Connotation Of Women In Advertising

1001 Words3 Pages

This essay will discuss how the image of Eve with all its connotations used to sell fashion and beauty products to a contemporary market by analysing recent magazine advertisements in order to show how marketers use specific themes and symbols in their advertisements and manipulate consumers into buying their product. The context of this essay is that the beauty industry is made up of “makeup, skin and hair care, fragrances, cosmetic surgery and fashion. By presenting idealized images, beauty product and fashion advertisers seek to persuade customers that they will become new and improved if they use their product. Pants that tighten your stomach, creams that melt cellulite, and injections are some of the advertising claims fueling our desires …show more content…

This research is worth it for everyday victims of false advertising and how they should be aware of the manipulation in advertisements. “People unhappy about their bodies can develop eating disorders, turn to diet pills or steroids, or try cosmetic surgery and Botox injections. One study found that one in four people is depressed about their body, another found that almost a third of women say they would sacrifice a year of life to achieve the ideal body weight and shape, and almost half of girls in a recent survey think the pressure to look good is the worst part of being female. These very real and serious issues are not helped by the impossible visions of perfection everywhere in our visual culture. A growing body of scientific evidence reinforces the link between negative body image and exposure to idealized images.” To get our idea of an ideal woman we make one figure in time our role model. Advertisement companies prefer to use images and symbols that are universally recognized, such as Biblical …show more content…

Each advertisement seeks to persuade potential buyers of the product's value, or even its necessity for the buyer's wellbeing and self image. There are certain symbols and themes used to help companies sell their products. The most prominent themes and symbols from which all our advertisements stem all have their connection with the biblical persona of Eve. Companies use the image of Eve to try and appeal to women through the use of symbolism and themes associated with her. One way Eve is brought to mind is by using the symbol of a bitten apple, since it suggests the story of Adam and Eve in the Western Bible which revolves around the eating of an apple that was supposed to contain secret forbidden knowledge. Beauty product advertisements seek to persuade customers by presenting idealized images of the human body; presumably the “new and improved” image the consumer will gain after using the product. Jean Kilbourne of “Media and Values” magazine states that “people are rarely ugly, overweight, poor, struggling or disabled, either physically or mentally” (Ketchum.) in beauty advertisements. Just like the Dove Real Beauty campaign. The models were shown to be women that are less beautiful than all the models in magazines but they were still beautiful, they weren’t ugly. “By presenting these perfect images, beauty product advertising makes consumers feel that their bodies are

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