Advertising, whether criticized or celebrated, is undeniably a strong force in American society. Portrayals and Images of women have long been used to sell in published advertisements. However, how they have been used has changed enormously throughout the decades. Women have fought to find a lasting and prominent position in their society. Only in the span of twenty years, between 1900’s and 1920’s, the roles of women changed dramatically here in United States.
Early in the process of mass market consumers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers realize significance of using their advertising to target women. Ads were designed and published to speak primarily for women. In the years preceding World War I, marketing techniques targeting women consumers became increasingly effective. Throughout history, women have always struggled for a recognized place in society. Despite the activities of the Suffragettes, support of the Labor Party and some members of the Liberal Party, women still had very few rights in 1900 and certainly no political rights. During the 1900’s women were still trapped in the “cult of domesticity” (Srivastava). A good illustration of the life of women early during those days can be seen in the advertisement O-cedar print ad year 1900 (fig. 1 below). This print ad speaks to house wives, saying that they have a wide variety of products to choose from. Ranging from a polish to protect her floor wood and furniture, dusting pads and mops that, according to their ad “reduce cleaning, dusting and polishing to almost nothing”. It is obvious that this advertisement reflects the stereotypical depictions of women as a “Happy Homemaker”, apron-clad and committed mothers portrayed in self promotional ads.
According to ...
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...ced back to the changes in society, economy, and politics during the two decades of 1900 and 1920.
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Advertisement has been around many years that it become part of our daily life, we see it everywhere from TVs, schools, even driving in the middle of the town with billboard every corner of the street. However, most of us are not aware of the negative impact it has on our lives. Documentary killing us Softly 4 from Jean Kilbourne reveals on how the multibillion advertisement industry uses women’s beauty to sell their product. Meanwhile, downgrading the women’s place in the society. The documentary shows how most of the images are computer generated and not real sometimes photos are from three different women, those images give false hope to women it promises them an image that doesn’t exit and most importantly, it tells women they are not beautiful.
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
Through the application of physical appearance, audience and text the ad unfortunately paints women in a negative manner. The ad employs tactics that reel society into believing that women must put a man on a pedestal in order to gain his admiration. Women have the right to be treated equally and deserve to be represented in a positive light so the culture can fray away from following beliefs similarly portrayed in this 1930s advertisement. We must teach the next generation that although it is in our nature to nurture those around us, there are no boundaries or restrictions for women to excel in society for the
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...
Goldstein, Leslie F. “Nineteenth Amendment.” Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ed. David S. Tanenhaus. Vol. 3. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 410-413. U.S. History in Context. Web. 20 May 2014.
As early as the nineteen fifties women were identified and targeted as a market. In a consumer culture the most important things are consumers. Advertisers convinced homemakers that in order to be a “good” wife and mother you must have their products and appliances to keep a clean and perfect home. The irony of this ploy is that consumers must have money to buy, and so trying to improve their quality as homemakers, off into the workforce women went. This paradox left women ...
N.p., 12 Sep 2014. Web. The Web. The Web. 10 Sept 2015.
4) Kilbourne, Jean. Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising’s Image of Women. Dir. Sut Jhally. DVD. Media Education Foundation, 2000.
In today’s society, as technology, food manipulation, politics and the status of women continue to advance how likely is for this society to alter past beliefs and norms and how will it take a toll on society? This drastic change, which is slowly in progress, is relative all throughout the world and thus become an important World Issue. Women are continuing to be seen as mere objects and their stand in the hierarchy will struggle to rise if this doesn’t change. Since women have always been less dominant in all situations, they don’t really make decisions, which allows men to be more dominant, as seen in advertisements. To further elaborate on how in the past the status of women was, women who lived in medieval Europe and Ancient Europe were neither given rights that women exercise today (ie; had no voting rights, subject to domestic abuse, etc.) They were also married off, in both societies, to secure political alliances. (.yahoo) In North America, the portrayal of women in advertising is due to the history and continuous low status of women. Women are used as objects in more advertisements, especially alcohol and beer campaigns because obviously it gets the attention the targeted audience. The evolution of women in advertising, has come a long way from the past where the traditional stereotype of women is exposed by the advertiser’s image of women in the 1950’s. That image of woman was as a "dedicated homemaker who sacrificed all personal aspirations to pamper her husband, chauffeur her children, scrub floors, and teach her daughters to do the same" (Silvulka, 254). Advertisers created these perfect family roles for all the people in the advertisements, which were unachievable and it left women with an identity that had been slap...
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: