In my opinion, the answer to this question is quite complicated. In short, I believe advertisements should be held by a higher moral standard, and we should be more wary of them in general. But advertisers aren't people. They are companies, with numerous people in them, with the companies goal being to generate as much profit as they can. Can we honestly fault advertising companies for making decisions (legal ones that is) that give them the most profit? If we want advertisers to be held to a higher standard, I think that we have to develop higher standards first. When companies perpetrate stereotypes, people should take a stand, via actions such as boycotts, if it is that important to them. Consumers as a group can hold impressive amounts of power over companies (assuming they are not monopolies), if they work together, as at the end of the day, companies want to make profit, and consumers purchasing their product is how they do it. There's a phrase I've heard before call...