Definition of the Situation This paper identifies the ethical issues of how both men and women are portrayed in advertising, and argues that ads can be successful in generating sales without portraying women as objects, and without perpetuating that men must be masculine. Advertising is pervasive, repetitive and professionally developed to improve the probabilities of attention, comprehension, retention and behavioral impact. The purpose of advertising is generally to inform targeted consumer groups of the availability and description of products and services, and to persuade consumers to buy them. (Cohan, 2001) The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the main federal agency that enforces advertising laws and regulations. According to the FTC, advertising must tell the truth and not mislead consumers. Besides this law there was are no rules about how women or men should or shouldn’t be portrayed in advertisements. Advertising companies continue to produce sexist advertisements because of supply and demand. People continue to buy magazines, watch t.v, movie, and music video’s that degrade both men and women. Stakeholders Internal stakeholders that may be affected by sexism in advertising include, employees, and investors. Employees may not have a choice of what is published and this could make them look bad among their peers. The CEO of the business may be affected by sexism in advertising because if the public does not like the image that the business is representing than this can affect sales and stocks which affects investors. External stakeholders that are affected in some way from the decisions of the business include customers, suppliers, community, trade unions, and the government. Customers may chose not to purchase ... ... middle of paper ... ...his standard and, at the same time, women feel frustrated because the standard seems unattainable once they pause to think about it. Still, they will associate the product with this desire and go out and buy it. There is a certain flawlessness depicted in models with impossible youth, impossible perfection – accomplished with professional makeup, hair, and photo retouches. Some images depict women of such perfection that they seem inhuman. Studies show that men exposed to a menu of ads which depict women as sex objects are more accepting of interpersonal violence, primarily against women, than are men exposed to other types of ads. This shows there is some statistically meaningful correlation which links the depicting of women as things, in advertising, to violence towards women. Violence stems from the perception of possess-ability, that is, the desire to control.
They want to show a “sparkling version” of the product and that implicates that, “if you buy the one, you are on the way to realizing the other” (26). So the portrayal of gender is essential in advertisement when it is trying to catch the viewer’s attention, since gender norms can be considered as a form of silent language in the society. Simply put, it can be said that gender roles are “a language which needs no complex translation by the viewer, just transmission through the image” (Capener 3) and therefore it is important for the advertiser to utilize the imagined gender roles within the advertisement
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.
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.
Everyday, people are exposed to countless advertisements, whether people see these advertisements on a billboard, a commercial, a magazine, or a pop-up on a computer; advertisements surround modern day society. Because advertisements are found almost everywhere, they are a technique to show people how to live a ‘normal life’, they tell people what their beliefs and attitude should be focused on. People learn subconsciously that if they own a certain product then they will be viewed the same way as the person that was used in the advertisement. And who do these companies use to sell their products? These companies use the idea of sex to sell a product. Commercials prove that women can sell almost any product even when the product has nothing to do with the woman in the commercial. Because men who can have a woman by their side, turns into a subconscious symbol of power. People are continually found stuck in their roles that society has already engraved for them. Society tells us that women have to be seen as the sex symbol, she has to be weak and vulnerable; she pretends to not have a brain and she never speaks up. The man has to be the breadwinner, he has to be powerful and stronger than everyone else around him. Where does society find these stereotypes encouraged? Society finds them through advertisements. Advertisements objectify and dehumanize women which has hurt women physically and psychologically to men and women.
Is advertising manipulative; can it be controlling, or is it fueling the demand of the American economy? The exhaustive battle of what advertising is and what it’s not is never-ending and both ends of the spectrum can only battle with statistics, words, and opinions on the fact of the matter. Many arguments have arisen since the establishment of the advertising industry and everyone sheds their own light on the subject. In “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising,” Jean Kilbourne argues that the advertising industry portrayal of women is narrow-minded and produces emotional and psychological problems within women in regards with their roles in society, their physical appearance, and sexual attitudes. She also emphasizes how the world of advertising creates artificiality among women. On another note, the author of “What Advertisement Isn’t,” John O’Toole, takes a look at how the government has too much control of and poorly regulates advertising, how it is not deceptive on a subconscious level, and how advertising is a sales tool and should not be evaluated by journalistic or any other standards. These two arguments talk about issues in advertising that interconnect on broader levels but essentially are speaking of two different levels of advertisements.
Some staunch opponents of gender roles might claim that her more feminine traits are a result of gendered advertising and thus are negative and hindering progress. Yet by making such a statement, they fail to recognize the great leaps in progress society has made in reducing the importance of adhering to one’s assigned role. Gender roles have existed since the dawn of human civilization, and though recent advertising trends have increased their prevalence in society, they are less influential now than at any point in human history.
Advertising influences both genders by the way they think they have to act and live a certain
Advertising sends gender messages to both men and women. Advertising tells women how they should look and act, and it tells men to expect women to look and act that particular
As we dive farther into the 21st century the way we communicate with mass media is also evolving. Newspapers are dying in the print form and making a transition to the online platform, TV is also switching online so consumers have the freedom to watch at their own convenience instead of following the TV guide, and much of the media is fading into the hands of the public and they are gaining control due to camera phones and blogs. But advertising is one aspect of the media that still can afford to put its efforts in every medium, including magazines. Although print magazines don’t have the power they once did as everything changes to online, I still think they are very impactful, especially when it comes to their advertisements. They are often full page and in color and most magazines are around 50 percent advertisements . Yet, I find this to be troubling when it comes to women portrayed in advertisements. To this day women are often represented by stereotypes in the media. These advertisements are everywhere and in every kind of magazine. Even though women have come a very long way in terms of being treated equally, there is still a long distance to go. I believe it is culturally conditioned in our heads, and advertising has a lot to do with it. So although women have become more independent, less submissive, and more career-driven over the past 50 years, gender stereotyping and sexism in photographs in advertising has not decreased.
The old expression is "sex sells" but what really sells is male dominated sexual fantasy. This is not to say that all advertisements are sexist, or sexist against only women, but it is to say that in many ads what may seem like a simple image of "romance" or a fun trip to the store is really an entire structure of meaning. Roland Barthes and Judith Williamson employ almost scientific methods to extract rhetoric from advertising images but even their methods are not foolproof. The structure of meaning in an advertisement will vary upon the person perceiving it. The important thing is to recognize common dominant ideologies in ads, and the values that advertisements want us to desire and attain through their product. If we must buy into ourselves, we should at least make an informed decision before we accept and pay for ideology which is not our own.
Advertising surrounds the world every second of the day. This form of influence has had the power to influence how society views gender roles ever since men and women began to appear in advertisements. Through the exposure to many different gender portrayals in advertising, gender roles become developed by society. This stems from how men and women are depicted, which forms stereotypes regarding the individual roles of men and women. People often shift their definition of an ideal image towards what they see in advertisements. From this, they tend to make comparisons between themselves and the advertisement models. Advertisements tend to be brief, but impactful. The different portrayals of men and women in advertising show that advertisements
Sexist ads in the United States have been created by companies and inserted into the media since advertising began. They represent the failure to treat women as equals. Each one of these advertisements is an attempt by men to show dominance over women and an attempt to keep them down. Sexiest advertisements included traits that represent women as a lesser of the two sexes. They lay out their beliefs of what a girl’s priorities should be: cook, clean, satisfy your husbands desires, play dumb, and look pretty. While looking at these types of ads, it is important you think about what you see. Are the messages any different between men and women? Are kitchen appliances still used by only women? Are women made into sexual objects? Is the women portrayed
Advertising is always about appearance. It is also about information and what really satisfies people. Undoubtedly that advertisement of woman has been increased dramatically and obviously in such a way that turn out to be an important part of people’s lives. Recently, with advertising developments, there are more and more prospective is shown to the public. It cannot be denied that advertisement consist of negative scenes that shape females identity. Nevertheless, majority of individuals in modern societies deem that, such advertisements can caused so many harmful effects to women gender identity, such as low self-esteem. Also, it can cause depression to the women advertising due to the lack of confidence. Whereas, minority of people believes that, it is all about the women own decision whether to be exposed in such kinds of images or not. As well, it may benefit both parties, women who advertise and the advertising companies organizing them. It can be assumed that, this issue so-called advertising shapes female gender identity, has both benefits and damages, and damages can occurred more than advantages. This essay will attempt briefly to argue the damages and benefits of how advertising shapes women gender identity.
The average American is exposed to hundreds of advertisements per day. Advertisements targeted toward females have an enormous effect on women's thoughts, attitudes, perceptions, and actions. Most of the time, women don't even realize these advertisements are formulating self-image issues. These ideals surround them daily and they become naturalized to the ads. Advertising creates an entire worldview persuading women to emulate the images they see all around them. In order to create a market for their products, companies constantly prey upon women's self esteem, to feel like they aren't good enough just the way they are. This makes women constantly feel stressed out about their appearance (Moore). Advertising has a negative effect on women's body image, health, and self-esteem.
Early studies on gender role portrayals in US print advertising documented the presence of a number of stereotypes in the way women and men were depicted in advertising (e.g. Belkaoui and Belkaoui 1976; Courtney and Lockeretz 1971; Sexton and Haberman 1974; Venkatesan and Losco 1975). Studies found that women were found primarily at home or in domestic settings. Women were under represented in working situations and were shown in a narrow range of occupations typically in secretarial, clerical, or blue-collar positions. A large majority of advertisements showed women as preoccupied with physical attractiveness and as sex objects. Men, on the other hand, were shown in a range of occupational roles in settings away from home such as work or outdoors.