The 1960s brought us the laser, LSD, Spider-Man, and the Ford Mustang. The 1960s, however, did not bring us gender or racial equality. By law, yes, with the establishment of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 and the Equal Pay Act of 1963 it was officially not allowed to discriminate in certain situations based on gender or race. That didn't stop people from treating others of different races and women unfairly. Even today, 2017, these issues are still issues and groups are still fighting for equality in all aspects of society, not just the law.
Back in the 1960s, it was implied that women were less capable and less intelligent than men. This was a logical decision that the majority of men decided to buy into, probably because they were the ones being made superior. In the Xerox commercial, this logic is used to sell the copier to men who think women can only understand simple instructions. I will be the first to admit that I have a hard time working a copier but that has nothing with the fact that I'm female, just that I am technically challenged. Using the logic of the 1960s, Xerox utilizes logos and demonstrates that the machine must be easy to use because there is a woman working it just fine. Logically, if the woman in the commercial "can't type", "can't file", and can't tell which paper is the original and which one is the copy but she can work the machine, then the machine must be easy to use.
I definitely agree with your analysis of this advertisement. When I was watching it, I saw how they used an appeal to people's logic at the time to try to persuade people to buy this product. It was very disheartening to think that this logic actually worked. Even though many people preached gender equality, it hadn't really happened yet in the 1960s.
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