I would certainly say that some are stupid - and, yes, the Calvin Klein ad just makes me want to feed her. But, beyond that, are you offended by these ads?
To an extent, yes, but it's the nature of the game. The ads are meant to provoke and therefore bring the product to the subconscious. It is not unlike the child who acts bad to get attention because acting good got him nothing.
Is it really about ads that are offensive against women or more about the fact that, for the most part, Madison Ave. treats us like we're drooling morons?
Both. "Let's get these spending stupid males to think buying our product will make them cool. And everyone knows cool guys treat their women like shit. Real women like that.
I've seen some advertising that might be pretty offensive to men too (including a similar one with all men from D&G). Are they getting upset over nothing? Or over the wrong thing? Or are they correct in labeling these as offensive?
My view is that they are offensive to everyone, women because of the overt submissiveness/subservient role they're placed in and to men because it's assumed that that is what is desired from them. But, like the quote says, when all else fails, insert sex.
This all makes me sound prudish, something I could never be accused of. But, I find that ads such as these, that don't even attempt to be subliminal, are an insult to any reasonable adult. But, here we are, talking about them, so, really, they've accomplished at least partly what they set out to do. 1 point=media.