Cost low medium medium medium to high
IV. Analysis of Alternatives
Alternative 1: Keep to the same marketing scheme. Customer satisfaction, for some, is currently low because of the company’s notably provocative advertisements. Should the company choose this alternative of not making any changes to the nature of those advertisements, customer satisfaction is likely to continue to drop. The corporate image will also remain low, although a portion of this is due to the publicity of Dov Charney’s legal issues with sexual harassment lawsuits, and inappropriate behaviour within the company. American Apparel’s current mission to be organic, natural with their models, and be airbrush free will remain the same; however, racy and controversial advertisements
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It would be an interesting social experiment to create similar ads to the current ones, only using more male models. In this case, it is possible that customers will have less of an issue with the ads since generally the population tends to undermine women who are portrayed as sex objects while men become elevated as success objects (Pavarthy, 2014), therefore overall potentially increasing customer satisfaction. Adding more male models may also boost the corporate image in the eyes of consumers, since the company is still standing by their mission to show natural, non-airbrushed models, while also promoting equality. This gives the company the ability to argue that women are over-sexualized more than men, further justifying the somewhat questionable images. The risk still remains high, since there would be no legitimate changes to the current advertising, other than the addition of male models, meaning there is still a high potential for customers to be uncomfortable with these advertising methods. Cost will likely increase since more ads will need to be produced, and more models would likely need to be hired and paid; however, it would not likely be a dramatic increase to the current …show more content…
A key point to note that American Apparel is a clothing store, and some of the ads show an extremely low amount of clothing; for example, one particular ad, featured in an article by Time magazine on controversial American Apparel ads, shows a young girl sat with her knees to her chest, wearing nothing other than socks up to her knees. The text on this advertisement refer to her socks, however she is sat with her arms around her socks, which are also partially covered with three thumbnail pictures of just her face. (Stampler, 2014) Without the text, it could be difficult to conclude that this is an advertisement for socks. Returning to the former way of advertising would mean an increase in customer satisfaction, since the controversial ads would no longer be produced. In return, the corporate image would also gain approval, only being tainted by Charney’s negative publicity of sexual harassment lawsuits. The risk behind this alternative would likely be very low, since ads would become less hyper-sexualized and more family-friendly. We believe American Apparel can still keep their mission to portray natural beauty without being distasteful and controversial in their advertisements. Finally, the cost will possibly
Common sense seems to dictate that commercials just advertise products. But in reality, advertising is a multi-headed beast that targets specific genders, races, ages, etc. In “Men’s Men & Women’s Women”, author Steve Craig focuses on one head of the beast: gender. Craig suggests that, “Advertisers . . . portray different images to men and women in order to exploit the different deep seated motivations and anxieties connected to gender identity.” In other words, advertisers manipulate consumers’ fantasies to sell their product. In this essay, I will be analyzing four different commercials that focuses on appealing to specific genders.
In the early 2000’s, America’s famous and favorite home cooker made headlines, and not in a positive way. Headlines that would forever change that way people thought about her. Martha Stewart was convicted for misleading federal investigators who were looking into allegations of insider trading which raised several ethical issues. Is being to rich a reason to convict Martha of this crime? If everyone does it, why hold Martha to a higher standard? In this case, insider trading was clearly evident in Martha Stewarts Case.
Advertising (marketing) in America is long past its zenith. There may have been a time when people actually paid attention to all of the flash, the glitz, and the hype, but most consumers (especially those in Generation X) are savvy and somewhat skeptical. The public is less impressed and views these types of marketing attempts as desperate, and even pathetic. Marlboro Friday (977) may stand out as a monumental day in the minds of advertisers, but there is another moment that stands out in the minds of consumers; the night a woman disrobed during half-time show at the Super Bowl. It was as if time stood still as a nation witnessed advertising shorn of its pretense. This one event exposed the true state of marketing in America. It seems every attempt to hoodwink and capture the attention of the population has already been tried; there is nowhere new to go. Stooping to nudity to try and capture the attention of the public confirms what the consumer already knows; it doesn’t matter how firms try and “clothe” their products; underneath they are all the same.
Advertising sends gender messages to both men and women. Advertising tells women how they should look and act, and it tells men to expect women to look and act that particular
We see the ways that the popular media uses gender tensions everywhere. The truth is that sex sells, we know that. The challenge that advertisers face is: How to use it best. Some advertisers do this better than others and the ones that truly have an understanding of gender tensions will, in the end, sell the most. In my last paper, I explored how the company Abercrombie and Fitch uses gender tensions to sell their clothes. They have become among the masters in advertising and the business in booming. They cater to young adults and young adults only for one powerful reason: It is at this age in which the sexual tensions between male and female are greatest. Abercrombie and Fitch has found their niche.
This type of thinking that they have to look like the lady in the ad might in the long run lead to lowering their self-esteem. According to Devor “they demonstrate subordination through a minimizing of spatial use: people appear feminine when they keep their arms closer to their bodies, their legs closer together, and their torsos and heads less vertical than do masculine-looking individuals”. In this ad, however, the feminine actor shows none of these things, she actually shows the complete opposite. Devor mentions that “people who hold their arms and hands in positions away from their bodies, and who stand, sit, or lie with their legs part—thus maximizing the amount of space that they physically occupy—appear most physically masculine”. The way that this feminine actress is standing according to gender codes is incorrect, she is in a stance that is known primarily to be a masculine stance. So in a simpler sense, this ad actually breaks the gender codes breaking the balance between femininity and masculinity. In the American society, gender
In Jean Kilbourne's documentary “Killing Us Softly 4”, she gives multiple detailed examples of advertisers making women a sexual object which leads to society dehumanizing the female species. As well as this, they are finding younger and thinner women to use, even photo-shopping their models to unrealistic body shapes; warping the average women's view of what she should look like. American Apparel's founder and CEO Dov Charney himself stated that he had worked hard to acquire the provocative image they have today and that he purposefully created ads that were “soaked in youth and sex” (Chauduri). The company insists that they are simply “open about sexuality” and should not be persecuted for it (Chauduri). While sex is more prominent and less taboo than it has been in society, there is a definite line between more “open” about sexuality, and abusing the sexual side of men and women. By “open about sexuality” Dov Charney and American Apparel actually mean that they are going use extremely young women in promiscuous positions to sell their clothing, despite the fact that the...
To sum up, it is often said that advertising is shaping women gender identity, and some have been argued that the statement is true, because of the higher amount of sexual references of women that advertisement show and the damages that occur on women’s personality and the public negative opinions of those women. As well, the negative effects that those kinds of advertisements cause to young generations and make them feel like they should simulate such things and are proud of what they are doing because famous actors are posting their pictures that way. Others deem this case as a personal freedom and absolutely unrelated to shaping women gender identity. On the contrast, they believe that, those sorts of advertisements are seriously teaching women how to stay healthy and be attractive, so they might have self-satisfaction after all.
No matter the gender of the model in an advertisement, we as viewers judge the model based on the femininity or masculinity they show. If a male is presenting himself with feminine characteristics, it comes across as unnatural to society and some believe it is unacceptable. The same goes for women who pose presenting masculine characteristics. I personally believe nothing is wrong with a models posing as the opposite gender. Whether they were positioned that way by a director or chose to pose the way they did, everyone is different and is entitled to making their own
The portrayals of men in advertising began shifting towards a focus on sexual appeal in the 1980s, which is around the same that women in advertising were making this shift as well. According to Amy-Chinn, advertisements from 1985 conveyed the message that “men no longer just looked, they were also to be looked at” as seen in advertisements with men who were stripped down to their briefs (2). Additionally, advertisements like these were influencing society to view the male body “as an objectified commodity” (Mager and Helgeson 240). This shows how advertisements made an impact on societal views towards gender roles by portraying men as sex objects, similarly to women. By showcasing men and women in little clothing and provocative poses, advertisements influenced society to perceive men and women with more sexual
People are sometimes confused on what commercials currently are advertising if they see a model half naked, but they are supposed to be advertising outfits for a clothing store. What is the message behind advertisements today? Are they relevant or just for show? Bonilla states, “Her face and body language will look seductive; she’s ready to be viewed by a man” (Bonilla). This is a prime example of how ads meant for women can be catching the attention of men too. Commercials display women in a sexual way in hopes of also persuading the men to buy products for their female companions. This way men can envision their female friend using or wearing the product, but not all of them would look the same as the woman in the ad looks
The introduction of fashion marketing and advertising in the early 1920’s is a phenomenon in itself. The development of technology in the fashion industry has led to the expansion and demand of fashion advertising. Everywhere a person looks, there is some form of fashion advertising, whether in a magazine, on a billboard, on a television ad or during the highly anticipated: fashion week. Fashion advertisements link creative messages and images to the tastes of consumers. Not only do they provide information about a brand or a product, they encourage individuals to actively seek products and brands that they associate with their lifestyles through visual persuasion. The objective of this paper is to argue that fashion advertisements, today,
Ads can have a negative impact on the way people view themselves and what expectations they feel they need to live up to. An example of this is the constant in your face view on the perfect body type, a stick figure model with perfect skin and impossible curves. Seeing these models in all aspects of advertising provides woman with this false sense of what they need to look like and the discouragement of never getting there. The younger generation is growing up with a lack of self-esteem and constantly not being able to be happy with what they have, always focusing energy on the negative. What is not realized is that these people usually do not look anything like what is presented through the media. They are average people that were victims of Photoshop to the extreme. It is very interesting the ads you can come across now that show the beginning photo that is taken and then the finished product that we as consumers get to
The media often works by advertising a false perception of a topic. Companies use this sense of false perception to help sell their products. For consumers, this means not always getting the whole story of the product. Businesses often neglect to talk about the bad that could come from the product, they over exaggerate the greatness of the item, and they use elements in their advertisements that are counteractive to their message. Companies do whatever they can to sell their products regardless of if the ‘whole story’ is being told.
Her past in public speaking on these issues has given her the capabilities to handle the communication opportunities offered by American Apparel. As many advocates know, whether they are advocating for women’s rights or not, they face many oppositions and have learned overtime the best way to handle these situations. For the sake of the American Apparel brand, she needs to figure out the best possible method of communication for the brand. Paula must determine if public speaking, conferences, social media, or other forms of communication would work best for her company. Keeping this in mind, she has taken steps in all situations to communicate the value of the brand in question. Paula has been interviewed on numerous occasions with the purpose of pitching her ideas as CEO. She explains how she plans to improve American Apparel through redefining the focus of the clothing store. She plans to accomplish this by shifting the focus off of the scandal the brand holds, and zoom in on the quality and satisfaction of the brand as a whole. Paula’s interviews contained an extensive amount of information regarding her challenge as the new CEO and what she plans to do in order to tackle said challenges. Thankfully, in today’s world culture many if not all interviews are issued in writing and/or published to the internet. As a