Are there differences in depicting men and women in TV ads?

What are the differences between screenplays targeting men and women?

• As a viewer, I find that TV/movie plots appear to be gender-neutral (The Office, Arrested Development, 30 Rock), or aimed at men (2.5 Men, Chuck) or women (Gray's Anatomy, Private Practice) respectively. If this is correct, what distinguishes female targeting from male targeting? For example, I find the male characters in Gray's Anatomy and Private Practice completely ridiculous in terms of how much they just go on and on about their feelings and emotional conflicts. Clearly these are characters written to appeal to women. What are other differences, along with examples?

• Answer:

  Also, check out 's answer to the question: Cassian writes, "role models also affect our behavior and the more similar they are to us, the more likely we are to model their behavior, so men will relate more to "guy movies" and girls to "girl movies." This is the flip side of the coin to 's succinct answer. Put another way, if the main character whom the movie encourages us to identify and empathize with is female, and if this character models behavior seen as "feminine," the movie tends to attract a female audience. If the main character is male, and he models behavior seen as "masculine," it tends to attract a male audience. Interesting things happen when a female main character models behavior traditionally seen as masculine, as Angelina Jolie did in the movie Salt (a role orriginally written for a man) or male main characters model behavior traditionally seen as "feminine," as in 500 Days of Summer," (which is centered on a man's relationship, emotions, and heartbreak.) These kind of movies tend to appeal to both sexes... or neither. It's also interesting to note that the main characters of horror movies are almost exclusively women and girls. Lastly, I'd argue that women are more willing to go to "guy movies" with male main characters than men are willing to see "chick flicks" with female main characters. This is borne out by the fact that there are far more male movie stars than female stars, who can "open a film." ("Open a film" means to get fans to go see it based only on star power alone.) I'm often told by producers and movie executives that (aside from the horror genre) it is harder to sell a movie with a female main character because their are far, far fewer actresses that studios will approve in a leading role. This doesn't reflect corporate sexism as much as it does the history of box office returns.