The Impact of Morality, Religion, and Law Upon Advertising
Religion and other value systems are certainly crucial in defining and sanctioning sex and decency. Moslem countries tend to frown upon all kinds of salacious displays and even indirect sexual references. Similar Christian standards operate in such countries as Ireland, South Africa, Mexico, and the Philippines. Other cultures may be considered rather tolerant in sexual matters (for example, French commercials on public television readily show live semi-nude models) but may prohibit any show of pubic hair (Japan), the promotion of contraceptives (France), or the lewd use of women (Scandinavia and the Netherlands) in advertisements. Values change, however. Thus, the spread of AIDS has reopened the issue of advertising condoms and other contraceptives in a totally different context, which transcends the older concerns about birth control and venereal-disease prevention.
The law usually parallels religious and moral standards.
There are often statutes dealing with public indecency (in Switzerland, Thailand, and the United Kingdom), the moral protection of minors, the restriction of violent displays (including sado-masochistic ones), and discriminatory job advertisements (particularly in Australia, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States). Restrictions on the publication and circulation of "sexy" magazines of the Playbqy variety, with their usually more risque ads, also belong to this category (Argentina, Lebanon, South Africa, and Thailand). Reflecting concerns about "sexist" portrayals, a 1979 amendment to the 1972 Norwegian Marketing Control Law states: An advertiser and anyone who creates advertising matter shall ensure that the advertisement does not conflict with the inherent parity between the sexes, and that it does not imply any derogatory judgment of either sex or portray a woman or a man in an offensive manner."
Similar provisions have been enacted in India, Peru, and Portugal to protect women against indecent or derogatory representations.
Still, the matter of constitutional freedom of speech as applied to advertising has raised serious questions concerning control of sex and decency in advertising. Swedish courts, for example, have not sustained some initiatives of the Consumer Ombudsman in this matter; and the Swedish Parliament sta...
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...and P.R. Parsons, "Self-Regulation and Magazine Advertising," Journal of Advertising, 18, 4 (1989): 33-40.
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World Federation of Advertisers, "The Portrayal of Women in Advertisements" (Brussels, April 1988).
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Jean J. Boddewyn is a professor of marketing and international business at Baruch College, City University of New York. Heidi Kunz is an assistant vice president and financial controller with FISERV, Inc., New York.
However, there are still some very key components that need to be addressed in order for the code to be used in the most efficient and effective matter. Whether it being a general disconnect between the definitions of crimes or the oversimplification of terms, the Model Penal Code still has quite a few obstacles to overcome before it will be uniformly adopted by all states. However, with today’s modern communications network, getting the greatest legal minds of our generation together would be far easier than when it was back in 1961, and by doing so could make the necessary changes that are needed for the code to become truly
Ophelia is a character in Hamlet that is chronically faithful to everyone else but herself. Ophelia is deeply in love with Hamlet, and she is certain that he loves her as well. This is clear from the assertions she makes in Hamlet’s defense: “My lord, he hath importuned me with love in honest fashion. And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord, with almost all the holy vows of heaven” (1795). Ophelia’s downfall emerges when she doubts her own feelings and beliefs about Hamlet, upon instruction and advice from her brother and father. Ophelia, a confident and intelligent woman, begins to rely on others to tell her what to think and how to act. “I do not know, my lord, what I should think” (1795). Upon Polonius request, and going against her own hearts desires, she starts to avoid Hamlet. “No, my good lord, but, as you did command, I did repel his letters and denied his access to me” (1806). By doing what her father advises and wishes Ophelia is no longer capable of making decisions for herself. The loss of Hamlet’s love and the death of her father leave her with confusion and doubts about her future. “Well, Go...
Ophelia is a beautiful disaster. She is simply two faced, wearing a mask on the outside to elongate her delicateness and niceness, yet on the inside, she has a dark and twisted beauty to her showing that she has everyone fooled and is very much sane. Submissive, naive, and disturbed, seem to represent Ophelia perfectly. She stands in marked contrast to the schemings and manipulations of the Danish court. Polonius, her father, has shielded Ophelia with his love and compassion. She tells her overbearing father, "I shall obey my Lord" (1.4.10) when he tells her she can no longer see Hamlet, her lover. Ophelia has been in love with Hamlet before any of Hamlet's numerous tragedies occur, yet her father comes first. She is obedient to him because she places family above others. Since she is naive and innocent, she is frightened and disillusioned by Hamlet's inexplicable behavior and persuaded by her father's urgency in the need for her to help establish what Hamlet's condition and motives are...
“Selling sex is illegal, but using it to promote economic growth is not.” (Sexualization and Sexploitation of Women in the Media; Rosery Films) What actually happened to our culture, people wondered? Has advertising gone too far? And are we being corrupted by sex? According Sex in advertising: Perspectives on the Erotic Appeal, in 2005, approximately one-fifth of all advertising used overt sexual content to sell its product. Society’s interest with sex and the advertising designer’s acceptance of it as an effective tool have served each other for the course of the twentieth century. And has always been separated on the extents to which sexuality can and should be used to sell. Advertising has become the single largest source of visual imagery in our social society. No matter where we look, we see advertisements trying to sell us things. Provocative advertising has been characterized as a deliberate attempt to gain attention through shock. (De Pelsmacker & Van Den Bergh, 1996) In 2007, The American Psychological Association sent out a press release to the media stressing the harmful effects of sexualizing our youth: “The proliferation of sexualized images of girls and young women in advertising, merchandisin...
In Jean Kilbourne's documentary “Killing Us Softly 4”, she gives multiple detailed examples of advertisers making women a sexual object which leads to society dehumanizing the female species. As well as this, they are finding younger and thinner women to use, even photo-shopping their models to unrealistic body shapes; warping the average women's view of what she should look like. American Apparel's founder and CEO Dov Charney himself stated that he had worked hard to acquire the provocative image they have today and that he purposefully created ads that were “soaked in youth and sex” (Chauduri). The company insists that they are simply “open about sexuality” and should not be persecuted for it (Chauduri). While sex is more prominent and less taboo than it has been in society, there is a definite line between more “open” about sexuality, and abusing the sexual side of men and women. By “open about sexuality” Dov Charney and American Apparel actually mean that they are going use extremely young women in promiscuous positions to sell their clothing, despite the fact that the...
Jean Kilbourne’s 2010 documentary, Killing Us Softly 4, discusses the idea that the businesses of advertising and commercialism have promoted specific body ideals for women in our modern day society by the methods in which they market towards their target audiences, specifically how women are portrayed in their ads. Throughout the documentary, Kilbourne is extremely critical of the advertising industry, accusing it of misconduct. She argues that objectification and superficial, unreal portrayal of women in these advertisements consequently lower women’s self-esteem. Ordinarily, women have many industries that try to gear their products towards them with apparel, beauty, and toiletries being amongst the most prominent. The majority of advertisements
Wurth, Margaret H, et al., “Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution in the United States and the Criminalization of Sex Work.” Journal of the International AIDS Society. 16.1 (2013): 1 - 3. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
Throughout history, sex has been used to sell products. In 1871, Pearl Tobacco brand used the image of naked women to sell their product. The exposure of sex in marketing slowly morphed and by the “beginning with World War two, pinup girls were introducing sex into a mainstream advertising” (“Sex as a Marketing Tool”). Twenty-one years after World War II, “Swedish bombshell, Gunilla Knustson, told men to ‘Take it off, Take it all off’ in a commercial for Noxzema shaving cream” (Reichert, “History of Sex…” ). Double entendres, such as “Take it off, Take it all off” sparked interest and started appearing more and more. With the introduction of the television in 1946, sex in marketing was able to enter a new and massive outlet.
Sex is often considered to be taboo among families. Parents do not want to believe that their children are aware of it, and vice-versa. While the family is living in a state of denial, the media is embracing sexuality. It is almost impossible to go anywhere without being exposed to sexual media. Virtually all advertisements, regardless of form, use sexuality to sell their product. This ranges from beer commercials using scantily clad women to advertise their product to males, to magazines that draw our attention by writing the word “sex” in big, bold...
In a world full of hopelessness and horror, Ophelia represents a diming beacon of hope in Hamlet’s life. It is clear from the beginning that Ophelia's love for Hamlet is real and reciprocated in strength. Even after Laertes and Polonius try and convince her that even if Hamlet’s feelings for her were real, things between them could never work out, Ophelia insists that he “hath given countenance to his speech, [...] with almost all the holy vows of heaven” (11). She is convinced that Hamlet’s love for her is so real his feelings couldn’t be faked. Reluctantly Ophelia agrees to call things off with Hamlet at her father’s request even if it means pretending she doesn’t love him. From the beginning Hamlet conveys his dismal attitude towards the world through his devaluation of life; but Ophelia’s presence represents a light in Hamlet’s never ending darkness.
The first real problem for women in sport is the poor portrayal of them in the media. The media chooses to portray female athletes for their physical looks and attractiveness rather than their athletic ...
It is hard to believe women still have to struggle in today’s day and age. Women today in a world prominently dominated by males in the sports world face a double standard in the pro sports world. Women have been fighting for centuries in order to achieve the same success and respect that men do in this world. Women in sports are often seen as a different; their consider being in-women like. They have to work twice as hard in order for them to achieve what there seeking, which is mainly equality. Despite all the progress double standard does exist for women, they are constantly judged for their actions on and off the field.
At the heart and soul of advertising, public relations, and marketing is the sales objective. These institutions stand to sell products and services to consumerist markets on behalf of larger corporations and smaller businesses. For advertising and public relations, the tactics used to sell these products and services to consumers is use of clever manipulation, the utilization of spin, and creative persuasion in advertisements, video/news releases, and marketing campaigns. While the use of these tools greatly benefits the businesses behind these movement it remains to be seen whether advertising and public relations serves corporate interest or citizen interest. Thus the discussion of what constitutes ethical behavior in advertising and public relations fuels a clash between corporations and consumers.
4) Kilbourne, Jean. Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising’s Image of Women. Dir. Sut Jhally. DVD. Media Education Foundation, 2000.
An EPI report comes a week after the US Census Bureau found that in 2015, the median income for white Americans arose 4.4% and that of black Americans went up by 4.1%.While everyone’s income went up in 2015, a vast racial divide remains. The median household income for white Americans in 2015 was $63,000. That’s 70% more than the median household income of black Americans, which was $36,898. Consequently, though much time has passed there is a present remainder of discrimination, even if it is seemingly unnoticeable to the people