It's not only that. The colour schemes are redish for women and blue for men. Of course, their body posture is different too. While the guy looks smug, the woman looks directly at the camera, which reminds me of the insanely typical male gaze postures.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves, ever. There is no dichotomy between emotion and logic! They are not opposites, and they are not mutually exclusive!

There's this stupid, harmful idea that emotions are something that women do and logic is something that men do. All human beings are emotional and rational. If we weren't both of those things, we would be non-functional. Also, emotionality and rationality do not total to 100%, where any increase in one leads to a corresponding decrease in the other. No. It doesn't work that way. Apples and oranges.

Another problem is that people in general are so clueless as to what logic actually IS. I guess I can only speak from my experience in the US, but as a culture we seem to think that "logic" is anything that sounds like something Spock would say. People don't know that "logic" is a very specific tool with specific limitations, not just anything spoken in a monotone and sounding vaguely correct.

Logical DOES NOT mean dispassionate. Someone's passions and emotions can be perfectly rational. Can passion sometimes inhibit someone's ability to use logic? Of course. But it doesn't have to, because the two don't preclude each other. Logic is not an emotional state; it is simply specific way of determining the validity of an idea based on how it follows sets of assumptions.

I wonder how I fit into this false dichotomy? I set up a spreadsheet for my last car purchase to look at cost of this and that vs. cargo space or gas milage, for example, to make my decision.

Guess I'm not really female, eh?

I think the logical versus emotional false dichotomy that we perpetuate in our culture is just another way of implying that women are somehow 'weaker' than men.

Isn't anger an emotion and one that is readily expressed by males because this is a perfectly permissible emotion for males to express in our culture? I don't know how many illogical decisions and resulting behaviors have originated through angry emotions.

Nancy, I couldn't agree with you more. My husband has a serious anger problem where he gets so angry that he "can't think straight," so he does the most irrational, emotionally driven things, like yelling at our children for say, spilling a drink, throwing objects at the wall, etc. etc. ESPN is just perpetuating a load of crap.

While in this case I think it's mostly incidental, don't forget that, as a black person, she's instinctive and impulsive where he, as a white guy, is cerebral and deliberate.

I'm not surprised that ESPN would run an ad that's founded on emotion rather than logic. Science, of course, doesn't support the stereotype. In fact, some evidence suggests men have stronger emotional reactions than women -- but they learn to suppress them. http://www.livescience.com/culture/10-facts-male-brains-100406-1.html

Once again, this blog FAILS on intersectionality, predictably focusing on gender and neatly ignoring race.

I find this ad sort of astonishing. We're talking about CARS.

I'm not sure this would be true in every case, but I'm fairly sure it's the MEN who'd be more emotional. Case in point:

My parents just bought a new car. My dad was the one getting excited (or 'emotional'): "We've got to get...", "... has a nice look!" "Four-wheel drive! It has to be a four-wheel drive!" etc.

My mum was the one looking at prices, working out what trade-in they'd want for the old car, etc.

I will give Dad one point: I'm pretty sure he was the one checking out fuel economy when they went looking.

Funny. When my wife makes a purchase, whether a car or a car part, she checks out Consumer Reports and at least 3 or 4 other sources before parting with cash. In my case, I had to go through her hoops before buying the car I wanted. These ads are so full of BS.

What car brand ran the ad?

I wonder if the agencies who make these ridiculous ads are aware of how idiotic it looks when they employ these blatant and unsubstantiated stereotypes, whether they're stereotypes based on gender, race, nationality, etc. Then again, so many people buy into these ideas that it's hard to blame the ad companies for perpetuating them. I'm constantly hearing friends and others I know make statements about how men and women think so differently as if it's some sort of law of nature. I'm sure there are some biological differences, but these blanket statements are ridiculous.

The fact is no one is perfectly rational and we all act to some extent in accordance with our emotions or sense of identity (i.e. what we think is appropriate for us despite what might be the most cost-efficient action). I won't get into a rant about rational choice theory, but no one is immune from "thinking with their heart." Some earlier comments pointed out that men tend to act more emotionally when it comes to cars, and that is an example of this very fact, as men are attempting to conform with the expectations that they drive a certain type of car and that the car says something about them, no matter the practicality of the vehicle.

So there's my rant. Everyone thinks emotionally to some extent and a lot of that thinking does indeed have to do with gender roles and expectations.

I don't think the car company considers whether they annoy someone by applying stereotypes. I think they only care about getting someone to remember their company, by any means necessary. And it works the majority of the time whether we like their commercial or not, we usually remember it and the company.

"UPDATE! In the comments, Kit M. and others noted that you could apply a race analysis to this ad as well..."

Also, I think this has something to do with the fact that all ads (unless entirely directed at a non-white ethnicity or women) HAVE to have a WHITE MAN. EVERY ad HAS to have a WHITE MAN. So if there's only room for two people in the ads it's going to be a WHITE MAN and whatever ethnicity they choose to put in a female body. That way they'll be advertising to women and minorities and that oh-so-important WHITE MAN.