Sexual violence is deeply rooted in dehumanizing people, and media ad campaigns do this by objectifying, sexualizing and commodifying girls’ and women’s bodies.
This is one big reason media literacy is so important–education about the effects of advertising brings these connections to awareness and breaks the hold they have on us. It’s also the reason public protest using clever forms of subvertising (subvert + advertising) are so effective. Using satire and humor to expose the harmful underlying sexualized and objectified messages is a powerful form of public education and media literacy.