Diversity In Advertising

The ad I included is from 1957. Magazine advertisements have dramatically changed since then. Ads then and now have very different approaches and messages. The advertisement is for Van Heusen's ties, but their advertising approach is odd. The 1957 ad shows the woman as being inferior to the man--who they allude has charge and control over her. Now, this would be very controversial, especially in western civilizations. Society tends to be more progressive now. People fight and urge to show that women and men are equal, one gender is not superior than the other. An advertisement for the same product would use a different approach. When advertising fashion products nowadays, we tend to include more diversity—though they are not as diverse as many wish. Advertisements

Using the above approach would not be acceptable. The image and the text does not represent the majority of the population's current ideologies. Overall ads try to display equality between men and women of different body shapes, ages, and skin color. However, this is my perspective as an American looking at American magazines and advertisements. These may differ from country to country. For example, advertisements in Brazil seem to not be as "accepting" of diversity. Although this country is largely ethnically and socioeconomically diverse, the mainstream media seems to focus more on a European look—that does not represent the majority of the population. The Museum of Fine art of Houston presented the exhibit as a “blockbuster” — efforts like this let to magazines advertising it as well. The Texas Monthly published the mag articles, describing Egyptians as mysterious, superstitious, etc. the mag makes sure to mention common things we, as in people in the west, associate with Egypt, so very stereotypical. They also made it sound like some haunted Halloween ride or something and they use a very casual friendly tone to invite people to go look at the artifacts that makes Egyptians so “different” from