We have noticed this. Like, in car commercials, a woman only drives if no male is present, and of course all the cleaning commercials are moms taking up the slack for their sloppy husbands and kids. Clearly, they don't want our business, so they don't get it. We take note of who excludes us, and we exclude them. It's easy enough, given all the generics out there.
It is pretty ridiculous how rarely single women get targeted in ads. Single men are much more common it seems (well, when it comes to fast food commercials or car commercials, etc, it seems like it's usually either family oriented or else a college boy). The only times I really remember seeing single women in ads is if they are tampon or maxipad commercials...well, ostensibly single since there aren't ever men in the ads. Of course, these commercials have to do with an entirely female product so it makes sense that there aren't men in the ads...but at the same time...and I may be reading much too much into this...but it seems like they're kind of saying "eww, periods, no boyfriends/husbands for them...even worse than cooties."
Some years ago, there was an ad for a pregnancy test, where different women were wondering if they are pregnant, and how will it affect their lives. I remember there were two who were clearly depicted as single -- and I remember one of the single ladies was musing about "was this the right time", or "how will this affect my new job" or something like that.
The single ladies were stripped from future ads, and it was all just married women wondering how wonderful it would be to finally be having a baby. UGH!
BTW, thanks for the URL for the Savvy Auntie site! It's not my thing because I don't love kids, but I am going to pass it on to my No Kidding! chapter for those of our members who do love kids.