David

Good question.

In an ideal world, mini-vans and pickup trucks would be marketed in a gender neutral way because they are gender neutral.

Personal hygiene items would only be marketed for body parts they are best used for, not for a particular gender.

I haven’t eaten many Cheetos in a while, but, when I did, I didn’t notice the packaging [it was at a party]. I just checked: it features a cartoon cheetah with sunglasses on. What about a cartoon cheetah with sunglasses on is obviously male?

At some point, folks selling products need to stop relying on who traditionally does what [and explicitly stating that in their explanations] and need to look at who could consume their products if the gender stereotypes weren’t in play.

In other words, I bet companies could reduce their product lines and sell more products with less marketing spend if they could market them effectively in a gender neutral way, and it wouldn’t shove us back to quaint, and patently defective, notions of what being a “guy” or being a “gal” means.