercials. It was simply astounding how much different the television commercials back then were from the ones on TV now. We would just fast-forward through the soaps just to see the commercials, they were so fascinating to us.
One of the things I noticed in these commercials was that there were often women in situations that today would only feature men. Countless commercials featured klutzy women slipping on the floor and falling in some comedic way, opening up a cabinet and having a bunch of stuff fall all over them, spilling food in some ridiculous and embarrassing way (predictably, the scenarios all involved housework or kitchen work in some way.) They struck me as extremely sexist, although maybe it’s just as unfair that only men are ever portrayed as klutzes and goofballs in today’s TV commercials.
Commercials in general are a pretty fascinating thing to analyze and I’m surprised that it’s only now with Mad Men that the advertising industry is getting some pop culture exposure.
I can’t recall any modern commercial where the woman is really moronic (unless you count the Girls Gone Wild commercials) but I’ve seen vintage commercials where the guy is the smart one, and the woman is truly inept. I wish I could remember the brand, but there was a coffee commerical that showed a bunch of guys telling off their wives for being unable to make a good cup of coffee, like they were wrecking the marriage with their ineptitude.
These days it’s not kosher to portray women as the stupid ones (unless you count that woman in the Snuggie commercial who can’t figure out how to work a blanket). But we ladies are still the ones who do all the housecleaning on TV, so I guess it evens out. 
I’ll say one thing though, you sure as hell won’t ever see a minority of any kind being portrayed as stupid, even comically stupid in a light hearted way. It seems to be only middle-aged white males who are the default dolt for TV advertising.
Recent FiberOne commercials have had dumb women claiming “there’s no fiber in this!”. Although there are equally moronic versions for men.
I’d say that the ‘dumb’ women in modern commercials are more commonly vapid and inane, or way too in love with the product. Perhaps a different kind of moron. Men rarely get that kind of treatment (The “I’m gellin” like Magellan’ commercials may be an example.)
The first commercial here has women who seem fairly dumb (although there are probably better examples).
We did this about a year ago, but no one could really come up with any really moronic women.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=502211&highlight=women+commercials
Dude, you were watching commercials during soap operas. Being about housework and the pratfalls it can cause are practically the definition of soap operas. They weren’t sexist and they don’t really do anything that doesn’t happen today. Commercials during soap operas are pretty much the only place you can find women looking ridiculous. But there’s always other, smarter women to set them straight.
I think I’ve only ever seen women being portrayed as moronic in commercials featuring other women. But now I can’t think of any examples, so even those situations may be rare.
There’s those commercials for As Seen on TV stuff that have dumb women as well as dumb men. That pasta thing with the strainer lid for your pot comes to mind.
They actually do that a lot in the “As Seen On TV” novelty product commercials/infomercials. Women (and men) are shown as incomprehensibly stupid, unable to deal with even the simplest generic thing. Of course, the real meaning they’re trying to get across is that it’s not the person’s who’s stupid, it’s the thing that’s such a piece of shit that it’s unusable, and you need their one-of-a-kind Snuggie/pasta cooker/knife set for only $19.95! (But wait, there’s more!)
There is that one where the woman tries to pass off the Glade candle to her friends as some expensive fancy imported candle (is that really a thing?) but gets busted because the label is stuck to her ass.
There is a subset of beer commericals aimed at men that feature unflattering depictions of women, usually the girlfriend of the main guy in the commercial. They aren’t exactly stupid though.
I’m thinking of one where a sort of overbearing ditz is pushing her guy to prove how much he loves her by choosing what to save from a fall, pitting herself against his dog, his mother, and finally his beer. She storms off when he chooses his beer; the implication is that he made the correct choice, and the depiction of the girlfriend would have most men agree.
I know I’ve seen others with shrewish or overly ditzy girlfriend characters desgined to make men roll their eyes.
I was actually surprised to see a commercial recently where the husband was right!
The Cute Commercial Couple is on a ski lift and hubby decides to call the credit card company on his cellphone to trade in more points to extend their vacation. Naturally, the wife does not believe the husband could possibly be talking to a human so quickly, and grabs the phone and says something stupid, and is surprised to hear a human on the other end.
Ho ho ho, those hilarious credit card commercial writers are the epitome of comedy.
This is a little off topic, but when advertisers what to portray a product as easy to use, they will often have a woman narrate the commercial. One example is the commercial for Mozy online backup.
As long as the stereotype is in the subtext then advertisers won’t be shy about using it.
What about that horribly annoying commercial for grey power? "You don’t drive like her … "
Oh, everyone loves the Pasta Pro commercial!
It’s hilarious. But, when you think about it, is the woman stupid? Or, is she the victim? I mean, clearly her husband and kids are lazy, needy bums, and she’s the hard working one who has TO DO EVERYTHING, while I’m sure also holding down a successful, full-time career, AND keeping her figure, AND blah, blah… She’s not stupid, she just needs a tiny little bit of help managing her Superwoman lifestyle, and a new pasta strainer is just the ticket!
The Axe line of products (body wash) show the girls attracted to the guy as if he put on some kind of super phermone.
I think this shows them as moronic only because its premise is that the female higher brain functions turning off due to a scent.
And if I remember correctly, it’s the same woman who bought a dress with their points that was sufficiently expensive that now they couldn’t use them for a vacation. :rolleyes:
Being a bitch and being a moron aren’t the same.
[hijack]
In the late 80s my roommate and I were working on a little project where we’d tape all of the Star Trek episodes that we could, in hopes of owning the complete catalog. We were extra careful to edit out the commercials, and got quite good at it.
The ST:tNG aired. We decided to tape that as well, but decided not to edit out the commercials. Why? Can you imagine having taped TOS and not editing out the commercials? Taping the ads that originally aired with each episode, from way back in 1966? What a hoot that would have been! We decided we wanted to create that experience for our future. I’m sure that 1987 commercials would be a hoot today.
Unfortunately, when my roommate moved out, he got custody of the tapes.
Pretty much the same concept as the Taco Bell commercial, but female:
A minority being portrayed as comically stupid: