Jaselle Ríos

Professor Hugetz

ENGL 1301-05

23 November 2020
Visual Rhetorical Analysis of Xerox Commercial

I will be reviewing and analyzing a 1960s Xerox commercial that portrays women at the

time being unable to do difficult tasks, as well as not-so intelligent. In the mid 60’s it was a

common idea that women were incapable of doing certain things – especially when it came to

doing work in the office. This Xerox commercial gives the insinuation that the printer is so

simple to use, even a woman is capable of operating it. Sexism has been prevalent in media since

its creation, but advertisements have had a reputation of showing women as either objects,

housewives, or simply less-than men. In the 60s there was a ‘second wave of feminism’ that

occurred along with the Civil Rights Movements – it included women that were simply fed up

with the idea of being a traditional housewife. Despite this second rising, women were still being

displayed in media as less-than. In the 1960’s Xerox commercial, the script, acting, product

description, and overall assumptions about women help build an argument that reveals the sexist

attitudes of the time period.

Sexism wasn’t exactly something people shied away from in the 60’s, it was so common in

fact, advertisements had no problem including such ideas into their advertisements with scripts

that portrayed women as ignorant and dull. In the commercial mentioned, it shows that it was

somewhat normal to express that women were shallow, and were incapable of doing simple
things such as sharpening pencils. In the commercial, the woman states, “I can’t type, I don’t

take dictation, I won’t sharpen pencils, I can’t file…” and then continues to mention that her boss

refers to her as “indispensable”. The boss continues to give her a job that is so simple that even

she can do – make copies on the simplest printer on the market. This portion of the script alone

shows that the writers thought it was a good generalization to make that women either weren’t

capable, or flat-out refused to do such simple work. It portrays women as dull and paints a

picture where women lack basic knowledge. The actress explains how the printer is so simple to

operate, giving the idea that anything more complicated would be too difficult for a woman. The

script’s writing makes it seem that women lack so much knowledge, the creators of the Xerox

printer made it simple enough that even a woman could use it.

Not only the scripting, but the acting in the Xerox commercial goes out of its way to make

the woman seem as if she wouldn’t be able to use the printer if it was any more complicated than

“pressing a button and turning a knob”. In the commercial, the actress seems to be acting very

robotic, only moving with very stiff movements. Not only this, but one could argue that the

woman is acting somewhat ditzy – all of which adds to the idea that these add onto the idea that

it makes the woman seem slow. But not slow enough that she can’t work a Xerox printer. The

actress seems to portray woman as clueless, shallow, and incapable of doing something unless

made as simple as possible. “Sometimes my boss asks me which is the original, and sometimes, I

don’t know!” is aimed to be a comment that shows how well the printer makes copies, but leans

more towards making it seem the woman is so unaware, she can’t even tell the original from the

copy. As mentioned, the way the woman acts portrays her as a ditzy and incapable individual.

Xerox furthered the already damaging idea that women aren’t as smart or capable as men by

portraying women with such a lack of skill. This alone aided in the generalization of women
being nothing more than a ‘pretty face’, since they obviously could not understand concepts that

required their brain to work more than usual - like typing.

Product description has much more to do with suppressed ideas of sexism than one might

think. The manner in which Xerox describes their product and gets their points across is

degrading to women, and could have been done without a demeaning attitude behind it. Xerox

makes it known that their printer is no hassle to use, that you simply “turn a knob and push a

button!”. The commercial also mentions how the woman doesn’t ever use ‘wet chemicals’ – as if

the chemicals would be far too much for her to handle. The mention of the simplistic instructions

to operate the printer, as well as the idea that the woman never works with wet chemicals shows

that Xerox was attempting to aim their product at businesses that have women working for them.

Since it was common misconception at the time that women were so ignorant and clueless about

everything, this ad played right into that generalization. The advertisement could have sold their

copying machine with a male in the commercial rather than a woman – but the company decided

to go with a woman instead, because having women in the workplace meant simplifying

everything to a tee. Because according to what Xerox is implying, if it wasn’t simple enough, a

woman would simply be able to operate it.

The assumptions that were made by society at the time played a humungous role in the way

the Xerox commercial perceived and displayed women as a group. In the commercial, it shows a

woman who – in her own words – doesn’t really know how to do too much: such as typing,

filing, taking dictation, and such. As mentioned before, there was a running idea during the 60s

that women were incapable of doing anything too strenuous – especially in a man’s workplace.

Women were facing discrimination in the workplace – and still are – and it was commercials

such as these that aided in that to continue. It allowed an already formed idea that women are
only good for doing small and simple tasks. Anything more than that, they simply were not able

to do. Assumptions about women at the time aided in Xerox generalizing women into a category

that was unable to do anything more than the simplest of tasks. It was assumed that women at the

time were unfamiliar with workplace environments, and were generally clueless on how to do

the tasks that a man might have done in the office.

The underlying ideas behind Xerox’s commercial are all successful in creating an argument

that reveals sexist attitudes from the time period. The evidence reveals the assumptions made

about women at the time and how media views women as a whole. Through advertisements such

as the Xerox commercial, generalizations were made about women – both in the workplace, and

in general. These assumptions were carried on all throughout the 60s, and still finds its way into

media today. Consequences that are faced by women were caused by the actions of sexist media

portrayals of women throughout the years. From discrimination in the workplace – that includes

the wage gap, sexual assault, and refused opportunities – to the overall generalization of woman

being slow or not as capable as men.

 Work Cited

BASK Tech Reviews. “Vintage Xerox Sexist Commercial.” YouTube, uploaded by BASK Tech

Reviews, 3 Jan. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=swyqrf1PZjg.

“Second-Wave Feminism (Article).” Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-

history/postwarera/1960s-america/a/second-wave-feminism. Accessed 23 Nov. 2020.