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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 as unable to do difficult tasks, as well as the generalization of women being 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 long-since 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” (Khan Academy) 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
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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…” (Xerox ad) and then continues to mention

that her boss refers to her as “indispensable” (Xerox ad). 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!” (Xerox ad) 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
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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!” (Xerox ad). 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
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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.

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Work Cited

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

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

Xerox. Printer commercial. 1960. Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swyqrf1PZjg

Accessed 23 November 2020