Men's Women Research Paper

Large advertising agencies have evolved pseudo-scientific methods through experience, research and intuition that yield a demographic profile of the target audience, who are the most important predictors of purchasing behavior.

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.

For example, ladies are normally at home making meals and watch television in the morning. Ads during the daytime are usually targets for the women. And for the men, usually men watch television during the evening. Especially, when sports are televise majority of men gather and watch it like a television party. Basically. Advertisement assuming when and who will be watching during these specific times. With those specific hours depends on how will your advertisement appeals to whom is watching.

Steve Craig, in his article Men’s Men and Women’s Women especially define how different sexes in advertisement can influence a particular audience towards a product; one stereotypical method he describes is “Men’s Women” (Craig).One such ad using sex appeal, and a basic structure of “Men’s Women” to bring in customer was made by BMW in 2008 to sell their used cars. BMW, which is a world-renowned company known for its performance heavy automobiles, targets a male audience by comparing a gorgeous woman to their cars.This ad by BMW, who no doubt make amazing cars, degrade women through its message, and it enforces Steve Craig’s “Men’s women” tactic, but this ad also goes a step further and displays the ever-present patriarchy in advertisement overtly.

In this week’s lecture on culture and media, I learned to identify issues in our society that is usually overlooked. The TED talk, “Killing Us Softly,” by Jean Killbourne, taught us how advertisers began to change the public’s views as they began to overly sexualize women and objectify them in various advertisements. The difference in the way men and women were portrayed were extremely different and is now being continued into the present, while being accepted as a current norm.

Today, every media consumer is ‘’exposed to sexual imagery in advertising. Sex’s use and misuse is constantly before everyone and elicit strong criticism’’ (Richmond & Hartman p.53). As anyone can notice, the use of sex in the media has been happening for several decades and the reason for it is simply because it works. Advertisements that are ‘’naturally sexy’’ tend to be remembered more often than ads that are not. Regarding this fact, the question arising is how ethical is it to use sex appeals in advertisements. In other words, should sex be used as a tool for advertisement? Advertising draws people in and them into buying things based on how the ads make them feel. It is not always fair to assume that everyone knows what the advertisers are doing. This paper will discuss whether sex sells by defining it at first, when and where sexual appeals are used in ads, who is the primary focus in advertising, and the ethical dilemma of using appeals in advertising. But to be more concise about the subject, this paper will be firstly looking at a case study.

In Men's Men and Women's Women, Steve Craig explains how commercials and advertisements uses opposite sex to attract target audience. He indicates how there are four categories that identify these type of audience. There are men's men which are men who influence other men, men's women are women who attracts men, women's women are women who influence other women and women's men are men who attracts women. By doing so, advertiser take these methods and create ads that are designed to attract audiences emotions and

The products and ideas in advertisements are ever changing but, the techniques in which the products and ideas are presented have remained vaguely the same. Kilbourne analyzed women’s advertisements ranging from late 1900’s to 2,000’s, even though these ads promoted different products they all had the same intention, to leave an imprint on an audience. Lantry on the other hand, analyzed much older advertisements. The advertisements which Lantry analyzed were from the early to mid 1900’s. Lantry’s ads may have been older, but they still had the same concept of leaving an imprint. When comparing the ads analyzed by both authors a clear pattern appears. The strategy of making a women need a product opposed from making her want a product is evident. Advertisers make it seem like buying or adopting a certain idea will make intended audience’s life better. An article on the brief history of ad’s for Cosmopolitans 2nd birthday mentions ‘"Most ads produced are often standardised international ones. The things that stand out tend to be special inserts and gatefolds."’ This statement is from 1997 almost 20 years ago, and both Kilbourne and Lantry would agree that it perfectly describes how advertisements are still produced

The mainstream media constructs and normalizes traditional codes of gender inequality through the sexualization of women’s bodies. In an effort to sell products, advertisements reproduce dominant discourses of women’s appearances and gender inequality by displaying naked women and clothed men. This is showcased within the ad I have chosen for analysis within this paper.

On a daily basis, the average person in the United States is exposed to roughly 3,000 different advertisements that contribute to shaping our society’s ‘ideal’ image of each gender (Baker 13). These images and texts typically represent and reinforce a fabrication of gender roles, expectations, and stereotypes. Examining and understanding the different portrayals of men and women in the advertisement industry is vital because we becoming so highly influenced by these unrealistic, fantasy-type images.

Advertising is an important form of communication between products and customers. How to get viewers’ attention is first thing need to consider for advertising. Sexual appeal is become very useful tool in advertising, and it use is increasing. The sex appeal has a very long history, the first sex appeal advertising was introduced in 1911 by Woodbury’s Facial Soap (Campaign,2014). Once this advertising is released it has caused an enormous controversy, it is considered so risqué and inappropriate by several readers, even their cancelled their subscriptions to the magazine immediately (O’Barr,2011) . However, by today’s sexually liberated standards, this advertising already is positively chaste. During the next 93 years, sex is become a

Advertisement has played a pivotal role in our everyday lives in this country throughout the course of history. Women have been overly sexualized and objectified in advertisements, specifically for beauty products, around the world contributing to society’s impossible expectations. The marketing methods created by broadcasters are implemented to influence consumers into purchasing their specific product. They use ad appeals such as the need for sex and the need for attention. These methods are often extreme, but still have managed to impact the way women view themselves and the ideal concept of beauty. Cosmetic companies target their costumer’s insecurities, thereby forcing them to hold themselves to an unattainable standard. These ads mostly target straight, white men and women and fail to represent the majority of people in this country.

Consumer Culture is at the root of all social, political and economic development of western cultures for the past three hundred years. Advertisements become a key role in creating ideological messages and meanings. In a consumer culture and capitalist economy, advertisement becomes a tool used by corporations to influence the minds of the buyer. When a company produces an ad or commercial, their main objective is to get the viewers’ attention in order to sell the product. Many different methods are used to lure an audience in; tactics may include print or commercial ads, to either inform or to target individuals into consuming goods. There have been constant debates surrounding females in advertisements and the ways in which women are defined through their constructed identities. Society plays a heavy hand in constructing individuals gender roles, and in turn many of our identities. Women during the 1950s and onwards have been a byproduct in advertising campaigns, their roles were limited and became repetitive overtime.

Sex has a distinguished place in culture, it is a constant theme and continues to increase as time goes on. Not only that, but sex has made its mark as an advertising tactic. However, this is not a new proposition. Sex in advertising emerged many decades ago and continues to claim its place. This presents a critical question. Does sex as an advertising tool sell? Research shows that sexual appeals in advertising leaves a negative impression. Sex does not seem to be the optimal selling tactic. On the other hand, research has also found that sex does, in fact, sell by its stimulating and arousing effect. There are important factors to examine such as; audience, where sex is implemented, how it affects brand recall, how advertising works, it's relevancy, and how it is used. Regardless if sex sells or not, it continues to remain a highlighted concept in advertising and culture.

For thousands of years humans have used advertisements as a means to promote a product. For example, it has been found that Eygptians used Papyrus to make sale messages and posters in order to do promote sales. Since that time advertising has come a long way, with the introduction of advertising slogans and jingles cleverly designed to play on human pyschology and thereby maximise product sales. Within the last 150 years, forms of media that have been recently invented have become the most popular ways of advertising - such as radio, television and newspapers/magazines/billboards. These forms of media have been a gateway to allow subtle advanced advertising techniques to be used, although one of the most obvious techniques used bty marketers is the adage “sex sells”, a technique widely enabled via the media. This advertising technique is used freqently within the media and often displays explicit, sensual, erotic men or women, purposefully utilized to arouse interest in marketers products, some common brands that use sex to sell their products include but are not limited to; Lynx, Bendon, Carl’s Junoir USA, Moccona coffee, Dolce & Gabbana and Armani. This technique has been around since the beggining of advertising, however, it is something that has become increasingly blatant over time. Intially it started with simple things such as (often drawn) women showing a tiny bit of skin 70 years ago to now overtly sensual real