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Advertising and gender
Gender representation in advertising media
Representations of gender roles in advertisements
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Often times, companies use a social group in society and turn them into objects to enhance the impact of their advertisement. A social group that is commonly targeted is women, as they are used to attract both men and their own gender to different products. In Burger King’s ‘Seven Incher’ burger advertisement, American woman are objectified. Burger King is attempting to reel in customers through standard appeals, diction, and images, but in turn is blatantly marginalizing women.
Sex appeal and snob appeal are the appeals used, which undermine women. Sex appeal is present as the woman with her mouth open is representative of a woman taking part in oral sex, and is backed up with the phallic shaped burger. This appeal is used to arouse feelings
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The woman herself is photo shopped extensively and is posing in an extremely awkward manner. Her face is clean of acne and she has rosy cheeks. Her lipstick is dark red, her eyes extremely wide with eyeliner and eye shadow, and she has short blonde hair. As Naomi Wolf suggests the media often times portray woman in such a way that woman feel, as though they should look like that. Woman may be subjected to this once more as the maker of this advertise has portrayed what they think society finds sexy, and thus certain women may feel as though they need to look like her. Then there’s the entire aspect of the phallic shaped burger right in front of the woman’s wide-open mouth. The end of the burger fades into darkness making its origins unknown. This could be suggesting that girl’s will perform oral sex no matter who you are as long as you have a large penis. To highlight this false truth further, there is a spotlight on the woman and the fading burger, which makes viewers look at that part of the advertisement first and is what governs the rest of the advertisement. In the bottom corner the full burger is showed with a lighter colored background and if this was the only part of the advertise, the sexual innuendo would have been extremely hard to get. Also the description of the burger is sexual due to the highlighted picture in the center of the
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 a seaside city, on the same block as “It’s Your Funeral” Crematorium and “The Petalphile” florist, sits the greasy burger joint “Bob’s Burgers”. Bob’s Burgers follows the Belchers, the family that runs this all-American restaurant. Bob and Linda Belcher have three kids: Tina, Gene, and Louise. Each character on the show is vastly different and dynamic. Bob’s Burgers has been on Fox since January of 2011 and has become a prime animated show loved by millions. Because it has such a large audience, the messages Bob’s Burgers portrays are important to examine. Bob 's Burgers is a progressive television show by showing appropriate gender roles and conveys the message that the audience can excel in life no matter their background.
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 commercial they analyze is known as Test Marketing and is advertising the diner melt combo. The commercial shows Jack and another executive looking through a two way mirror at a group of test subjects that consist of all males (Freeman and Merskin, 464). The test shows that men prefer their fast food over other things that men would be attracted to such as a motorcycle, a keg of beer, sports on TV, and women having a pillow fight (Freeman and Merskin, 464). With these findings they “can rule the world” and carries the tagline “Indulge” (Freeman and Merskin, 464). This commercial shows that men prefer fast food over women and may lead women to believe that in order to get a man’s attention they need to get this fast
The Lunchables ad represents Lunchables as “bursting with fun” and implies that children will be happy and enjoy school if they have a Lunchables. Lunchables placed this ad in a magazine to target moms and children to get them to buy their product. They are trying to convey, like most advertisements do according to Croteau and Hoynes (2014), that “happiness and satisfaction can be purchased” (p. 179) if mothers buy their children Lunchables. Lunchables (Lunchables Parents) advertise as being “packed with what kids love” and “giving your kids what they want”. They include a hand tray with a main entrée, drink, and dessert. The brand delivers on the idea of fun and interactivity of building your own meal and “mixing up” your lunch. Lunchables
The headline of the ad is “Decisions are easy. When I get into a fork in the road, I eat.” After viewing this ad, the sub thought to every idea, man or woman, is that her cool attitude toward food can be easily duplicated. With this idea, there is a relationship that is formed between sexuality roles and advertisements. From a young age, women are constantly being shaped and guided to the ideal weight of our society, which is being impersonated by women similar to the one in this advertisement. Her sexual stance, thin, short skirt, and her hand placement all show signs of sexual
Advertising, whether criticized or celebrated, is undeniably a strong force in American society. Portrayals and Images of women have long been used to sell in published advertisements. However, how they have been used has changed enormously throughout the decades. Women have fought to find a lasting and prominent position in their society. Only in the span of twenty years, between 1900’s and 1920’s, the roles of women changed dramatically here in United States.
Sex appeal is used in movies and advertising in today’s society to grab the attention of viewers. In today’s society, one cannot go through the day without running into some form of sex appeal. It is used in commercials such as the Carl’s Jr. Commercials when they have a beautiful girl in a bikini eating a cheeseburger from their establishment. This grabs the attention of both male and female. This is done by making women believe that if they eat their burger, they will look just as pretty and sexy as the model. The men want the burger because it makes them think of the pretty model eating it. They use good-looking actors or actresses in movies who often show off their
The bold print also indicates for the woman to remove her clothes, or for the viewer to do so. Everything is very clean, clear, and appealing to the eye. There is a highlight around the woman’s body leaving her look like she’s glowing. The weight scale is indicating that the woman has lost weight and she is shocked by how much she weighs now. The company displays this petite woman which advertises, if you drink their product then the consumers can look like her. This add is posing as a sex symbol for men and is showing younger women that they should look like this woman in the ad. This ad is also indicating that only ‘sexy’ and ‘healthy’ woman can produce healthier milk.
The advert seeks to get a cheap laugh from the target audience with the image of the woman in a sexual pose and the picture of the beer. The ad promotes the idea that beer is the most desirable thing in the ‘Far East’ and that beer is much more important than women. It also openly laughs at the South East Asian sex trade by putting a prostitute in the middle of the ad. The ad also implies that women in the ‘Far East’ are only good for sex (dressing in revealing, sexual clothes designed to make the woman in the ad seem more desirable). From a technical point of view, the ad works very well.
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:
Advertising generally tries to sell the things that consumers want even if they should not wish for them. Adverting things that consumers do not yearn for is not effective use of the advertiser’s money. A majority of what advertisers sell consists of customer items like food, clothing, cars and services-- things that people desire to have. On the other hand it is believed by some advertising experts that the greatest influence in advertising happens in choosing a brand at the point of sale.
Steele’s Constructing Sex, the Sexual, and the Erotic- 'Doing It’: The Social Construction of S-E-X, which covers the social construction and perception of sex, sexuality, pleasure, and gender. In the text Steele mentions that very often in this society, penial penetration and male pleasure and climax are commonly seen as indicator of having had sex (Steele). The focus on male pleasure above females is not only relevant to the physical act of sex, but also the perception of gender and the way media targets their audience. More often than not, the typical objects of male pleasure (females) are taken and added into media and advertising to appeal to male pleasure even in ads that the products are targeted away from men. For example, underwear made for females often features an ‘attractive’ female seductively showing off the garments, effective for targeting straight males. Even in commercials for products for either gender like burgers or sunscreen, still use an objectified women as their selling point. Another point that Steele looks at in the text is the idea of consent, Steele states that “The dangers inherent in contemporary constructions of S-E-X… is about the pleasure of the actor” which can cause the dismissal of the object of desire as irrelevant (Steele). This idea of the focus being solely on the actor is problematic as it can easily perpetuate rape culture, and is a large part of the RadioShack ad.
Focusing on local produce – if McDonalds focuses on local produce, it has been shown that consumers favour this and trust produce from New Zealand, which may lead to an increase in profits.
Burger King is a well-known fast food restaurant that tends to post ads that most individuals may find eye catching. This ad is definitely one of them. The way that you might interpret this ad depends on what gender you are and what type of perspective you view this ad. If you were to hear about this advertisement you would most likely assume that Burger King’s target audience are men because of the words chosen. Burger King is advertising a new super seven-inch sandwich. This juicy, flame- grilled sandwich is filled with American cheese, crispy onions and a beef patty topped with a “hearty” A.1 steak sauce. The appeal used in this advertisement is absolutely the need for sex. The quote, “ It’ll Blow Your Mind Away” in large bold font just