Calvin Klein is an American fashion house that began in New York, selling high end or high fashion underwear, jeans, fragrances, among others. To the public Calvin Klein has become a highly popular clothing line known for their fashion, youthfulness, and chic and classic styles. CK uses their luring advertisements to entice consumers and persuade them into more buying. The average CK advertisement appears to the public as simply a man and woman posing in an image to promote their product, however the underlying meaning of the advertisement is increasingly overlooked. I claim they are indirectly expressing male and female inequality or insulting the rights of individuals or putting pleasure above what is right or lying to the audience about …show more content…
moral. While the advertisement is technically promoting CK jeans, essentially this “advertisement” is a group of people, half naked, feasting on each other. The couch is disheveled resembling that something within the nature of the image caused the couch to become that way prior to the picture being taken, most likely sex between the female on the ground and one of the males. While it appears and is giving an impression on viewers that this is what everyone wants and needs, there is underlying truth that obviously no one involved has any hesitation in being half naked, only being adored for sex. While most moral people would say that this isn’t a kosher image, they are trying to convey that if it feels good do it. If it looks good, buy it. If it gives you what they portray in the image, how could you be living without …show more content…
reality. The most surface level critique of the picture is a+b=c; whether you are male or female if you buy the jeans, you wear them, you will be as flawless, skinny, sexy, and wanted as the models. Furthermore, the women are represented as liberated and carefree, providing a fantasy that they are at the center of the males focus. They do not care what is done to them, and they know that they are irresistible. However, in reality the women look actually quite emotionless, and CK is saying have no reservations about anyone, flaunt what you got with anybody or however many people. Likewise, the males appear to be enjoying themselves, what do they have to complain about. They’re sculpted, naked women all around them. However, in truth they desire for the women to submit to them but the female lying across the male on the couch is propping herself up with her arms with one hand on the male 's face, holding it rather aggressively. She is giving the message that she is in control, so despite the male’s desire he ends up submitting to her waiting for her plan and her lead. In the end, the males and females walk away with nothing left on them but their bare skin and the reality of
In a consumer-driven society, advertisements invade the minds of every person who owns any piece of technology that can connect to the internet. Killbourne observes that “sex in advertising is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women,” (271). Advertising takes the societal ideology of women and stereotypes most kids grow up learning and play on the nerves of everyone trying to evoke a reaction out of potential customers, one that results in them buying products. Another point made
By quoting the commercial, and analyzing the logos and pathos, and ethos it uses, Gray has adequately used the rhetorical appeal of logos. She also supports her statements by comparing the Hanes commercial to other underwear commericials. “Underwear commercials in general seem to abound in their portrayal of morning sunrises and beautiful people making beds.” Throughout the entire article, from her describing the scene of the commercial, to talking about the stereotypical men, women, and underwear commercials, she is able to stir emotion from the audience. “Women on the other hand…know how to be women…Just show a woman good old fashioned love scene and most likely she’s sold.”
In the September 2013 issue of Vogue magazine Ralph Lauren Romance A love Story featuring women’s fragrance by Ralph Lauren displays in a series of photographs the stages of falling in love. Analyzing the contents of the photographs the images are presented in a form of puzzles which at first seem jumbled and at the end it materializes as a whole construction of a life that they have built together. In observing the photographs, it depicts the typical conventional manner in which boy meets girl and from there the pictorial images shifts into a series of symbolizing sequences of events involving hero and heroine. The images portrayed in the photograph conjures reminiscences subtleties of conflict in which the man seeks to capture, conquer and secure the admiration of the woman he loves while the woman at last submits to his advances. Love and romance are displayed throughout each frame with marriage at last forming the seal that will bind them together.
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).
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...
Many advertisement have found the key part into selling a product is through "sex" because they know sex will sell. Susan Bordo, a philosopher, write an essay piece on how the male bodies are presented as objects of pleasure and exchange of commerce. Usually, it would be women who are presented as objects of pleasure, but in this particular essay the script is flipped. Susan Bordo focus on how women react to men in the media, how men was seen in sexy advertisements and how homosexuality had an influence on it. These advertisement images are brought to life by brand names like Calvin Klein, Gucci, and Versace. In Susan Bordo's "Beauty (re)discovers the male body" she uses rhetorical strategies persuasively to argue that the male bodies are being exposed and objectified in a similar way to the female body. Susan Bordo, a philosopher, the Otis A. Singletary Chair of Humanities at the University of Kentucky. Bordo has background training in the study of culture, including popular culture and its representation of the body. Bordo intended audience was a broad group of people. Her audience would consist of people of any gender who are aware of advertisement selling products through sex. No, Bordo does not show proper audience awareness. The readers are prone to use context clues and the information to paint a clear picture of who is Bordo audience. As recently mention, Bordo's purpose for writing is present her argument about the exposure and objectification of the male body as opposed to the female body in the media. In Bordo essay, she introduces her ethos through personal stories, her own opinion, and data polls. Bordo credibility is well equipped throughout her essay, and writing on subject she shows passion towards. Bordo acknowled...
An array of young models, each idealized and every one showing themselves off in a beautiful, yet sexual stance. The focus on flowing dark hair and thin bodies draped with trendy clothes that in some cases leave a lot of skin to be seen and admired. The idea of perfection personified through facial expressions of self-confidence and uncompromising appearances in each image. These are just a few ways in which Calvin Klein’s ad campaign tries to attract costumers. Attempting to convince the public that Calvin Klein clothing will look as impressive on anyone and will have people staring in envy like many do at the ads is the technique being used in this ad campaign along with many other aspects such as the setting, the outfits, and the models, which all play a big role in the ads effectiveness. The model on display in each ad appears to be showing them self off and the women are doing some kind of dance that attracts viewers attention.
Common sense seems to dictate that commercials just advertise products. But in reality, advertising is a multi-headed beast that targets specific genders, races, ages, etc. In “Men’s Men & Women’s Women”, author Steve Craig focuses on one head of the beast: gender. Craig suggests that, “Advertisers . . . portray different images to men and women in order to exploit the different deep seated motivations and anxieties connected to gender identity.” In other words, advertisers manipulate consumers’ fantasies to sell their product. In this essay, I will be analyzing four different commercials that focuses on appealing to specific genders.
Eva Mendes half top is undressed and she is exposing her bare back turning her torso slightly, while her face confronts the spectator. The skin dominates the image and the eye is immediately drawn to the intensity of her expression, the curvaceous figure and her arms in an explosion of seductive beauty, framed by nothing but a pair of jeans. To quote Berger’s line “her expression is the expression of a woman responding with calculated charm to the man whom she imagines looking at her…she is offering up here femininity as the surveyed”. (Berger, 1972, p. 49) The centrality of the body in this case is even more reinforced by the caption advertising the brand called unmistakably the BODY Line.
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.
are not as widely worn, but they are still one of the top brands on
In many clothing advertisements, particularly jeans and lingerie ads, women are used as the main subjects to entice the viewer to notice the ad and most importantly, be excited about the product. In one photo, Calvin Klein Jeans promotes its clothing through what seems to be unwilling, reluctant sexual activity – rape. The advertisement displays the woman resisting the man with the palm of her right hand, and she is pulling her shirt down to cover her stomach with her left hand; yet he is still pursuing her and attempting to remove her top. Her body language and gaze – devoid of emotion – reveal that she is not interes...
Curry and Clarke’s article believe in a strategy called “visual literacy” which develops women and men’s roles in advertisements (1983: 365). Advertisements are considered a part of mass media and communications, which influence an audience and impact society as a whole. Audiences quickly begin to rely on messages sent through advertisements and can create ideologies of women and men. These messages not only are extremely persuasive, but they additionally are effective in product consumption in the media (Curry and Clarke 1983:
Burger King is a well-known fast food restaurant that tends to post ads that most individuals may find eye catching. This ad is definitely one of them. The way that you might interpret this ad depends on what gender you are and what type of perspective you view this ad. If you were to hear about this advertisement you would most likely assume that Burger King’s target audience are men because of the words chosen. Burger King is advertising a new super seven-inch sandwich. This juicy, flame- grilled sandwich is filled with American cheese, crispy onions and a beef patty topped with a “hearty” A.1 steak sauce. The appeal used in this advertisement is absolutely the need for sex. The quote, “ It’ll Blow Your Mind Away” in large bold font just