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advertising and gender
changes in representation of gender roles in advertising
changes in representation of gender roles in advertising
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Yves Saint Laurent has come out with an ad campaign featuring their new perfume, Parisienne. The ad features the world renowned supermodel Kate Moss dressed in a raven-black corset and pencil skirt. A dark, charcoal jacket is thrown over her frail shoulders and a light pink rose is caressed between her fingers. Her blonde locks are tasseled in a slightly messy hair-do while a few strands of hair caress her fair skin. Behind this beautiful model is the infamous Eiffel Tower hovering over her left shoulder and grand stone statues lie in the background to her right. The evening sky is composed of an exquisite mosaic of purple and pink tones. At the bottom right corner, there is an image of the “Parisienne” perfume bottle. The bottle is made out of glass which has been cut to resemble a jewel. The perfume itself is a light pink color which looks very similar to the light pink color of the rose in Kate Moss’ hand. The perfume bottle’s cap is a smooth rounded shape and has a golden color. The text at the bottom of the ad reads, “Living and loving in the moment”; which is positioned underneath the designer and the perfume’s name. The text is in a slim font and a golden color that matches the bottle cap. The jacket over Kate Moss’ shoulders looks like it may belong to a man and the flower she is holding suggests that a man has given it to her. The flower in her hand possibly given to her by a male, strongly suggests that her approval and attraction from men is formed because she is seen as “beautiful”. Although, using a supermodel gives off the illusion to women that by using this product, women can become the ideal woman in the eyes of men. The fact that Kate is walking away from the Eiffel Tower and from the beautiful sunset may...
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Many hidden, underlining messages of advertisements are used in order to market products in a sexualized manner. Instead of selling the product itself, advertisements sell ideals or certain things that have nothing to do with the actual product. Advertisements attempt to appeal to the public in order to convince consumers to purchase their products. In the case of the Yves Saint Laurent ad, romance, sex, and the promise of being able to live life to the fullest are all being marketed in the form of the “Parisienne” perfume. Not to mention, its influence on gender roles and how its contribution to the stereotyping of Caucasians. The setting and visual aspects of the advertisement campaign as well as the race of the selected model behind the perfume ad provide a wide variety of messages to its audience that are not always clear at first glance.
First, Kilbourne’s research should be praised tremendously for bringing to light the unhealthy impression of true beauty in today’s culture. Kilbourne challenges the audience to reconsider their viewpoints on advertising that is sublime with sexual language. The evolution of advertising and product placement has drastically changed the real meaning of being a woman. According to the movie, every American is exposed to hundreds and thousands of advertisements each day. Furthermore, the picture of an “ideal women” in magazines, commercials, and billboards are a product of numerous computer retouching and cosmetics. Media creates a false and unrealistic sense of how women should be viewing themselves. Instead of being praised for their femininity and prowess, women are turned into objects. This can be detrimental to a society filled with girls that are brainwashed to strive to achieve this unrealistic look of beauty.
There are several aspects to the layout of this advertisement. Women, regardless of age, tend to be drawn to the use of beautiful, younger women in an arrangement, which makes this design effective. Firstly, Taylor Swift (the young woman in the picture) has been properly dressed so that the lip-gloss she is using matc...
Have you ever wondered where the saying, ‘a picture says a thousand words’, come from? Well, I do not know who came up with this fantastic phrase, but nonetheless, I will be describing and analyzing two different magazine advertisements, trying to put in words what I think the advertisers wanted consumers to receive when those potential buyers viewed their ads. The two advertisements that I chose, Caress and Secret, try to encourage female consumers of all ages to purchase their hygiene products. Although both ads, Caress and Secret, appeal to the same gender with hygiene goods, they differ in design, text, and message. They attempt to please the female buyer with color, texture, and sexuality. This makes it prevalent, that the agents must grab the attention of possible buyers in order to sell their product. The advertisers must choose a variety of marketing strategies to the reach their targeted consumers.
Perfume is important for a woman because its emphasize the style and mood that woman’s wear. A quote by Joybell C, “You are never fully dressed without perfume.” The ideal woman is an assortment of beauty, love, and attraction. Dior and Lanvin produce famous print ads that advertise women’s perfume. In Dior ad, it showed their new perfume called, “‘Miss Dior Blooming Bouquets.” which Natalie Portman partially clad in a wedding dress and she wear a black sexy body suit behind it. The white round shape words are in the middle of the ads, and the pink bottle of perfume is at the bottom. Lanvin’s perfume is called, “Marry Me”. A couple riding a bicycle together having a good time and staring at each other’s eyes which represent love
This standard of beauty is not representative of the female population that this advertisement is aimed at. In addition, every single item of significance is the colour pink. Pink is often associated as being feminine and girly, which is why it seems to be washed over this entire advertisement. Overall, through stereotyping women, the sign system intends to evoke emotion appeal from females. It proposes the belief that following societal expectations of beauty and gender stereotypes will make them more alluring, akin to wearing the perfume. The sign system also evokes the emotional appeal to males and indicates that their ideal partner should be similar to the model, who is a white girl with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a thin body. In conclusion, after analysing the denotative aspects, many components in the advertisement work together to highlight the core product which is the Oh, Lola! Perfume. Looking at the connotative aspects, the sign system within the advertisement intentionally stereotypes and objectifies
Not surprisingly, the model is attractive, skinny and flawless, exactly what we tend to idolize. As a result, the ad is telling us that if we want to be as pretty or as immaculate as this person, we must wear this perfume which relates to using pathos. Also, there are very few colors in this picture...
Often in advertising, there are images of women that offend some people, who see them as degrading, while others think they are harmless. However, upon a closer examination of the facts we will find that it is truly demeaning and not just a situation propelled out of proportion by ultra-feminists or what some people term “femi-nazis.” Although it is a feminist issue, it is also a family issue. Everyone has a sister, a mother, a grandmother or female friend who could potentially be harmed by being objectified in these ads. This can incite violence against a woman, damaging the woman as well as her family or friends. In Jean Kilbourne’s “Killing us Softly 3,” Kilbourne advances the idea that the advertising industry makes “. . . deliberate choices,” and “. . . tactical decisions designed to sell their particular brands by selling particular brands of femininity . . . undermining the way girls and women see themselves, while normalizing the violence done to them by men” (mef pp 3). Nevertheless, why do people, including women, still till tend to buy from the stores/retailers who advertise in this fashion? As we attempt to answer this question we will look at the biases created by these ads, and their affect on the people who are looking at them. With this evaluation, we shall discover that it is not just feminists over-reacting, but an issue for all humanity with ramifications for women’s rights, health and safety for years to come.
Another magazine ad was selling perfume, displaying a picture of the sky above, clear and blue and perfect, white clouds. This pastoral picture encompasses the entire ad, showing nothing else except for a few words at the bottom. Not even the name of the perfume was printed in the picture. The company of the perfume is distributing a scent which will make consumers feel natural, original, and heavenly; and right beside it, the picture is distributing happiness, openness, truth, peacefulness, and independence as side gifts to anyone who buys the perfume (Glamour).
The basic strategy of this kind of gender stereotypes is men will ignore the advertisements by paying more attention on woman if the advertiser includes woman’s image, and if they use male photograph in advertisement it will attract more female consumers. Therefore, people will pay more attention on advertisement and then have more possibility to shape positive attitude of that product, or at least, bear that product in mind when they need to consume it (Courtney and Whipple, 1983, p.74). Moreover, it is not only a strategy to attract more consumers, more importantly; it is a method to stand out in a “male-dominated work environment in advertising”, and it challenges the value of patriarchy and “double sex standards” (Fedorenko, 2015, p.476). However, sexy female image are often controversially critique as gender stereotypes of women in advertising. According to Laura Mulvey’s idea of “male gaze”, it points out that female are sexual objects to men to please them in an “erotic spectacle” (1992, cited in Marcellus, 2009). In Sonata’s ad, this woman dresses sexy in order to be a sexual reward, a tool to attract men and accessory of a successful man. This expression of women object to the idea of feminism that has mentioned before, women is independent, and the reason for being sexy and glamour is not to please men and fulfil male’s desire of sex. So, this advertisement provides a negative feeling for women that reinforce the gender stereotypes of women looks sexy in order to satisfy male’s desire of
Feminism has been a social philosophy for quite a long time and over the last four decades the role of women and their rights has changed dramatically in the Western world. However, the female representation has stayed constant. Beauty, physique, sexuality, emotions and relationships have been the focus for female representations There is so much focus on physical beauty that other values seem to be excluded; this is not a realistic view of an everyday life for many women around the world. In perfume adverts especially, there are a lot of beautiful, thin, 'airbrushed women', who appear to seduce the man with their perfume. In this essay I will be studying the way the perfume advertisements use the representation of women in various forms including objectification, fragmentation and binding of the body.
In the essay “Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body,” author and philosopher Susan Bordo discusses the history and current state of male representation in advertisements. While using her feminist background, Bordo compares and contrasts the aspects of how men and women are portrayed in the public eye. She claims that there has been a paradigm shift the media with the theory that not just women are being objectified in the public eye, but also men too. Since the mid-1970s, with the introduction of Calvin Klein commercials, men have started to become more dehumanized and regarded as sex symbols. In a similar fashion to how Bordo describes gender, race plays a similar role in the media. People of all different ethnicities and cultures are being categorized into an oversimplified and usually unfair image by the media over basic characteristics.
The documentary Killing Us Softly 4 discusses and examines the role of women in advertisements and the effects of the ads throughout history. The film begins by inspecting a variety of old ads. The speaker, Jean Kilbourne, then discusses and dissects each ad describing the messages of the advertisements and the subliminal meanings they evoke. The commercials from the past and now differ in some respects but they still suggest the same messages. These messages include but are not limited to the following: women are sexual objects, physical appearance is everything, and women are naturally inferior then men. Kilbourne discusses that because individuals are surrounded by media and advertisements everywhere they go, that these messages become real attitudes and mindsets in men and women. Women believe they must achieve a level of beauty similar to models they see in magazines and television commercials. On the other hand, men expect real women to have the same characteristics and look as beautiful as the women pictured in ads. However, even though women may diet and exercise, the reality...
The signs employed within the ad and the connection between signifiers and the signified were subjective and based on cultural representations. The denotative and connotative meanings that a message represents along with ‘doctrine of sign’s’ known as iconic, indexical and symbolic dimensions engaged by the advertiser to send ideology and mythical messages within the Katy Perry ad, such as wealth, authority and beauty are desirable and this can be attained if you buy this perfume. On a border and more thought provoking ideological level, the ad could perhaps interpret the message of freedom, prosperity and justice that women have culturally fought for throughout history. The basis of the selling pitch of the advert is sex, beauty and wealth. A contradiction perhaps, is an alternate meaning with the syntagm “Own the Throne’ intentionally placed underneath her genital area with Katy’s legs crossed. This may signify a deeper meaning that she is truly the one that ‘owns’ her sexuality not the advertiser. It is crucial advertiser’s understand that accomplishment of linguistic and non-linguistic communication is a result of the integrated system of cultural norms that allows potential buyers, to organise their world and give collective representations. In order to permit the reader to receive and successfully decode the
Many perfume ad campaigns nowadays use simple women doing simple things but clearly enjoying it. The ad campaign for Clinique’s perfume lines is a very good example of this. In the May issue of Teen People, the ad for Clinique’s perfume, “Happy,” shows a woman wearing a sleeveless turtleneck sweater. Although not clearly shown, the girl seems to have a huge smile on her face but is hidden behind her turtleneck. The caption of the ad says “Clinique happy.” Although it is a simple ad, it deems as effective toward women. Featured in a magazine targeted to teens, the girl in the ad is young looking, which would relate to teens. As for older women, it would appeal to them as well so they too can feel young and fresh again. Another ad for a Clinique perfume is for “Simply,” found in Cosmopolitan magazine. The name of the perfume alone, says it all. The ad shows a bottle of the “Simply” perfume set on top of a table with a woman’s fingertips lingering on top of the bottle. This ad doesn’t even use a woman’s face, which is a different approach from many other perfume ads. The entire ad looks to be of one shade, like a golden skin tone color, which shows a very simple lifestyle. The woman’s fingers show no trace of a manicure or glamorous looking nail polish. It just shows a woman’s bare, yet beautiful hands. Also, the fact that the table used in the ad is made of wood, this shows of simple living. The ad uses wood that reminds readers of nature and not marble and glass.
Advertising in American culture has taken on the very interesting character of representing our culture as a whole. Take this Calvin Klein ad for example. It shows the sexualization of not only the Calvin Klein clothing, but the female gender overall. It displays the socially constructed body, or the ideal body for women and girls in America. Using celebrities in the upper class to sell clothing, this advertisement makes owning a product an indication of your class in the American class system. In addition to this, feminism, and how that impacts potential consumer’s perception of the product, is also implicated. Advertisements are powerful things that can convey specific messages without using words or printed text, and can be conveyed in the split-second that it takes to see the image. In this way, the public underestimates how much they are influenced by what they see on television, in magazines, or online.