The Thomas Crown Affair Evaluation
In the past few years, advertisement has changed significantly, and with it bringing many changes to our current society. Susan Bordo, a modern feminist philosopher, discussed in her article “Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body” how current society has changed starting with Calvin Klein’s advertising campaign that showed men wearing nothing but underwear. Bordo argues how men are becoming the subject of the gaze, just as women were for centuries. This argument of the gaze is especially pronounced in John McTiernan’s film The Thomas Crown Affair, which focuses on two main characters, a man named Thomas Crown, who is a billionaire Manhattan financier, and a woman named Catherine Banning, and insurance investigator who is investigating Crown’s robbery of the 100-million-dollar painting, the “San Giorgio Maggiore Soleil Couchant”. The film addresses Bordo’s modern feminine and masculine gaze to target a wide range of adult audience. To begin, the film appeals to male audience through Banning’s relationship with the gaze. In the scene where Banning and Crown were dancing, Crown started removing her cloth until all she was wearing was a transparent black dress. Crown, standing right in front of her, was staring,
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Bordo described in her article that Calvin Klein’s advertising campaigns were so revolutionary, men started to care about their appearance just as much as women care about theirs (Bordo, 152). Bordo gave multiple examples of this trend, including the Gucci commercial:
… a beautiful young man, shot from the rear, puts on a pair of briefs. In the first ad, he's holding them in his hands, contemplating them. Is he checking out the correct washing-machine temp? It's odd, surely, to stand there looking at your underwear, but never mind. The point is: his underwear is in his hands, not on his butt (Bordo,
In the 1997 article Listening to Khakis, published in the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell effectively paints a vivid picture of the thought and science that goes into advertising campaigns. Gladwell begins his paper by focusing on the Dockers’ advertising campaign for their line of adult male khaki pants, which he labels as extremely successful. This campaign was the first line of successful fashion advertisements aimed directly toward adult males (Gladwell, 1997). This campaign was cunningly simple and showed only males wearing the pants being advertised with the background noise filled with men having a casual conversation (Gladwell, 1997). This tactic was used because studies showed that Dockers’ target market felt an absence in adult male friendships. (Gladwell, 1997). The simplicity of the advertisements was accentuated as to not to deter possible customers by creating a fashion based ad because, based on Gladwell’s multiple interviews of advertising experts, males shy away from being viewed as fashion forward or “trying to hard” (Gladwell, 1997).
In this essay I’ll be exploring various concepts of women and will deeply criticise the way women are seen and portrayed through advertising. My primary resource I’ll be referring to throughout this essay is a book called ‘Ways of seeing’ by John Berger, which highlights the role women during the early renaissance and onwards. In addition to this I will explore the various beliefs of women from a wide range of secondary resources, and will include references from books, websites, and various images to help clarify my statements.
As Freeman and Merskin assert, “… commercials that focus on a lone, sexualized woman doing something seductive while also eating a burger, the flesh of both humans and nonhumans become objects of camera’s implied heterosexual gaze” (470). In other words, Freeman and Merskin oppose to the usage of women to make a commercial more interesting in order to bring more customers, specifically male ones. Indeed, this is the role of women in Tui’s commercial. Women are on the sidewalk making seductive gestures that bring the attention of the main character, this “temptations” are what he needs to overcome to achieve his goal, he thinks about the beer he will get and this helps him to keep away from distractions. This is the message that media is bringing to our homes: women are nothing but beautiful objects that need to have a good appearance. Moreover, women are not always present on commercials; according to Freeman and Merskin, “… occasionally women enter the story, typically as decorative objects or as the symbolic ‘other woman’” (461). When women come to scene, they represent a beauty concept; makeup, provocative clothes, a voluptuous body, and silent attitudes are the characteristics that they show to the audience as the perfect woman. Several women appear through Tui’s commercial; however, they do not play any important role, their interpretations barely last five
Schroeder, Jonathan & Zwick, Detlev, Mirrors of Masculinity: Representation and Identity in Advertising Images: Consumption, Markets and Culture, (Volume 7: March 2004)
The ideal post-modern woman is a collage of charm, grace, beauty, strength and independence. This ideal is what Keira Knightley epitomizes in the Coco Mademoiselle perfume commercial. A far cry from the original feminist movement which was entrenched in politics this post-feminism created a realm where woman sought all the riches of the feminist movement but shunned the feminist title (Goldman 1992, 130). Keira is presented as a beautiful independent woman, who is free from the hold of men and sexually liberated. However, through close examination, it is clear that her independence is in relation to her power over the men in the commercial. Further, this power is simply power over the man whom she wishes to seduce.
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...
First, Kilbourne’s research should be praised tremendously for bringing to light the unhealthy impression of true beauty in today’s culture. Kilbourne challenges the audience to reconsider their viewpoints on advertising that is sublime with sexual language. The evolution of advertising and product placement has drastically changed the real meaning of being a woman. According to the movie, every American is exposed to hundreds and thousands of advertisements each day. Furthermore, the picture of an “ideal women” in magazines, commercials, and billboards are a product of numerous computer retouching and cosmetics. Media creates a false and unrealistic sense of how women should be viewing themselves. Instead of being praised for their femininity and prowess, women are turned into objects. This can be detrimental to a society filled with girls that are brainwashed to strive to achieve this unrealistic look of beauty.
Feminism has been a social philosophy for quite a long time and over the last four decades the role of women and their rights has changed dramatically in the Western world. However, the female representation has stayed constant. Beauty, physique, sexuality, emotions and relationships have been the focus for female representations There is so much focus on physical beauty that other values seem to be excluded; this is not a realistic view of an everyday life for many women around the world. In perfume adverts especially, there are a lot of beautiful, thin, 'airbrushed women', who appear to seduce the man with their perfume. In this essay I will be studying the way the perfume advertisements use the representation of women in various forms including objectification, fragmentation and binding of the body.
Calvin Klein 's #myCalvins campaign features many different celebrities posing in their Calvin Klein underwear with the sentence “I________ in #mycalvins.” This wildly successful advertising campaign uses many different methods to make the ad not only eye-catching but memorable. The ad that this paper is written on features model
In the essay “Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body,” author and philosopher Susan Bordo discusses the history and current state of male representation in advertisements. While using her feminist background, Bordo compares and contrasts the aspects of how men and women are portrayed in the public eye. She claims that there has been a paradigm shift the media with the theory that not just women are being objectified in the public eye, but also men too. Since the mid-1970s, with the introduction of Calvin Klein commercials, men have started to become more dehumanized and regarded as sex symbols. In a similar fashion to how Bordo describes gender, race plays a similar role in the media. People of all different ethnicities and cultures are being categorized into an oversimplified and usually unfair image by the media over basic characteristics.
Fashion has always dictated what gender stereotypes should wear and how they should present themselves to the world with their fashion, these rules and ideals are constantly changing and reversing, occasionally blurring the lines between the two. Gender roles have lessened and obscured in modern society due to subcultures and immediate availability of clothing, the gender ideals do however still exist and designers often heavily rely on these assumptions. Advertising companies often use these gender stereotypes to promote their clients' clothing as well, which, in turn, only serves to strengthen traditional ideas of what men and women should wear. In this essay I aim to discuss the ever changing gender divide and how fashion reacts to these alterations and views and reflects the ideals of the time. Prior to the 19th century, it was not unusual to see wealthy, fashionable men wearing stockings and heels such as the likes of the macaroni men who saw extravagance as an essential part of life and to show their wealth.
Nowadays, advertisements depict how women should act, dress, and eat. For example in Hunger as Ideology, it show two different advertisements for Haagen-Dazs Ice cream, one with a man who just finished a half-pint smiling, the other with a woman who just took a bite from her ice cream bar. Although very discreet, the message is visible to consumers. Another example, are the sugar-free Jell-o ads, where an attractive slender woman is leaning back on a chair eating jell-o from a glass. Above the picture is a quote which says, “I’m a girl who just can’t say no. I insist on dessert”. To the side of the ad, it states, “Every woman is entitles to her just desserts. Just as long as dessert is Sugar Free Jell-O Gelatin. It’s light and fruity and fun. And it’s only calories.” This ad emphasizes on how women want dessert, but its only okay to have it if its sugar free. “The dessert you don’t have to desert” because it’s sugar free. Same concept with the Wonder Light Bread, in this ad two women are side by side on a park bench one holding a carrot, the other happily smiling with a sandwich and the ad saying, “ You’ll think your cheating, but you know your not…It’s Wonder Light bread”. These ads accentuate how its okay to eat a lot, as long as you eat “light”. Women look upon these ads and are convinced that this is how they are suppose to be, but in the Thomas Crown Affair, the message is completely opposite.
Marketing companies try to surpass one another thinking outside the box and creating advertisements which are unconventional, however, they operate within a few stereotypes about gender roles and representations. This essay will examine the differences between advertising lingerie for both male and female audiences. Commercials of focus are Primark’s Valentine’s Day campaign called 'For every side of you ' (see Figure 1.) and Justin Bieber’s photo shoot for Calvin Klein (see Figure 2.). Both brands are well – known, nonetheless their profile and target groups are slightly different, mainly because of price range, thus associations created by their campaign can be seen variously, depending on audiences’ status, gender, age, experience and many other factors.
I will show you my understanding of how in the past women were marginalised in the media. and how men were shown as powerful figures. I will use the following sources in my essay: Kenzo perfume for women advert (4.2a), Yves Saint. Laurent perfume for men advert (4.2b), IBM global services (4.14a). Lanvin (4.14b) -.
In conclusion, men and women are interested in different topics in magazines. Advertisements in women’s magazines indicate that women are interested in spotless kitchens, a healthy, well-fed family, a clean home, fashionable clothing and accessories, travel, interior design, furniture, and business careers. Men’s magazines’ advertisements suggest that their readers’ interests are fewer by far and simpler: food, sex, and cars. An advertisement for Ché men’s magazine, in fact, makes it clear that many men would welcome as “a better world” one in which women are not only readily available sexually but travel to one’s doorstep, in answer to a telephone call. The ad of Che’ men’s magazine targeted effectively at their audience due to using the logos, pathos, and ethos.