Gender Imbalance In Fast Food Advertising

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

What is it that drives commercials towards their target audience? Commercials can be for a certain age, race, and sometimes even a certain gender. Pop culture has influenced the minority groups and shed light to women 's rights or so it was thought. Lisa Shaffer a fellow student feels otherwise and believes that Pop culture has only defended traditional values and does little to challenge those who already have power . Commercials bring in gender norms and in Steve Craig’s article, “Men’s Men and Women’s Women” he speaks on four particular TV ads directed towards a particular gender. What is interesting is it shows a false image of the opposite sex to the audience being portrayed toward their preferences. It is the image the audience wants to see that appeals to them. This is all in an attempt to sell their products and take advantage of our desires and anxieties. Craig shows commercials brings gender norms that produce the ideas of what a man’s man and a woman’s woman which is why he would agree with Shaffer because it promotes an old way of thinking.

What is it that drives commercials towards their target audience? Commercials can be aimed toward certain age, race, along with certain gender groups. Pop culture has influenced minority groups and shed light on women 's rights or so it may seem. Lisa Shaffer a fellow student feels otherwise and believes that Pop culture has only defended traditional values and does little to challenge those who already have power . Commercials bring in gender norms and in Steve Craig’s article, “Men’s Men and Women’s Women” he speaks on four particular TV ads directed towards male and female audiences. Interestingly enough these tv ads deliver a false image of the opposite sex to the audience catering to their preferences. It is the image of what the audience wants to see that appeals to them. This is all in an attempt to sell products and take advantage of our desires and anxieties. Craig shows how commercials bring gender norms that produce the stigmas of a man’s man and a woman’s woman, which makes it apparent that he would agree with Shaffer because it promotes an old way of thinking.

Obesity and being overweight are very common worldwide issues around the world, especially in the U.S. There are more than 3 million cases per year. By changing your lifestyle such as diet and exercise, losing weight can seem effortless. Desirable junk/fast food or even irresistible fast food commercials can tempt you to do the unthinkable. We are all victims of this advertising war. Quick-service restaurants (QSR) generate these advertisements in hope to attract more consumers or to increase their popularity rates around town. These commercials bombard our state of mind only to convince us to buy unhealthy food for worthless money. The increase in fast food commercials in the U.S. has led to an increase in both QSR revenues and the obesity rates. Regulating commercial frequencies will lead to a decline in the obesity rate. Our country has more than enough issues that frequently affect our population. Despite these alarming cautions, the food industries with their advertiser use every available media outlet to promote and sell their products. Pushing food and drinks high in sugar is unethical and unjust. We learn to

Women should not be exposed on an ad about becoming a vegetarian due to the suggested violence. The suggested violence in advertisements could be the reason why women everyday are being degraded just because of their gender. There is no excuse to having a woman naked to get across a point. This organization demeans women by taking her, making her naked, and showing off the parts of her body to get a completely off topic view across. Advertisers have come to the point where they will do anything and say anything to sell a product or an idea. Kilbourne explains that “there is no doubt that flagrant sexism and sex role stereotyping abound in all forms of the media” (283). Kilbourne elucidates that women play roles as a piece of meat on television. Women are not portrayed as strong people in most advertisements and because of that, there becomes a normalcy to women not being strong people, which in the long run creates stereotypes.

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.

Sexist ads show that society is dominated by the same masculine values that have controlled the image of women in the media for years. Sexist advertisement reinforces gender stereotypes and roles, or uses sex appeal to sell products, which degrades the overall public perception of women. The idea that sexism is such a rampant problem comes from the stereotypes that are so deeply embedded into today’s society that they almost seem to be socially acceptable, although they are nowhere near politically correct. Images that objectify women seem to be almost a staple in media and advertising: attractive women are plastered all over ads. The images perpetuate an image of the modern woman, a gender stereotype that is reinforced time and time again by the media. These images are accepted as “okay” in advertising, to depict a particular product as sexy or attractive. And if the product is sexy, so shall be the consumer. In the 1970s, groups of women initially took issue with the objectification of women in advertisements and with the limited roles in which these ads showed women. If they weren’t pin-ups, they were delicate

At the end of the school day, she gets into the car with dad and he hands her a McDonald’s Happy Meal with a Cuties inside and finally the little girl smiles. As cute as the commercial is, the subliminal message of the two commercials are what concerns me. The boys are playing with cars and using intelligent math language and the little girl is worried about her pretty smile. However, the product in the two commercials are the same but the portrayals of the children in the commercials are vastly different. The commercials are examples of the types of gender-role stereotyping that occurs often in advertisement. Advertisements that push gender role stereotypes on young children should be banned from television. Television advertisement are among the leading ways children are exposed to stereotypes that causes misguided concepts and ideologies associated with sex or gender. Martin Eistend (2010) conducted a meta-analysis study which stated that, “gender stereotyping can lead to negative consequences that restrict life opportunities, particularly for

In today’s society, the media, in many ways control the average consumer’s way of thinking. Bright billboards, catchy radio jingles, colorful magazine ads, and eye catching T.V ads play a major role in obesity in the United States. The one dollar double cheeseburger, offered by Burger King and McDonalds is a prime example. Burger King offers more meat with a better taste, and the advertisements are very colorful. Media tends to influence un-natural way of thinking among the average consumer. These ads usually misrepresent images of their target audience, using physically fit looking people in the fast food ads. A large number of these advertisements place a great deal of attention on the foods taste, rather than its nutritional value. This causes the consumer to overlook the risk and pay more attention to the taste and convenience. Well designed fast food media campaigns play a major role in the unnatural thinking that leads to obesity in the United States.

There are countless advertisements in the media, weather videos, newspapers, magazines articles, or even billboards that have the face or the body of a women display as the main background of the advertisements. Hardees advertises their food by showing an oversexualized woman eating a burger or sandwich. This is just one of many examples of the way advertisements, ads for short, oversexualize woman in the media.

The Carl’s Jr’s ad campaigns are often highly sexual and to some people highly comical. The kind of advertising I find these ads’ to be as discussed by Sturken and Cartwright fall into the category of the gaze, specifically when dealing with gender. Commercials have a large impact on our society they are used to sell items, but what do ad’s like the All-Natural say about our culture or what effects does it leave on society?

The average American is exposed to more than one hour of television advertisements every day, even though commercials can be vital to promote sales and business, some are explicitly disturbing. The advertisements highlighting Hardee’s hamburgers may be popular among the male population, but I am offended by them, and they actually cause me to turn away from the product. Watching sexy, half dressed women marketing hamburgers makes me uncomfortable, especially when guys are around. These commercials cause me to scramble for the remote, and I feel self-conscious about my body the entire 30 seconds.

Gender inequality, “natural” gender roles, body image, and false romanticizations of food are enforced and portrayed through society’s commercials and advertisements. There are underlying and subliminal messages in many advertisements that create a hyperreal reality that influences people’s views and understanding of gender roles. In “Hunger As Ideology,” Susan Bordo discusses which advertisements portray a false reality and how it effects woman and men in society.

On television commercials, billboards, the radio, public transportation advertisements, planes, the internet, and almost everywhere people go there is always directed broadcasting of advertisements for companies to sell their product; a product that is never promoted for all of the general public to use, but instead to emphasize on specific categories of consumption . Whether it may be categorized in the decadent, the money saving, health, cleaning, cooking, automotive, or whatever sub category it may be; and bigger roles that play in to commercialism are gender roles . Men and women have very different lifestyles, what they buy, do, consume, and produce. As stated in Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes, “Popular conceptions of femininity

The commercials feature animated characters selling fast food kid meals. Children relate with the cartoon characters and want to eat the foods that are being promoted. Children receive the message that fast food is good for them, and do not understand that eating too much fast food can be unhealthy for them. Unfortunately the message from this type of advertising is geared toward the child thinking I need to have the fast food. This is a bad message to leave in children?s minds, because it can also cause problems with their health. The obesity rate in young children has risen drastically over the last twenty years. Health reports have attributed this to the continuing increase in the amount of fast food children are consuming. Television commercials for fast food are on every channel, and the number of channels has risen over the last twenty years. Children who watch television are exposed to a non-stop borage of commercials. This continual exposure promotes a cycle of the child always wanting to go to the fast food restaurants. Parents also are affected by the commercials. Their children want to eat fast food, and the fast food is very convenient for busy families. It is much easier to go through a drive-thru and order the food, then to cook the meal at home. This can be a harmful pattern for the family to establish. Convenience over a more healthy home cooked meal adds to the childhood obesity