Kilbourne's Research

In the documentary Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women by Jean Kilbourne, she talks about how women are depicted in advertisement. The average American will spend 2 years of their life just watching advertisement, and most of these people will make the claim that the ads were not effective to them. Jean Kilbourne stresses that the advertisement companies make their ads quick and cumulative so that they almost seem forgettable. However, the advertisements will still resonate in your mind unconsciously. Kilbourne argues that the objectification of women in the advertisement industry: negatively affects the mental health of women with the societal need to be perfect, encourages the eroticism of violence, and tells women they need

Advertisements are everywhere, combining images and words together to create a message to sell a product. The initial impression is that the advertisers are just trying to sell their products, but there often seems to be an underlying message. It is often heard that “sex sells.” So, many advertisers will use beautiful women and men in their advertisements to try to market a product. The hope is that “sex will sell,” and people will go out and buy what the ads are selling. There are many advertisements and commercials that use this approach. Prime examples of this are the advertisements for Orbit Gum and A Diamond is Forever. Also, the commercials for Levi jeans use sex to promote the sale of their brand. As a way to

The first advertisement I found was the “For the Benefit of Mankind”, Under Armour Ad. At first glance we see a very masculine male, with a chiseled body modeling his Under Armour briefs. But, if we take a closer look into the background we see a young, and beautiful woman loosely wrapped in a sexy gown. The setting of the advertisement looks like an expensive bachelor pad. The purpose of this picture is to advertise Under Armour’s new briefs, by making them look appealing to the directed audience. Along with the briefs, women stereotypes are also being advertised. Although the woman isn’t meant to be the main focus of the ad, she is added to show if a man wears these boxers, they can get with a beautiful woman. In the text below the picture the product’s features are being flaunted, but in the picture the only thing being flaunted is the masculinity of the man in the picture. One gender stereotype that is portrayed in this picture is that woman are physically weak. The man in the photo is very muscular and enlarged in the photo. The thin female model is posed in a delicate position in the background of the picture. This shows that she is less important, and just added to highlight the male model’s masculinity. A woman perceived as sexually active might be labeled as a slut while a

In our society today a business is not a business without an advertisement. These advertisements advertise what American’s want and desire in their lives. According to Jack Solomon in his essay, “Master’s of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising,” Jack Solomon claims: “Because ours is a highly diverse, pluralistic society, various advertisements may say different things depending on their intended audiences, but in every case they say something about America, about the status of our hopes, fears, desires, and beliefs”(Solomon). Advertisers continue to promote the American dream of what a women’s body should look like. They advertise their products in hopes for consumers to buy them, so they can look like the models pictures in the ads. Behind these ads, advertisers tend to picture flawless unrealistic woman with the help of Photoshop. In our society today to look like a model is an American dream and can be the reasons why we fantasizes and buy these products being advertised. “America’s consumer economy runs on desire, and advertising stokes the engines by transforming common objects;signs of all things that Americans covet most”(Solomon).

They try to play sexual emotions in advertisement. They show an attractive woman and a bottle of beer. They try and make it seem that if you drink their product that you can get this type woman. Also they try and use the emotions of the females talking about how a decent looking woman can become very attractive It also seems to draw onto girls that have a lower self esteem. Showing that you will become a much happier person if you are good looking and dressed very sexually, than if you are not the best of looking person.

Additionally, advertisers see women as parts. Advertisers represent women as lips, legs, breasts, butts, and as creatures that

We can make a difference to your move because as an experienced moving company, we understand all the intricacies involved with packing and transporting your large and fragile possessions. We provide a range of services to take care of your move and that's what sets us apart from other moving companies. We offer:

Using more attractive women and sexualizing them causes more attention therefore it will benefit the advertisers. Stereotype is not an odd topic when it comes to advertising. Numerous advertisements who are aiming toward a specific group of people may use a stereotype to attract their attention. To promote their product during a tennis tournament, Gatorade would choose Serena Williams as the main model in their ads. Therefore they are able attract tennis players and as well as African American

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.

Upon a quick glance, the advertisement published in 2015 by Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa appears to be abundant in color, joyful and fairytale-like; at least when I first saw it a year ago. However, after reading about the different variations of objectification in advertisements I no longer see the ad as an innocent take on fairytales. Advertisements are meant to be geared to a public, or a specific public, in order to sell a product. Still, some ads showcase women as the product or at least a way to get people to purchase the product. Although any gender, culture, religion, or group can be victims of objectification in advertisements, women are mainly targeted.

The problem with these impossible standards is that a woman is forced to lose her identity through these flawless and often-pornographic images slapped all around women's daily lives. This woman in the ad epitomizes the problem. This ad and others like it are given the job of setting the standard of beauty for women. Messages such as these can be incredibly detrimental to women of different races, ethnic backgrounds, body types and religious beliefs sometimes. Our media doesn't seem to care and

An ad that has feminism does not make me wanna buy a product. Many humans are so consumed by technology and everything they see online they need to buy but I am not like that. The purpose of Ads are so the consumers are intrigued and can relate to it. Ads are consuming so many people and sometimes to leaves people in debt or left without any money. We have had ads for so many years and decades and they always will attract us to buy certain things more than

The brunt of advertisements is directed towards clothing. Models for clothing are ridiculously skinny and can make almost every other female self conscience. Even corporate for these companies of clothing are saying that these really skinny models are too “fat”, and degrading them. Replacing absolutely pulchritudinous women for someone who is skinnier than they

A recent study on different magazines and their content showed that there were 10.5 times (teenink.com) the amount of ads targeted towards women than men. Most of the ads show "before and after" pictures of women before they lost weight and after. Many of the after pictures show the women with their husband or significant other after they've lost weight. This creates the image that girls have to be small or petite in order for boys to like them. Some of the diets these ads are promoting are very harmful to girls by telling them to "just not eat" or saying all they have to do is take one pill a day and they'll lose 10 pounds in one week. Many people will argue and say that these ads aren't just targeted towards women, if that was the case, then why do companies only show women in their ads "getting their life back" and not

One will see a white female with pouting red lips and the very petite body that resembles a thirteen-year-old girl. The extremely artificial women and the heavily photo-shopped pictures in these ad’s create a norm and make those women who look differently, feel insecure of who they are and make them feel as if they are less of a woman, for example they tend to over represent the Caucasian, blonde with bright eyes, white complexion and a petite body. This is an unattainable beauty for most women, which has caused many to develop issues such as eating disorders, depression and the very much talked about these days, anorexia.