Advertising has become increasingly popular with television shows like Mad Men that have allowed audiences to gain a new insight into the growing art form during the 1960s. It helps that the show has featured strong female characters like Peggy and Joan. These strong females have had to work their way up the ladder in the advertising world during a time of change. However, these women have key character faults that seem almost improbable and lead viewers to believe that women have only been able to climb the advertising ladder through sex and deception. Furthermore, the notion women may only be able to achieve an executive role through less than desirable tactics have been reinforced within the storyline. However, this is not exactly the …show more content…
The lack of a connection between each of these areas makes it difficult to understand how Lansdowne Resor produced innovative advertisements or her ability to put forward a political agenda by focusing on advertising to women. There is a connection to be drawn between Lansdowne Resor’s philosophies of the role of women and the opportunities that were presented to her through her instrumental roles as Vice President and wife of the President of J. Walter Thompson Company. Furthermore, it is important to note her advancements in advertising tactics that were coupled with the innovative advertisements she …show more content…
Lansdowne Resor hailed as “one of the most outstanding women in American life” in J. Walter Thompson Company’s 1964 press release still struggles for the recognition for her work in advertising. The question remains: if Lansdowne Resor was so influential to the history of advertising, why she is not mentioned in more textbooks or books on the greats of advertising. Many people are able to name notable advertising greats including David Ogilvy, William Bernbach, and Leo Burnett. The gap in the history of advertising and its influential women provide the basis for the importance of research to explain the importance of Lansdowne Resor in advertising history. Lansdowne Resor changed the way advertising is crafted in order to provide a more tailored message to targeted female publics, and in doing, so she created techniques in advertising that are still in use today. Unfortunately, with most of the advertising history being written from the male perspective, it is hard to tell Lansdowne Resor’s story without mentioning her husband and former President of J. Walter Thompson Company, Stanley Burnett Resor. Arguably, Resor became increasingly instrumental to Lansdowne Resor’s life and career. Helen Lansdowne Resor’s tenacity and abilities allowed her to excel in the field of advertising and to help solidify
Kern-Foxworth, Marilyn. “Memories of the Way We Were: Blacks in Early Print and Electronic Advertising.” Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and Rastus: Blacks in Advertising, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 1994. 29-42. Print.
According to Steve Craig in Signs of Life in the USA, the economic structure of the television industry has a direct effect on the placement and content of all television programs and commercials. Craig is a professor in the department of radio, television, and film at the University of North Texas, Craig has written widely on television, radio history, and gender and media. His most recent book is Out of the Dark: A History of Radio and Rural America (2009). Craig talks about the analysis of four different television commercial, showing how advertisers carefully craft their ads to appeal, respectively, to male and female consumers. The gendered patterns in advertising that Craig outlines in his essay still exist today, in commercials of how a men and women are portrayed.
In American culture today, women continue the struggle of identifying what their roles in society are supposed to be. Our culture has been sending mixed messages to the modern day female, creating a sense of uneasiness to an already confusing and stressful world. Although women today are encouraged more than ever to be independent, educated, and successful, they are often times shamed for having done just that. Career driven females are frequently at risk of being labeled as bossy, unfeminine, or selfish for competing in many career paths that were once dominated by men. A popular medium in our culture such as television continues to have significant influences as to how people should aspire to live their lives. Viewers develop connections with relatable characters and to relationship dynamics displayed within their favorite shows. Fictional characters and relationships can ultimately influence a viewer’s fashion sense, social and political opinion, and attitude towards gender norms. Since the days of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeanie, where women were commonly portrayed as being the endearing mischievous housewife, television shows have evolved in order to reflect real life women who were becoming increasingly more independent, educated, and career oriented throughout the subsequent decades. New genres of television are introduced, such as the workplace comedy, where women are not only career oriented, but eventually transition into positions of power.
Stephenson, T., Stover, W. J., & Villamor, M. (1997). Sell Me Some Prestige! The Portrayol of Women in Business-Related Ads. Journal of Popular Culture, 255-271.
Men and women both drive cars, it’s a simple necessity to be able go to work for most people, however, from the commercials on television, one would assume that men are the primary purchasers of cars. In Steve Craig’s essay, Men’s Men and Women’s Women, he analyzes four commercials to illustrate how advertisers strategically targets the viewers. Craig argues that advertisers will grasp the attention of the viewer by the gender ideals that both men and women have of each other. Not only do advertisers pick a target audience demographic, but they also will target the audience at specific time to air their commercials. By analyzing an Audi and Bud Light commercial, one can see that Craig arguments are true to an extent but it appears that commercials have gone from an idealized world to a more realistic and relatable stance. for are still [true, however it seems that commercials may have altered to appear more realistic.] [relevant to an extent. This is to say, it appears that advertisers may have altered their commercial tactics. ]
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...
When looking at the history of advertising, there are many names that cannot be forgotten when accrediting the development of the industry. A real “mad men,” Hal Riney was once the embodiment of a straight shooting, chain smoking, whiskey drinking, womanizer, many advertising guru’s are portrayed as on today’s television. Riney’s ethics inspired a new wave of creative advertising. He had become a new voice, displayed a new way of thinking, and a extruded a exemplary attitude for an entire industry to follow. Hal Riney was a strong willed individual, who kept his head on his own shoulders and strayed far along in his own path.
Sut Jhally, a professor at the university of Massachusetts of whom won the distinguished teacher award, wrote in his essay “ Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse” that : 20th century advertising - the most powerful propaganda in human history - will destroy the world as we know it. The survival of the human race will depend upon our ability to minimize the harmful effects of Advertising. These effects will have lasting impacts on our culture, joy, and future.
Don Draper, the protagonist of the show, is emotionally isolated yet narcissistic, trapped in a suffocation of his own ego. Yet he seems to be the most liberal when it comes to serious female contribution in the workplace, although continues to sexualise those who haven’t proved their worthy capabilities to him. He is able to view Peggy and Joan as women who have alternative purposes than to please his sexual desires. Despite this modernist ‘transition’ of observing woman in a new light, he is still the one who gets to make the decision of what use each female character is to him. The male characters expectantly possess the dominating role within the show, as they did in 1960s society. In Mad Men, everyone chain-smokes, every executive starts drinking before lunch, every man is a chauvinistic pig, every male employee viciously competitive and jealous of his colleagues, with the endless succession of leering junior execs and crude jokes and abusive behaviour. (Mendelsohn, 2011, 5) The men are consumed within the competitive environment of the advertisement agency, adultery, drinking and smoking just accessories to the life-style of the alpha male. The female characters are ultimately more complex because they have less freedom.
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.
Advertising surrounds the world every second of the day. This form of influence has had the power to influence how society views gender roles ever since men and women began to appear in advertisements. Through the exposure to many different gender portrayals in advertising, gender roles become developed by society. This stems from how men and women are depicted, which forms stereotypes regarding the individual roles of men and women. People often shift their definition of an ideal image towards what they see in advertisements. From this, they tend to make comparisons between themselves and the advertisement models. Advertisements tend to be brief, but impactful. The different portrayals of men and women in advertising show that advertisements
During the 19th and 20th century, America –mostly white collar, middle class Americans- saw a great increase in salaries and a huge rise in mass production which paved the way for the modern American consumerism which we know today. The advertising scene saw a dramatic boost during that period and tried to latch on to this growing pool of emerging consumers. Although only limited to print, advertising during this pivotal period showed panache and reflected American society
Goodrum, Charles and Dalrymple, Helen, Advertising in America: The First 200 Years. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1990). 37.
This research can help understand which marketing techniques are most frequently used, as well as understanding which ones are most successful. It will also help aid in the development of psychology that comes along with the formation of mainstream homogonous views and opinions. Women who are exposed to more advertisements may be more inclined to incorporate items featured in the advertisements...
Curry and Clarke’s article believe in a strategy called “visual literacy” which develops women and men’s roles in advertisements (1983: 365). Advertisements are considered a part of mass media and communications, which influence an audience and impact society as a whole. Audiences quickly begin to rely on messages sent through advertisements and can create ideologies of women and men. These messages not only are extremely persuasive, but they additionally are effective in product consumption in the media (Curry and Clarke 1983: