Is Anyone Exempt from the Influences of Advertising?

Gender portrayal in advertising has been a widely discussed and researched topic for years by social scientists, consumers, and advertisers alike. However, many people have looked at the topic solely from the perspective of male and female consumers and the effect that gendered advertisements has on them. In an article from The Journal of Advertising, Linda Tuncay Zayer and Catherine A. Coleman researched this topic from a different angle. The article, Advertising Professionals’ Perceptions of the Impact of Gender Portrayals on Men and Women: A Question of Ethics, analyzes the issue from the advertiser’s perceptions of what they are putting out in the media. Zayer and Coleman had two central research questions: “What are advertising professionals’ perceptions of how gender portrayals impact male and female audiences? In what ways do ethics inform their creative and strategic choices regarding gender portrayals in advertising?” (Zayer and Coleman 2015). Research was completed with two rounds of data collection on a wide variety of informants with different levels of experience in the industry (Zayer and Coleman 2015). Research methods included semi-structured and unstructured interviews, a focus group, and field operations (Zayer and Coleman 2015). After research was completed, the informants were placed in four different categories based off three interrelated

Individuals are flooded with about 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements each day according to Digital Marketing experts. The advertising and marketing industry have created a society where everywhere you look there is an advertisement, from commercials on television to ads on our cellphones. These people’s job is solely to sell a product, idea, or service and at many times in a creative way to catch the attention of the consumers. Many ads unfortunately come out to show ideas about devaluing of women. The issue is that advertisements place impossible standards for women in society, so it should be addressed to stop it because objectifying women is dehumanizing.

In today’s society the media plays a huge role in everyone’s lives starting from a very young age. As a society we are exposed to advertisements of all kinds throughout the day, whether we see them on billboards, TV commercials, or through social media. People are viewing about 3,000 advertisements per day and companies are spending billions of dollars per year on their ads. Although ads are great for selling and promoting products, women and girls are often objectified in advertisements leading to low self-esteem for many women and girls. Advertisements take women’s bodies and turn them into objects or edit them until the woman in the ad appears to have a perfect ideal body. Safietou Sagna presented on how woman are viewed in the media and showed a video called

“The average American is exposed to at least three thousand ads every day,” according to Jean Kilbourne, an author in Reading Popular Culture (90). Ads in our society do much more than just portray our culture; they create it. Propels ad in Shape magazine is advertising its electrolyte water, but it’s actually creating the image of the “ideal" woman.

In society, advertisement has created unrealistic standards which are shown silencing women and empowering men. You will be amazed by what these ads actually make you perceive as normal and what everyone thinks you should be? Advertisement in today's society is continuously using the same generic features, these generic features are gender stereotypes, male gaze and objectifying. Advertisement in today’s society can be very blunt and

The impact of advertising on perceived gender roles is quite evident, and with plenty of consequences, some of which we might not yet have experienced the full effect of. It is important to remember that with a socialized consumer identity, the choices we make are not individual ones, but is initiated by the manipulative skills of “others”. The high extent of advertisement we are put through on a daily basis makes it very difficult to reflect upon the idea of choices and individual

In 2003, a journal of advertising by Lorna Stevens was published; the journal contained a study on a famous British magazine. This study explores the concept of self for women in consumer culture, as it is played out in an experiential advertising campaign for a U.K women's magazine called Red (Stevens, Lorna). The study shows how advertising has become much more than selling a product. Advertisements are more about making sure a large audience is effected, sort of like leaving an imprint on people. Award winning producer Jean Kilbourne writes about the effects advertisements have on women in her book titled “Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel.” Doug Lantry wrote an analysis titled “’Stay

Advertisement is to blame for the degradation of women. Women’s progression for gender equality is being slowed down by what is being shown on television commercials that screams to the female viewers, “Wear our revealing products, or suffer the social backlash of not being pretty enough!” While it may appear outlandish to say something of this magnitude, it becomes quite obvious when one looks at the facts of advertisement and the effects that are offset by showing impossible to achieve concepts of beauty.

Throughout America’s history advertisement has swayed the opinion and the culture of our modern society. Often times ads are selling a lifestyle change rather than an actual product. Unfortunately, most of this advertisement has had dangerous and negative effects on the culture and lifestyles of many American’s. Ad’s that push slimming substances or weight loss have crucially devastated women’s body images. Just as the body images of women on commercials have been made virtually impossible, violent movies and commercials have corrupted the male society; creating ideas that males are naturally violent and numb to emotion. According to www.fluidmedia.com the average person will see 247 ad images a day. That means everyone is exposed to some of

Women spend their whole lives comparing themselves to others--judging how they look compared to others, thinking to themselves If I only looked as good as her?. Women always question themselves as to whether or not they will ever truly be good enough. Advertisements cause these types of questions to be brought to light even more so than usual. Advertisements for products can be observed everywhere. They come in a variety of forms, including billboards, commercials, testimonies, broadcasts, celebrity endorsements, etc.

Advertisements are the powerful means of communications that not only promotes the products, services, goods; but alongside promoting cultural and gender symbols. Advertising has long been criticized for the insensitivity to minorities, women, immigrants, the elderly and a myriad of other groups. This insensitivity in advertising has being adversely affected the societal perception towards these groups particularly women. Too often women are portrayed as either subservient house wives who are only for looking after their husbands, children and in-laws. Their role has further derided by merely portraying them as the objects to satisfy male desires and pleasures. If we believe that advertising has the ability to shape our values and our views of the world, then it is essential that advertisers should become aware of how they portray different groups.

It has always been noticed, since the beginning of advertisements, that women have often been objectified and in some upsetting cases put down, insulted, or degraded. Over the years the advertisements better but we still see some major flaws in the way the media portrays women. We see advertisements with semi-naked women which sexually objectifies them. We perceive the idea of the “perfect women” which does not exist but gives women the mindset that they are not good enough if they do not look like the photoshopped women in the advertisement. Also, females in the media are often shown as being weaker than males which again, can cause some insecurity issues in a women. Finally, advertisements use

The industry of advertising was intended to be a means of having a product reach its targeted audience. It is supposed to entice consumers into buying a product. Advertising has become a hugely productive force. The advertising industry brings in revenue of $250 billion dollars per year in the United States alone. Advertising is unavoidable and consuming. The average American women, man, or child is exposed to over 3,000 ads a day and will spend about two years of his or her life watching television commercials. The ads are featured at bus stops, school vending machines, and even on food items. People tend to feel that they are unaffected by advertising and are simply able to “tune them out.” People are unable to avoid advertising's influence because even if one does their best to ignore advertising, it is impossible. Advertising’s impact is quick and subconscious. We are affected every day and in every aspect of our lives by the power of advertising and remain completely unaware (Killing Us Softy 4). Over the last century there has been a shift in what the purpose of advertising is and what is doing to its viewers. While advertising still sells a product to a particular group of people, more and more the way advertising agencies go about this has lead to sexism, racism, and discrimination. What is discrimination? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Advertising ideologically shapes our perceptions of beauty and strongly influences our ideas, attitudes and values within one’s culture. Advertisers achieve this powerful and direct communication through signifying practices which gives meaning to words and images (Kang, 1997). For example, the exploitation of women is most apparent in TV beer commercials, where the promise of sex and fun is the norm (Hall, Crum, 1994). For example, the Swedish Bikini Team commercial for Old Milwaukee beer. In this commercial, large-breasted blond women wearing bikinis were portrayed as fun companions brought in especially to party with very few men.. Through the exploitation of women in advertisements, this oppression leads to social problems, such the development of eating disorders by young women attempting to achieve the conditioned idea of the “ideal image” (Kang, 1997).

Large corporations will do what it takes to sell their products. Sex sells and has for a long time there for businesses exploit this while negative stereo types are associated with women. This may not seem like an issue for some however the sexism people see in advertisements find their way into the status quo. Young children even educated adults absorb the information they see in advertisements and deem what they represent appropriate and then reproduce it essentially dehumanizing women. Vintage advertisements like “mickeys” have been scrutinized for objectifying women to gain sales, as we look back at these sexist ads today we can see some of those traits in the modern-day advertisement industry. To fix this objectification of women