Today, many people have the feeling of being trapped in their daily lives. They want to wander and explore what the world has to offer. The more and more magazines they page through, the more they feel they are not living the live they should be. They want to be like the models and movie stars in the ads they read. Although, many women think they want to be free, maybe it is just a false hope. This ad encourages women to buy American Eagle jeans by promoting a sense of freedom to wander; however, the overcast skies and fearful expression on the actress give off a feeling that wandering too far can leave her lost and alone—which preys on women’s anxieties of being alone and suggests that wandering too far from societal expectations could have …show more content…
Women read Cosmopolitan to find confidence in themselves especially in their sexuality. According to Mark Crispin Miller, a professor at New York University specialized in writing, “Advertising agencies do plenty of research, by which we can assume that they don’t select their tactics arbitrarily” (119). Although this ad is distinct from the other ads in the magazine, it is clever because it stands out to the readers and it did not get thrown into the magazine because they felt like it. The creator carefully analyzed the audience and the other ads in the magazine. Cosmopolitan has a copious amount of ads referring to glamor, confidence, and sex. This ad does the complete opposite, it throws out a natural look and a real life situation of being scared. The tone is different for it brings the reader back into the reality of their lives realizing they should not wander too far societal expectations. Women are expected to wear high heels to work every day and know how to cook and clean. They are incapable of being independent and wandering from those expectation. If they do wander, they are not going to make it because they are incompetent of living a life out of the norm. Cosmopolitan’s readers are reading the magazine to find confidence in themselves, but this ad throws a kink in those thoughts. This ad tells women that they really are not capable of being …show more content…
After recognizing the women is lost, some may wonder as to why this ad is in a women’s magazine. No women wants the feeling of being alone so why would they wander so far that they become lost? This could lead to anxiety issues for women who do not want to wander at all for they think they will not be able to make it. The text in the ad may not always be true either. Saying the jeans never lose their shape may be true, but a women’s body changes and the jeans may not fit tightly every time. Never lose its shape is also similar in the belief women should not lose their traditional gender roles. Traditionally, men are the ones to guide women, not women guiding themselves because they will not make it. Women should be at home, doing housework, not going out to find work which could possibly place them higher on the economic scale than men. People reading Cosmopolitan see all the glitz and glam and believe that is how life should be, but this ad opposes the idea of being independent. Women should be housewives, not wanting to explore and be supermodels. The ad sticks out telling women to wander, but in reality it is saying it will not work because women are unable to survive on their
This phenomenon suggests that all women are required to remain loyal wives and stay at home mothers who aspire to achieve perfection. In “Mirrors of Masculinity: Representation and Identity in Advertising Images,” Jonathon E. Schroeder and Detlev Zwick claim that “highly abstract connections are made between the models, a lifestyle, and the brand” resulting in a need to associate these products with a specific way of living (25). Instead of simply displaying these luxurious bracelets and handbags, the ad creates an elegant environment through the incorporation of sophisticated items. The women are dressed elegantly in dresses and blouses, adding a conservative element to the ad. The ad presents a rather stereotypical image of the very successful heads-of-household type mothers who have brunch with other elite women in an exclusive circle. Everything from the merchandise they sport to the champagne glasses down to the neatly manicured fingernails provides insight into the class of women presented in this ad. The body language of the women strips the image of the reality element and instead appears to be staged or frozen in time. This directly contributes to the concept of the gendered American dream that urges women to put up a picture-perfect image for the world to see. Instead of embracing individual struggle and realities, the American dream encourages women to live out a fabricated
Advertising is form of communicating and using methods into getting the buyers to purchase a product. Cosmopolitan has done a good job in determining what readers and listeners want and need. Cosmopolitan is a magazine directed toward young people who have low self- confidence and low self-esteem and also who care about health and appearance. As Fowles said, “By giving form to people’s deep-lying desires and picturing states of being that individuals privately yearn for.” (Fowles, 137). All advertisers know who and what readers wish or long for.
This is a stereotype, which has been engraved into heads of men, women, and children. By plastering the world with models who seem to have it the genetic jackpot, Dove set out to discredit this cultural cast created by our society. Body image, to some people, is the first part of a person they notice. A study conducted by Janowsky and Pruis compared body image between younger and older women. They found that although older women “may not feel the same societal pressure as younger women to be thin and beautiful…some feel that they need to make themselves look as young as possible” (225). Since women are being faced with pressure to conform in ways that seem almost impossible, Jeffers came to the conclusion “they should create advertising that challenges conventional stereotypes of beauty” (34) after conducting various interviews with feminist scholars. The stance of Figure 1’s model screams confident. She is a voluptuous, curvy and beautiful women standing nearly butt-naked in an ad, plastered on billboards across the globe. Ultimately, she is telling women and girls everywhere that if I can be confident in my body, so can you. Jessica Hopper reveals, “some feel that the ads still rely too heavily on using sex to sell” (1). However, I feel as if these are just criticisms from others who are bitter. With the model’s hands placed assertively placed on her hips, her smile lights up the whole ad. She completely breaks the stereotype that in order to
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...
Visual advertisements are straight and to the point for some people. People do not take into account the visual messaging going on throughout the ad. It takes companies a considerable amount of time to create advertisements that are somewhat appealing to the human eye. By adding bright colors and large letters the ad will grab anyone’s attention. In fact, people will be able to see it and read it from a distance better. To show that there are many of small details in a visual advertisement, look at the Old Spice Matterhorn shower gel advertisement.
Advertisements are all over the place. Whether they are on TV, radio, or in a magazine, there is no way that you can escape them. They all have their target audience who they have specifically designed the ad for. And of course they are selling their product. This is a multi billion dollar industry and the advertiser’s study all the ways that they can attract the person’s attention. One way that is used the most and is in some ways very controversial is use of sex to sell products. For me to analyze this advertisement I used the rhetorical triangle, as well as ethos, pathos, and logos.
Advertisers use whatever they can to attract the reader. From a sexual appealing look to a word. One of the most helpful approaches is sex of course which can capture anyone's attention. The ad for Opium perfume depicts a young brunet that has nicely shaped body and wears nothing but golden slippers, necklace and bracelet. Model is laying down seeming like she is enjoying herself and maybe experiencing orgasm. Again in Dolce & Gabbana ad, we see man and woman having passionate foreplay; with one hand he is pulling her bra strap down while with other touching her breast and she is taking her panties off. In this ad, the naked female body and idea of sex is used to get the image of their product into the reader's memory. "Newsweek wrote: The strategy is that, while the consumer studies the picture, the designer's name melts into the brain. And a big part of the message that was melting in was sexual." (Streitmatter, pp. 123) Anyhow, both ads use sexual attention to grab reader's attention. This is exactly what Calvin Klein had intended he wanted to "make sure, first and foremost, that anyone who was thumbing through the pages of a magazine would stop and look at the ads.
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
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 this particular advertisement, they are selling a very sleek attractive car. The advertisement was in the open road, with an attractive blonde woman wearing a bikini. There are no beaches around, she is not going for a swim, she is just there to look good. All of this quotes say, “The Pursuit of Perfection”. This ad is obviously selling both sex. The beautiful woman in the bikini is suggesting that with this car, you automatically get girls of this caliber. Almost as if it is all inclusive, including her. Most people consider the public display of sex or suggestive things taboo. People by nature are attracted to things that are “off limits”. This is an advertising tactic of taking things that are normally considered bad or taboo and making them acceptable and desirable. This is a truly effective tactic, based on the fact that rebellion sells, people want what they can not have. In the “Selling of Rebellion”, Leo states, “The central message here is very serious and strongly antisocial: We should all rebel against authority, social order, propriety, and rules of any kind. “Obey” and “Rules” are bad (Leo,198). This is saying that people will want to do something that is taboo just because it is “off limits” and it feels good to do something people tell say you cannot. This is also selling elitism by selling a certain status. Lexus is already considered a more expensive or high quality brand of car, and they use their
The TV and Film Industry’s Portrayal of Women has drastically affected many of their lives, much too often women compare themselves to the female images they see on television, film, and advertisings; at both the conscious and subconscious level, these media images of women lower self-esteem and affect behavior at every age and stage of life. We know they are unrealistic, yet they apply so much pressure on women to conform, and influence how we live, love, work and play. This gender role that society has generally considered appropriate for women is wrong. It makes so many of us women want to buy materials we don’t need, with the money we don’t have only to impress people we don’t know. So many teenage girls are unwarily developing eating disorders and dieting without realizing that they don’t need to live up to the ridiculous standards that society has set for us. It’s difficult to be who you want to be without having someone look at you a certain way when it’s all around us, the constant pressure put on us to be like all women on television, commercials, movies and advertisements, these industries’ powerful influence on society has given everyone around us the wrong idea of what “should” and “should not” be. A woman should be able to express herself and feel free to do what she wants with no judgment.
Sexy, attractive, dependent, traditional…successful, smart, determined, independent; why must a woman choose, why can they not be a woman of all these characteristics? Dalbey and duCille explain how women are objectified starting at a young age of playing with dolls and attending pageants. This objectification continues into advertisements, Kilbourne, Bailey, and Powers all argue why women are portrayed as objects of sex which ultimately dehumanizes women. The reliance on a man is a constant issue women are faced with, along with the notion that men are to be the breadwinners. What if a single woman making half a million dollars as a doctor is out buying a new vehicle; does a dealer have the right to ask “shouldn’t you ask a man permission
The most fashionable, sought after magazines in any local store are saturated with beautiful, thin women acting as a sexy ornament on the cover. Commercials on TV feature lean, tall women promoting unlimited things from new clothes to as simple as a toothbrush. The media presents an unrealistic body type for girls to look up to, not images we can relate to in everyday life. When walking around in the city, very few people look like the women in commercials, some thin, but nothing similar to the cat walk model. As often as we see these flawless images float across the TV screen or in magazines, it ...
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.
“A Woman’s Place” In 2013, the American woman can vote, be the CEO of a business, start her own company, and wear pants. Many would say that a woman has the exact same rights as a man in today’s society- and is treated the same as well. However, in addition to glaring economic evidence provided through data stating that women still earn 77 cents to every man’s dollar (Basset, HuffingtonPost.com), we find that women are still entrapped socially by sexualisation and objectification of them. Sexualising and objectifying women in advertisements leads to the de-humanisation of them.