Do advertisers think women are morons?

Why is it that ads aimed at women are so formulaic, so banal, so egregiously appalling that slashing one's wrists with the lid of the tin of pilchards from yesterday's lunch would be preferable to watching them?

Cosmetics, shampoo, washing powder, stain removal products...the list goes on and on. Do women actually respond to the Stepford Wife in the Tang ad who dings her spoon on the jug and informs us that "A mother knows best"? And those 1st for Women ads - worthy of an entire thesis on gender stereotyping - are enough to make me vomit.

As a woman I feel profoundly affronted by the advertising aimed at me. Who the hell are these marketers finding to populate their focus groups?