Gender and Its Role in Advertisement

915 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Gender equality

Advertising media is an everyday societal phenomenon. Advertising companies use various means to get people to buy their product or service. Advertisers craft a “semiotic world” with the aim of convincing their target market of the “rightness” of purchasing their product or service (Harris/Cambridge State University, Northridge). Advertising media also reflect the gender roles, namely masculinity and femininity, which inundate our environment on a daily basis. This essay will, through semiotic analysis, compare and contrast two different advertisements, to illustrate how gender roles are constructed within these representations.
The first advertisement is of two boys running towards a setting sun on a beach. The caption of the advertisement reads, “When was the last time you found sand in their pockets?” This advertisement, through the use of semiotic tools, reflects the gender role of masculinity. The setting of the advert is that of the outdoors, which represents independence, being adventurous and extroverted, all elements which are associated with masculinity. The actor of this advertisement is the two boys, who are running towards the goal, which, is the beach and setting sun, which represents freedom and independence. The fact that the boys are shown to be running, indicates that they are physically active and adventurous, which are both elements associated with masculinity. The ideal/real axis also provides elements of masculinity. The ideal in the advertisement is the freedom and independence that is associated with masculinity and the real is the beach and open spaces towards which the boys are running. There is a vector (“natural lines formed from the composition of the picture”) (Roux, Stellenbosch University) which...

... middle of paper ...

...e of femininity as being associated with female individuals who are associated with the colour pink, enjoy the act of shopping, are fashion conscious, seen as vulnerable and dependent on a man for protection and who are beautiful. This “correct” image of femininity, being portrayed in the advertisement, will manipulate the female market into buying the product which is being advertised, as this image of femininity is the one which all females aspire to due to societal pressures.

Gender roles are constructed in the media through the use of semiotic tools. Through the reflection of masculinity and femininity in the two advertisements, advertisers manipulate consumers into buying their product or service, as society places so much emphasis on what is correct and expected of different sexes that the members of these sexes will aspire to the image projected in society.

Show More
Related

  • Jean Kilbourne Sexism Essay

    1024 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Men's Women By Steve Craig

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    Men and women both drive cars, it’s a simple necessity to be able go to work for most people, however, from the commercials on television, one would assume that men are the primary purchasers of cars. In Steve Craig’s essay, Men’s Men and Women’s Women, he analyzes four commercials to illustrate how advertisers strategically targets the viewers. Craig argues that advertisers will grasp the attention of the viewer by the gender ideals that both men and women have of each other. Not only do advertisers pick a target audience demographic, but they also will target the audience at specific time to air their commercials. By analyzing an Audi and Bud Light commercial, one can see that Craig arguments are true to an extent but it appears that commercials have gone from an idealized world to a more realistic and relatable stance. for are still [true, however it seems that commercials may have altered to appear more realistic.] [relevant to an extent. This is to say, it appears that advertisers may have altered their commercial tactics. ]

    Read More

  • Sexism In Advertising

    1451 Words  | 3 Pages

    Our world has progressed an enormous amount in the past few centuries. And even today, in our modern era, we are bigger and smarter, but our thinking has not changed. Women have been restricted from many opportunitIes in the past. We as women are still being criticised and objectified, which is disgraceful and sickening because we are constantly told “close your legs when you sit” or “don’t do that it’s not lady-like”. This is portrayed in advertising that basically makes a mockery of our freedom. And we ask ourselves, where did the idea of sexism and gender inequality emerge from? Religion. It is the root of sexism and gender inequality which has been practiced for over two thousand years. It is presented through the use of advertising,

    Read More

  • Analysis of the Documentary: Killing Us Softly 4 and the Role of Women in Advertising

    533 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Mens Men And Women's Women By Steve Craig

    1526 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Home Depot Gender Stereotypes

    734 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Home Depot is a supplier of home goods and appliances such as refrigerators, grills, and paint. The store often uses visual advertisements to attract customers. In these ads there are portrayals of both men and women, which help to illustrate the gender scripts that are prevalent within society. To analyze these illustrations and come to conclusions in terms of stereotypical gender scripts in commercials, a visual sociology research project was completed.

    Read More

  • Semiotic Analysis of a Advertising Image

    1458 Words  | 3 Pages

    ‘Semiology provides the analyst with a conceptual toolkit for approaching sign systems systematically in order to discover how they produce meaning’ (Bawer et. all, 2000: 227). Advertising is one of the typically elements used for a convincing presentation product or service to the buyer or user. Advertising provides the link between products or service and people. To be efficient, it must correspond to products and to be relevant for people, expressing and sustaining competitive advantages. My image appears in Glamour, a specialized publication for women, which cultural context is gender, thus providing a greater degree of authority and the intention is to promote the reputation and sales of the perfume. The image is a collection of signs, these signs may include paradigmatic and systematic elements such as the name of the perfume, the fonts used, the colors or the women which appears with an green apple in her hand. ‘The goal of semiotics in the study of advertising is, ultimately, to unmask the arrays of hidden meanings in the underlying level, which form what can be called signification systems’ (Beasley et.all, 2002: 20). It is obvious that in the interpretation of an image controversies can arise and the meaning could be different from person to person due to the cultural level or ways of image analysis, because the reader approaches an image from a personal ideological perspective. Here we can say that the link between signified and signifier is essential. Signifier, is the particular te...

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Calvin Klein's Advertising In American Culture

    1398 Words  | 3 Pages

    Advertising in American culture has taken on the very interesting character of representing our culture as a whole. Take this Calvin Klein ad for example. It shows the sexualization of not only the Calvin Klein clothing, but the female gender overall. It displays the socially constructed body, or the ideal body for women and girls in America. Using celebrities in the upper class to sell clothing, this advertisement makes owning a product an indication of your class in the American class system. In addition to this, feminism, and how that impacts potential consumer’s perception of the product, is also implicated. Advertisements are powerful things that can convey specific messages without using words or printed text, and can be conveyed in the split-second that it takes to see the image. In this way, the public underestimates how much they are influenced by what they see on television, in magazines, or online.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Susan Bordo´s Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body

    1623 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Essay On Gender Roles In Advertising

    2223 Words  | 5 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Effect of Advertising on Women's Body Image

    1387 Words  | 3 Pages

    This essay will attempt briefly to argue the damages and benefits of how advertising shapes women's gender identity. First of all, gender identity, sometimes referred to as an individual’s psychological sex. It has been defined as the "fundamental, existential sense of one’s maleness or femaleness" (Spence 1984, p. 83).There are many types of advertisements that might form women gender personality for instance: smoking, drinking, weight and thinness and other supporting sorts that keep women in line trying to be good-looking and fashionable. Many advertisements portray women as just body parts or in a submissive stature to extra use subliminal meaning as reinforcement for male domination.... ...

    Read More

  • The Objectification of Women in Advertisements

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    The objectification of women is a huge issue in society and is often led by advertising. However, many men still believe that the adverts depicting women in a sexual and often passive posture are not very offensive, but rather very funny or sexy. However, how would they feel if it were their daughter or sister being advertised throughout the world as a sexual object? The Tiger Beer advertisement shown in the appendix is a clear example of the objectification of women in advertising. The Tiger Beer advert was made to appeal to men from the age of 20 to 60.

    Read More

  • The Portrayal of Women in Advertising

    2734 Words  | 6 Pages

    Women – beautiful, strong matriarchal forces that drive and define a portion of the society in which we live – are poised and confident individuals who embody the essence of determination, ambition, beauty, and character. Incomprehensible and extraordinary, women are persons who possess an immense amount of depth, culture, and sophistication. Society’s incapability of understanding the frame of mind and diversity that exists within the female population has created a need to condemn the method in which women think and feel, therefore causing the rise of “male-over-female” domination – sexism. Sexism is society’s most common form of discrimination; the need to have gender based separation reveals our culture’s reluctance to embrace new ideas, people, and concepts. This is common in various aspects of human life – jobs, households, sports, and the most widespread – the media. In the media, sexism is revealed through the various submissive, sometimes foolish, and powerless roles played by female models; because of these roles women have become overlooked, ignored, disregarded – easy to look at, but so hard to see.

    Read More

  • Women and Advertisements

    2559 Words  | 6 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Garnier Fructis Advertise

    939 Words  | 2 Pages

    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:

    Read More

More about Gender and Its Role in Advertisement

Open Document