If men were really like their personal ads, they wouldn't need personal ads.
This advertisement for Virginia Slims, a cigarette marketed exclusively to women, welcomes women into a chat between two girlfriends concerning the way men misrepresent themselves in personal ads. The girls peruse the newspaper section together, while one smokes a cigarette (which noticeably doesn’t push her best friend away). In the upper-left hand corner, an image of what is supposedly a sexy bad boy is compared to the image in the bottom right, which shows the man for what he is “really like” – nerdy. The ad acts as an inside joke which also provides women with a false sense of empowerment; It suggests that women have the ability to see right through the smoke and mirrors of a personal ad, but it’s interesting to think that this advertisement is itself a personal ad for Virginia Slims…
couple, dating, empowerment, Female, humor, liberation, Male, man, Teen, woman, young adult
