Men's Women Steve Craig Summary

For as long as advertisements have been around, advertisers have been manipulating consumers into purchasing their products without their knowledge. Steve Craig sheds light on the underlying motives and agendas behind ads in “Men’s Men and Women’s Women”. Living in a patriarchal society makes women victim to strict beauty standards that can seemingly only be cured with the advertisers’ products. Due to women’s vulnerability against their appearance, advertisers prey on their insecurities to increase their sales. Protein World and Sensa advertise products that strike women's biggest insecurity: their weight. Steve Craig confirms in his article that women are compelled to purchase products that claim to increase their attractiveness. The two

weight loss advertisements utilize Craig’s strategy to encourage women to purchase their products based on their inclination to adhere to society’s standard of a perfect woman.
Although weight loss is a desire and activity both genders engage in, Sensa and Protein World choose women as their target audience. Steve Craig explains advertisements designed for women, “act to reinforce patriarchy and to co-opt any reactionary ideology in it.” These advertisements reinforce the pressure women feel to comply with beauty standards that enforce the image of being skinny and attractive. Craig emphasizes that advertisers utilize this method most frequently because the results prove to be successful. Although advertisers do not force their audience to purchase their products, they portray their products as a necessity. If a woman does not have their product, they will be shunned by society for being unattractive. To rid the anxiety of being an outcast, women will purchase Sensa and Protein World’s products to conform to the standards placed on women.
Upon first glance, the attractive nature of the women in the ads grasps the consumers’ attention. The woman in the Protein World ad stands confident and proud as she showcases her slim body in a yellow bikini. The woman in the Sensa advertisement smiles with a measuring tape around her waist, pleased with her weight, and puts her toned torso on display wearing only a yellow sports bra. In both of these ads, the woman happens to be a white, skinny, and blonde figure which coincides with a, “men’s women [who] are portrayed as physically attractive, slim, and usually, white frequently blond” (188). The advertisements fit the description precisely, portraying these women as the epitome of the male fantasy.
Women believe they need to look like the figures in the advertisements because our patriarchal society instills a mindset in women they need to be attractive in order to be respected.

Craig explains women must be beautiful if they want to, “maintain her husband’s interest and maintain her family’s unity and security” (189). Men have expressed attraction to women who are fit and slender, and if a woman does not conform to these beauty standards she will face a life of loneliness. Women feel obligated to buy these weight loss supplements to fulfill men’s desires. Sensa and Protein World purposely used attractive women in their ads to evoke self-conscious thoughts from their audience. Craig reveals these advertisers successfully sell weight loss supplements because they elicit insecurity from their consumers, which companies prey on to drive their sales. Women fall victim to the advertisers’ trap because they believe they will finally be able to attain their dream body by purchasing these products. Through the portrayal of attractive women in ads, advertisers are able to manipulate women into purchasing their products with the promise of acquiring

perfection.
In large capitalized letters, the Sensa advertisement hooks women in with the claim, “lose up to 30 lbs without dieting.” The advertiser makes a bold promise that assures women they will achieve their desired body weight without the hassle of restricting themselves to healthy foods. Dieting is an agonizing process that requires a lot of energy, persistence, and time. However, Sensa provides the alternative of achieving your ideal weight with a lack of activity and effort. Women will be able to indulge in their usual eating habits while attaining their dream body. Women are inclined to purchase Sensa to replace the torturous and the time-consuming process of dieting for a simpler solution.
Saving time and effort is not the only appealing aspect of the elimination of dieting. Craig explains women despise dieting because it reinforces the, “hatred of her own ‘overweight’ body- a body that no longer measures up to the idealized woman promoted by the patriarchy” (190). Our society has told women from a young age that any body other than a slender one is unattractive. To uphold to this pressure of being slim, women must endure uncomfortable tasks such as restraining themselves from eating in order to be an acceptable member of our society. As a solution to that issue, Sensa’s product guarantees, “to alleviate the pain of dieting at the same time it relieves (or perhaps delays) the anxiety of being overweight” (190). Dieting is a long and harrowing period in which a woman is constantly bombarded with the reminder of how undesirable she is due to the current state of her body. Sensa acknowledges women’s fear of being unattractive and uses it against their audience. They advertise their product to possess the ability to exterminate those worries and cure them of their unattractiveness. By purchasing Sensa, women further succumb to the pressure to live up to society’s image of a perfect woman.
Sensa and Protein World strategically picked yellow to help sell their product.

Sensa uses yellow to draw your eyes to the woman’s body. The bright measuring tape around her waist and yellow sports bra forces the viewer to focus on her toned body, eliciting envy from women. The woman’s yellow-blonde hair makes us pan up from her body to her face. She holds a huge grin demonstrating the joy and pride she has in her body. Women conclude they cannot be truly happy unless they are slim like the woman in the picture, reinforcing their need to purchase Sensa. Protein World’s use of yellow conveys the same message. The woman’s skin in the ad has been edited grey, the only source of color coming from her bright yellow bikini. Not only does yellow draw attention to her body, but also emphasizes the word beach in “beach body.” Yellow is associated with the sun and beach, and it implies women can only enjoy the ocean if they have a slim figure, further stressing the need to purchase Protein World. Overall the use of yellow exemplifies Craig’s argument that the desire to be attractive drives women to purchase

products.
In bold capital letters that contrast against the bright yellow background, the Protein World advertisement poses the question, “are you beach body ready?” This striking question combined the image of America’s idea of a beautiful woman creates a powerful ad that is destined to be observed. The advertisers target the same audience as Sensa: women. Immediately women start to reflect and question the current state of their bodies. If she does not look exactly like the girl in the advertisement, she feels insecure and deems herself unattractive. Craig reveals in our patriarchal society, a woman’s purpose is to, “attain and maintain her physical attractiveness.” They utilize the same tactics as Sensa to reinforce if you are not skinny; you are unappealing and not worthy of love. To avoid that unfortunate fate, women feel compelled to purchase Protein Worlds products. If they buy their products women expect to look like the woman displayed in the advertisement. Out of fear and anxiety, women turn to Protein World’s product to attain society’s idea of a perfect woman.
Protein World and Sensa utilize Craig’s method to manipulate women into purchasing their weight loss supplements. The structures of these advertisements are designed to evoke insecurity and discomfort from women. With these emotions, companies are able to sway women into purchasing their weight loss products. Based on women’s fixation of wanting to achieve perfection, advertisers will continue to exploit their insecurities for a profit.