Throughout our lives we have been exposed to countless advertisements from magazines, television, and posters. In the past families, communities, and religion have shaped the views of society, and now the media plays a larger role. The media has become a structuring institution of contemporary consumer society and has had a major impact on our perception towards gender, race and sexuality. The media does not only provide people with information and entertainment; it also affects people’s lives by shaping their opinions, attitudes and beliefs. The media can produce a sense of reality through images by manipulating the audience. Mass media has had a significant impact on two major themes, male dominance and female objectification within advertisements. …show more content…
These advertisements have become so frequent and normal in people’s lives that they do not realize that they are being exposed to them. Jhally states, “advertising is a disclosure through and about objects because it does not merely tell us about things but how things are connected through important domains of lives” (Jhally, 247). In other words, advertisements are bigger than just the picture or product. On top of the surface content, advertisements promote subconscious and underlying messages towards a target audience. They have become a system and language that is interpreted by viewers through images. This has triggered viewers to come up with several concepts and ideas that are swayed by the …show more content…
advertising doesn’t always mirror how people are acting but how they’re dreaming” (Jhally, 248). This is important because the media promotes images that reflect viewers’ fantasies. Fantasies are composed of idealized identities that the media portray of the “good life.” The audience wants to enact the images and power structures they see conveyed, therefore, it becomes their dreams and desires. The Dolce Gabbana advertisement is an excellent example of how fantasies are integrated with the identity of a dominating white male figure. The background of the image is an extremely important factor in manipulating the consumer’s ideas and concepts. The sky blue background contrasts with the men surrounding the women. The effect of the contrast then promotes a theme of dreams and desires. Jhally writes, “The commodity image system thus provides a particular vision of the world” (Jhally 248). The image is portrayed as an erotic dream. The advertisement cannot sell the real thing therefore it sells an illusion of the good life by reflecting viewers’ dreams. This promotes the underlying message of the ad. Basically, if you want to be a powerful wealthy white male figure in society and be desired by women, you must wear Dolce and Gabbana
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
Advertisements are one of many things that Americans cannot get away from. Every American sees an average of 3,000 advertisements a day; whether it’s on the television, radio, while surfing the internet, or while driving around town. Advertisements try to get consumers to buy their products by getting their attention. Most advertisements don’t have anything to do with the product itself. Every company has a different way of getting the public’s attention, but every advertisement has the same goal - to sell the product. Every advertisement tries to appeal to the audience by using ethos, pathos, and logos, while also focusing on who their audience is and the purpose of the ad. An example of this is a Charmin commercial where there is a bear who gets excited when he gets to use the toilet paper because it is so soft.
Have you ever seen an advertisement for a product and could immediately relate to the subject or the product in that advertisement? Companies that sell products are always trying to find new and interesting ways to get buyers and get people’s attention. It has become a part of our society today to always have products being shown to them. As claimed in Elizabeth Thoman’s essay Rise of the Image Culture: Re-Imagining the American Dream, “…advertising offered instructions on how to dress, how to behave, how to appear to others in order to gain approval and avoid rejection”. This statement is true because most of the time buyers are persuaded by ads for certain products.
The media, including television programming, cartoons, film, the news, as well as literature and magazines, is a very powerful and pervasive medium for expression. It can reach a large number of people and convey ideas, cultural norms, stereotypic roles, power relationships, ethics, and values. Through these messages, the mass media may have a strong influence on individual behavior, views, and values, as well as in shaping national character and culture. Although there is a great potential for the media to have a positive and affirming effect on the public and society at large, there may be important negative consequences when the messages conveyed are harmful, destructive, or violent.
As civilization grows and the tentacles of mass media stretch into mankind’s mind from every direction, it is important to note the damaging effects of the images being shown to the masses. In a society where the model being used to sell products to the consumer is on average 20% thinner than the demographic of the consumers themselves (Abraham 3), it’s impossible to ignore the influence these marketing campaigns have on individual psyches. This is supported by the Dittmar and Howard Journal statement on the negative effects of media influence:
In conclusion, we can see how everything presented in an advertisement can actually have an impact in the people. Although the company’s target was to sell their product, their way of transmitting the message to the people also fortifies the stereotype. Thus, the media today does abuse the power of stereotyping in order to gain a favorable reputation. Everything they present in the ad, from symbolism to the lifestyle of the characters, race, age and gender, has an effect on strengthening the stereotype. In this case, women are perceived as emotionally drained, weak and incapable, although now a days that characterization is trying to be broken because women are much more than that and can actually get to achieve greater things.
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.
The Garnier Fructis advertisement, found in “Seventeen” magazine, promotes their new line of “Grow Strong” shampoo, conditioner, and treatments. The Ad features a young, attractive couple that seem to be happy. The first aspect of the ad that is noticed is the man, as he is the center of the page. The first thoughts that come to mind are that he is happy, attractive, and his girlfriend is caressing his head with her fingers through his hair. Next, you notice the woman who is beside him, the one caressing the man’s head. It is quite noticeable that her hair is long, shiny, and wavy. Also, the people in the ad are wearing fancy attire as if they are going to a formal event, which shows they are well-liked in society and are powerful. The product
Throughout society, men and women have been expected to live by guidelines consisting of media generated ideas and ways of living out life. Both men and women’s thinking process are being altered the negative effects of society’s mass media. For both sexes, this repeating negative exposure causes a constant downfall in self-image and creates media influenced decisions that lead to unhealthy lifestyles. The media effects the thinking process of both men and women in negative ways therefore media needs to be heavily regulated.
In today's world, what we see in the media dictates our world. Media, by definition, is a form of mass communication, such as television, newspapers, magazines and the internet. Since the beginning of this media phenomenon, men and women have been treated very differently, whether it be through advertisements or news stories. As women have gained more rights and social freedoms, the media has not changed their views on women. They are often viewed as objects, whether for a man's pleasure, or for as a group to sell only cleaning products to.The portrayal of women in the media has a highly negative impact on the easily shaped young women of today. Women of power are often criticized, others hypersexualized. The media also directs advertisements for household things at women.
Advertising has been a way of convincing people that they need to purchase an item in order to be a certain way or gain something they want. The purpose of advertising has not changed, but the way the ads go about convincing the public has changed drastically in the past decades. Susan Bordo wrote “Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body” as a way to document and normalize these changes. A company that Bordo mentions multiple times is Abercrombie & Fitch. In the late 1900s, Abercrombie & Fitch began to use men as a way to convince young men and women into buying their clothing.
It promises that by purchasing and wearing Dolce & Gabbana, women will be better than those around them. They will become powerful and others will view them as such. In addition to offering power, this ad suggests that wearing Dolce & Gabbana will make one more confident, perhaps because she feels more powerful. The ad also promises youth to the viewer as well. This is especially significant because the majority of the audience of InStyle is older and viewed as past their prime.
The mass media has played a key role in shaping people’s lives. The modern society’s use of mass media including TV, radio, newspaper, as well as print media has largely influenced people’s ideas regarding themselves and the society at large. This is evident from their behavior towards themselves and their community as well as their treatment of the environment. While some experts believe that the media is to blame for most of the negative behavioral traits among the active members of society, the majority agree that the media makes people understand and develop a positive sense of association with their society within which they live, making it easy for them to identify and get their role in it.
The media is everywhere and takes up a great deal of people’s everyday lives. People depend on the media to provide them with information that would otherwise be hard to get. The people of society also use the media to communicate with friends, family, and people from all around the world. Also, the media serves as a means for entertainment. Businesses use the media as a way to advertise their products. The media affects society in many different ways; such as, businesses use the media to promote their products, the media effects communication, and the media affects body image and behavior of people in society.
Media technologies are becoming an important aspect of today’s society. Each and every day, people interact with media of many different forms. Media is commonly defined as being a channel of communication. Radio, newspapers, and television are all examples of media. It is impossible to assume that media is made up of completely unbiased information and that the media companies do not impose their own control upon the information being supplied to media users. Since many people use media very frequently, it is obvious to assume that it has affects on people. According to the text book Media Now, "media effects are changes in knowledge, attitude, or behavior that result from exposure to the mass media," (386). This leaves us with many unanswered questions about media and its influences. This paper will look at how the effects of media are determined and explore the main affects on today’s society - violence, prejudice, and sexual behavior.