Media Analysis I will be analyzing a Spirit Airlines ad, which will be located at the bottom of this paper, using the framework of Jean Kilbourne. In this ad, we can see how this it attempts to portray an image of the ‘perfect’ woman, how it shows the judgement women face, and how segmentation and dismemberment played a role in this ad. The first thing I noticed about this image was how hard the creators tried to make sure the trivial amount of body shown was impeccable. Everything Kilbourne expresses about women being ‘flawless’, can be seen within this ad. The stomach is not only flat, but also has a nice tan and imperfection marks such as scars, wrinkles, stretch marks or fine lines are nowhere to be found. The creators of this ad purposefully created the image of this woman’s stomach in this light, because they are aware of the connotation that comes with being a female. …show more content…
Individuals like Kilbourne and myself will view this image as being a false representation of how women should look and/or view themselves. I for one can agree with Kilbourne that images such as the one shown in the Spirit ad contribute to females and body image problems, that stem from the media’s constant portrayal of an almost unattainable body. I say almost unattainable because some people simply do not have the genetic makeup to look like the photoshopped images our media so elegantly depicts. Photoshopping is what makes achieving this picture perfect body the easiest. The scrutiny women face can also be seen in the words of the ad: Go down on us… we’re shaving prices. While this is an excellent, witty pun, it implies that, of course women shave so going down would be no issue, especially when prices are starting at $30. If the image showed a hairy female stomach, the ad would surely receive scrutiny for not being “lady-like” or “feminine
The objective of this research report is to provide a thorough analysis of Alaska Airlines. In order to do this we chose to compare a similar company against them. The company in comparison is Spirit Airlines. Both companies compete in the same type of business through airline transportation. Many of their services include; security, safety, transportation of passengers as well as luggage, ensuring vehicle safety while in transit, concierge services, providing entertainment aboard plane, checking weather conditions prior to flight, and much more. All of the data gathered for this report was obtained from the company’s 10-k filings with the SEC.
This is a stereotype, which has been engraved into heads of men, women, and children. By plastering the world with models who seem to have it the genetic jackpot, Dove set out to discredit this cultural cast created by our society. Body image, to some people, is the first part of a person they notice. A study conducted by Janowsky and Pruis compared body image between younger and older women. They found that although older women “may not feel the same societal pressure as younger women to be thin and beautiful…some feel that they need to make themselves look as young as possible” (225). Since women are being faced with pressure to conform in ways that seem almost impossible, Jeffers came to the conclusion “they should create advertising that challenges conventional stereotypes of beauty” (34) after conducting various interviews with feminist scholars. The stance of Figure 1’s model screams confident. She is a voluptuous, curvy and beautiful women standing nearly butt-naked in an ad, plastered on billboards across the globe. Ultimately, she is telling women and girls everywhere that if I can be confident in my body, so can you. Jessica Hopper reveals, “some feel that the ads still rely too heavily on using sex to sell” (1). However, I feel as if these are just criticisms from others who are bitter. With the model’s hands placed assertively placed on her hips, her smile lights up the whole ad. She completely breaks the stereotype that in order to
Although this advertises nothing threatening it shows something very sexual and very pornograpahic which is the woman. Advertising this can attract many young adults to thinking they can be like her or want her if they do what she does. So the public can find these pictures very attractive because it gets their attention. Kilbourne 's perspective towards this was that she said, “The poses and postures of advertising of advertising are often borrowed from pornography, as are many of the themes, such as bondage, sadomasochism, and the sexual exploitation of children.” 492 Kilbourne is explain that the poses you see everyday is basically borrowed from pornographic people and it attracts many young children to look at them. It sets them up to look unique and attractive but the bad part is that it is related to the sexual part of a woman. The woman in the picture has many attributes that attracts people. Like having no clothes and lying in a sexual position which gets a lot of people 's attention. It exposes women and it makes them look much less dominant to men because they are an easy target. My personal perspective is that ending this sort of pleasure towards men in particular will make them less seductive to women or the other way
Media is different forms of communication, such as radio, newspapers, and television, that are directed to mass audiences. Kilbourne’s presentation explores how media, specifically advertisements, have unrealistic and unhealthy perceptions of beauty, perfection and sexuality.
Spirit Airlines has long been considered an unorthodox airline. They, of course, address all four P’s in their marketing strategy; however, they focus a large amount of their effort on price and promotion. They focus on cutting price through “unbundling”. They focus on promotion through taking advantage of social issues and breaking news. Many advertisements and deals promoted by Spirit have given the public a definite shock-factor. Spirit has made two objectives very clear: they are furious at getting the customer the lowest fare possible by any means necessary, and they will similarly use any means necessary to get those potential customers to notice those fares. Such a blatant marketing strategy works. Even going up against some big competition, Spirit finds ways to be competitive and successful in flagrant fashion.
It guilt’s women and enforces unfair body expectations on them, while shaming those who cannot meet them. “Messages abound telling women that they are not good enough or beautiful enough, encouraging us to constantly change ourselves, often through the use of various products and practices.” [2] (Pg. 232) In this advertisement we
Killing Us Softly Questions 1) The advertisements that Jean Kilbourne discussed in the video encourage men to look at women as sexual objects and that “real women” idolize the edited model look. The advertisements that featured women were very edited and all had a similar Caucasian appearance. The ideal look that advertisements give to women are very unrealistic and can only be obtained through photo editing or surgery. The unrealistic waist size, enlarged breasts, and slim faces then very often become sexualized in advertising. For example, a lot of men enjoy beer and Kilbourne showed advertisements that have women’s bodies transformed into kegs of beer bottles.
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...
First, Kilbourne’s research should be praised tremendously for bringing to light the unhealthy impression of true beauty in today’s culture. Kilbourne challenges the audience to reconsider their viewpoints on advertising that is sublime with sexual language. The evolution of advertising and product placement has drastically changed the real meaning of being a woman. According to the movie, every American is exposed to hundreds and thousands of advertisements each day. Furthermore, the picture of an “ideal women” in magazines, commercials, and billboards are a product of numerous computer retouching and cosmetics. Media creates a false and unrealistic sense of how women should be viewing themselves. Instead of being praised for their femininity and prowess, women are turned into objects. This can be detrimental to a society filled with girls that are brainwashed to strive to achieve this unrealistic look of beauty.
The ideal image that the media has created is to be exceptionally thin and tall. This is what the media considers to be beautiful. This ideal image can be seen on a daily basis just about everywhere on advertisements, which promote this unattainable image constantly. Research has proven that women tend to feel more insecure about themselves when they look at a magazine or television, which makes them feel self conscious(Mackler 25). The irony in this is that not even the women in the advertisements are as flawless as they appear to be. In order for a woman to appear in the mass media her image must be enhanced in several ways. A women is often airbrushed to conceal their actual skin but it does not end there. Through various computerized programs a woman's actual features are distorted until a false unrealistic image is reached.
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.
The bold print also indicates for the woman to remove her clothes, or for the viewer to do so. Everything is very clean, clear, and appealing to the eye. There is a highlight around the woman’s body leaving her look like she’s glowing. The weight scale is indicating that the woman has lost weight and she is shocked by how much she weighs now. The company displays this petite woman which advertises, if you drink their product then the consumers can look like her. This add is posing as a sex symbol for men and is showing younger women that they should look like this woman in the ad. This ad is also indicating that only ‘sexy’ and ‘healthy’ woman can produce healthier milk.
This would be the ignorant thought process of an everyday woman wanting to be a certain kind of person. This advertisement effectively makes you feel as if you could fit in with a certain group of people, whether it's the “modern” women, or the “active
The media favors one women's body type; the tall blonde with perfect, tan skin and long, beautiful hair. Because the images of women in advertisements are unattainable, it keeps them purchasing new products in their quest to be like the models they see (Moore). The actual women in these advertisements can't even match up to the
The woman herself is photo shopped extensively and is posing in an extremely awkward manner. Her face is clean of acne and she has rosy cheeks. Her lipstick is dark red, her eyes extremely wide with eyeliner and eye shadow, and she has short blonde hair. As Naomi Wolf suggests the media often times portray woman in such a way that woman feel, as though they should look like that. Woman may be subjected to this once more as the maker of this advertise has portrayed what they think society finds sexy, and thus certain women may feel as though they need to look like her. Then there’s the entire aspect of the phallic shaped burger right in front of the woman’s wide-open mouth. The end of the burger fades into darkness making its origins unknown. This could be suggesting that girl’s will perform oral sex no matter who you are as long as you have a large penis. To highlight this false truth further, there is a spotlight on the woman and the fading burger, which makes viewers look at that part of the advertisement first and is what governs the rest of the advertisement. In the bottom corner the full burger is showed with a lighter colored background and if this was the only part of the advertise, the sexual innuendo would have been extremely hard to get. Also the description of the burger is sexual due to the highlighted picture in the center of the