[Aegis]

Definitly towards men. There is a long standing, traditional idea of which of the two genders play video games, in which the male sex is often thought of. With this mindset, it only makes sense that the majority of publishers would focus their advertising campaigns on the same group of people.

This is easily seen through the classic image of the impressive, heroic male figure accompanied by the shapely heroic woman wearing armour that would be completely useless in combat. Essentially, game advertisers sell sex appeal, much in the same way that sex appeal is sold in most other lines of product.

Additionally, for a long time there has been the notion of the male being the princible wage earner, and thus the one with the disposable income. Granted, within the past couple of decades those borders have been broken down quite substantially, advertisers have yet to move out of that mind set. This is another cause for the aiming towards males for game advertisements. It is just the way to advertise, much like is done with beer and car commercials. Even much of the lingerie ads you see seem to be geared more for men, then women, enticing men to buy it for their significant others.