Advertising Is A Major Part Of Our Culture

The commercial shown in figure 1 is for a perfume called ‘the one gentleman’ which Matthew Mcconaughey a well-known actor did for Dolce & Gabbana, a trade mark for designer products. The commercial tells us that this is a body spray to use when one wants to be seen as a gentleman. In reality a gentleman is not a man who just uses this body spray, but a man is seen as a gentleman by certain attributes society sees as being acceptable. Commercials like these can really have an impact because the viewer wants to look like the person with the body spray, and themselves be perceived as a gentleman. The unspoken

Since the emergence of advertising in American culture one thing that has remained constant is the visible truth that men and women are portrayed differently. In consideration to the evolution of man kind gender roles have evolved immensely throughout time, although advertisements have not kept up with this process of evolution. Companies to this day use their tactics and skills to reach out to specific genders such as pretty fonts with a stylish message, while advertisements towards men portray the character as strong and intimidating. The typical viewer can easily spot the difference in the portrayal of genders. Men are portrayed this way because the viewers look up to these characters, they want to be

Gender stereotype is defined as specified roles in the society on the basis of gender. For example, generally women work as nurses, teachers, care takers, when men work as doctors, lawyers, construction workers. Cleaning home is like women’s job, when the work outside home, like farm work, is men’s duty. Watching this ad in the way of gender stereotype, it shows the role of the women become essential in taking care of the children than the men. So Johnson & Johnson picturizes the woman in the ad, so more and more women are attracted towards the product because the women are ideal in this duty. In the ad, the all photos includes woman which shows that woman has responsibility to look after their babies, because they are expressive, submissive, emotional, soft and sweet. Expressiveness denotes the maintenance of harmony and the internal

The two ads have a very different interesting factor of using women to sell their product by creating a psychological aspect to costumers so it will enhance their product of getting sold. Before advertisement became to effect tremendously in the American culture in 1920’s, Americans were going through ambivalence when they were categorized in functional groups such as the old middle class and the new middle class. The old middle class believed that hard work is good for the body and mind because Americans were working longer hours for less money compared to the new middle class that have great opportunities to work new jobs and have satisfaction doing the job while being paid well. Since America has changed to a new middle-class evolution, the economy and social status has shifted tremendously by creating new job opportunities

Gender role bias in advertisements has been so prevalent for so long that the untrained eye wouldn't even discern it. All the same, these biases, for the most part, put women in subordinate positions and men in dominant ones. This assumption on both the genders is unfair and demeaning. These ads portray women as subservient and play toys for men. Not only do the models depict an image nowhere near close to reality, but their bodies are scantily clad and what few clothes they are wearing are very revealing.

Out of four advertisements chosen, two are distinctly for women and two are distinctly for men. It is easy to identify which is which, as everyone has experienced these social expectations that the ads are founded on. For example, the male ad, titled Nivea for Men, is most easily identified as such due to the man used as the model. However, this is not the average male in American society- this is the idealized version that men have become accustomed to viewing, and is therefore

While some companies use the feminine aspects of beauty and health, some advertisements use the motive of

the intended audience of these advertisements, these 1930’s Woodbury ads contained images of nude women – a first for the industry (Reichert 97). Instead of using nude women to attract men, Woodbury used the women in the ads to show other women how they could and should look naked. They attempted to dictate the ideal 1930s female body, yet in comparison to previous eras, Woodbury women actually addressed the full female form, sans clothing. The nude woman in the advertisement reveals that she is comfortable with her body as well as the “serious sex appeal” that was popular in the 30s (Mulvey 93). Back then, just as they do now, advertisements “define what is sexy and, more important, who is sexy” (Kilbourne 260). In this ad, the body is not

This picture is simply absurd because it is an advertising men’s wear. There is no reason for a woman to be naked in the picture, but she is. This promotes more than just men’s clothing, but promotes power over woman as well. The woman in the ad is looking at the man, while the man is completely consumed in the newspaper and is seemingly ignoring her presence all together. It expresses that the woman is strictly there for the pleasure of the man. She is of no use, but to iron his clothes and look aesthetically pleasing. Conveying this woman as an object sends a message out to people that all woman are here on Earth solely to please men. In culture today, this idea is widely promoted and increasingly acted on. If women are only here for the pleasure of men, they deserve no respect or empathy, making sexual aggression terribly common. In Kilbourne’s article she says, “all women are vulnerable in a culture in which there is such widespread objectification of women’s bodies, such glorification of disconnection and so much violence against women” (455). She is right on the mark when expressing the correlation between objectification and violence. The way our society dehumanizes women directly links the violence the women of our culture must endure.

The ad towards women also uses the mirror effect because women care how they look like in a product. Through their unisex long sleeve

I believe that this advertisement is directed to men because the text in the image says that she was the fantasy of many men. That is why to seek to exploit

ad, the Brawny ad features a male as well. As Bordo states “mostly, men’s bodies are presented

Kilbourne says a little bit about what these ads are selling. While they may be selling the product they are often selling many more things, things like values, images, normalcy, success, beauty of women, and to tell the world who they are and who they are supposed to be. By only showing a part of a women in an ad they are taking away the humanistic aspect of them and turning them into more materialistic items. By closing themselves off the are selling that women

The advertisement speaks to the reader in a soft, familiar, enticing language as though she (and it is a female) is alone in the room with you. Although the advertisement mentions as an aside that the product is also patented for men, we receive the strong impression that it is the female who has been targeted as prospective market. This is due to the picture used, as well as colors, words, and situation. The colors are mostly lilac consisting of soothing pink, cream and purple all feminine associated colors. The picture is of a seductive woman, vibrant with health, hair falling into eye, bra straps peeking out, who smiles flashing her pearl teach at you, appearing the picture of health.

It’s the overuse of Photoshop in beauty ads that also plays a large part in our changed view of womanhood. We are shown how the woman on the cover and are expected to believe this is how she naturally looks, but with a bit of makeup. Heavily edited