Representation of Female Characters in Italian Television Commercials

Giorgio Armani is an Italian fashion house that manufactures and designs haute couture. Such luxurious and high fashions are visibly seen through their advertisements such as their “Armani Code” fragrance. In the Giorgio Armani ad, audiences can see the similarity in the different fragrance ads for men and women such as the same models but in different positions. However, one could see the difference in choice of audiences by closely analyzing the visual and rhetorical appeals. Both the Giorgio Armani advertisements, “Armani Code” for men and “Armani Code” for women look very similar in retrospect due to the intimate and sexual appeal they exude. However, by analyzing visual and rhetorical appeals, one could clearly see the distinct difference in choice of audiences despite selling the same product which is the fragrance. The fragrance for women aims to sell their product to adult females in the middle and upper class. The fragrance for men however, directs their ad towards adult males in the middle and upper

Jean Kilbourne’s film, Killing Us Softly 4, depicts the way the females are shown in advertisements. She discusses how advertisement sell concepts of normalcy and what it means to be a “male” and a “female.” One of her main arguments focuses on how women aspire to achieve the physical perfection that is portrayed in advertisements but this perfection is actually artificially created through Photoshop and other editing tools. Women in advertisements are often objectified as weak, skinny, and beautiful while men are often portrayed as bigger and stronger. Advertisements utilize the setting, the position of the people in the advertisements, and the products to appeal to the unconscious aspect

Newspapers, Magazines, Television, Online… advertising is everywhere. Within the myriad of advertisements displayed in front of viewers every day, there are appeals. Society neglects and overlooks these marketing strategies that toy with their minds, resulting in skyrocketing purchases after the release of an advertisement. In “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals,” Jib Fowles identifies the appeals he believes are implemented in advertisements. These appeals include sexual innuendos, powerful images, or comforting displays which draw the audience into the desired product. After analyzing the ads within the Vogue January 2018 edition, an extremely popular fashion and lifestyle magazine, the demographics can be determined as a market with expensive taste. The graphics are extremely feminine and contain Fowles’s previously mentioned appeals, like the “need for prominence.” Although not all of the fifteen appeals apply to these advertisements, Fowles’s list is still valid and does not need revisions as the readership of Vogue magazine is just a small sample of the population. Through the appeals of each advertisement, this clear readership is developed, rather than using all of the Fowles’s appeals and not addressing the correct audience.

Sexualizaton and objectification in the advertisements we see and the media we watch has become a very strong issue in our society. With the idea that “sex sells”, consumers don’t even realize that they’re not viewing the advertisements for what they are, but for the women (or men) that are being portrayed in a very erotic way, posed with whatever product they were hired to sell. Many articles have been written so far to challenge and assess this problem, but one written by Jean Kilbourne (1999), “”Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence” holds an extensive amount of authority. Using her personal experience with the subject, as well as studies she has conducted herself on the topic of sexualization, she talks about how the amount of sexualization in advertising affects how society views the culture and products consumers buy. She also notes that because of the quantity and prevalence of these ads, the rate of all forms of sexual assault, specifically rape (mostly towards women of all age), increase, as well as other forms of assault. It is important to examine Kilbourne’s use of rhetorical devices, such as ethos, pathos, and logos, and how effective these devices make her article. This way, it can be examined for its validity and her understanding of her own research. Kilbourne’s article is very effective through her uses of pathos and ethos, but at the same time, it loses its effectiveness through her absence of a counter-argument, as well as a lack

In an advert for a female perfume by “Givenchy” a woman is shown who holds the materialistic characteristics. This is not how it really is in society. Not every woman has prominent curves, is slim and tall. This shows how advertisements do not fairly reflect society.

In order to arrive at the conclusion from the present study as intended to find out the difference in depiction of women in men’s magazines from that of the women’s magazines, a method of content analysis has been adopted. This content analysis focused on the portrayals of women’s body in advertisement in six different magazines; three Men’s Magazine (Playboy, Maxim and FHM) and three Women’s Magazine (Glamour, In Style and Cosmopolitan). The purpose of this study was to determine the portrayal of women body in the advertisements of the male magazines differ from those of the females. It was also intended toward finding that the women were portrayed in different ways for different audiences. Portrayals of women in magazines (men’s and women’s) may cultivate beliefs or expectations about physical appearance, sexuality, relationships or gender roles. Previous research by Rechert and Carpenter (2004) on this topic suggested that there has been an overall increase in sexual dress in portrayals of women and intimate contact between men and women from 1983 to 2003 in ads of different types of magazines including those for men and women. If the model in the ad was nude or almost nude, she would be considered sexually dressed. Intimate contact was contact between a male and female in an ad that was suggestive of sex or sexual acts. For the sake of the current content analysis, the focus will be on the findings of the increases in sexual dress. According to the researchers, sex in

Since the 1960s and the rebirth of the women’s movement, there have been rages against the way women are treated in advertising. Every day viewers will find themselves showered by explicit advertisements, images, slogans, songs, ads, etc., all that which have a major underlying issue within mass media: the objectification of women. Women were suggestively portrayed for the sale of all different types of products and services, from print in magazines to commercials on television. There is an extremely strong focus on women being a sexual object rather than what she is, a female human being.

The so called housewife draws her bath settles in and thinks of the many duties that she has to do for the day, she calls her husband and tells him about her wonderful bath and the amazing soap she is using just like everyone else would. This is a 1950s dove ad, an ad that sexualizes and characterizes the women as something she is not and creates a stereotype of a stay home mom and skinny women who have nothing better to do. The appearance of people in ads has changed a lot over time, in the 1950's women were degraded and sexualized throughout advertisements to be skinny. Whereas now some companies are fighting to change this vicious cycle. Although many companies still portray the same perspective as they did in the 1950's, there is now hope.

In this study Eisend, Plagemann, and Sollwedel (2014) look at both humorous and nonhumorous advertisements and the impacts they have on the different genders including

in men’s magazines. While conventional advertising practice increasingly depends upon the aphorism that “sex sells,” conventional mass communications research approaches to advertising containing sexual imagery have assumed that such images do affect audiences and such images portray inaccurate truths to audiences. This thesis, however, makes no claims about audience interpretations or media effects. Instead this thesis looks closely at the visual rhetoric of sexualized images of women used in fashion advertising in men’s magazines to ask how sexualized imagery of women functions rhetorically as part of a branding message presumably designed to sell a product.

Everyday we expose ourselves to thousands of advertisements in a wide variety of environments where ever we go; yet, we fail to realize the influence of the implications being sold to us on these advertisements, particularly about women. Advertisements don’t just sell products; they sell this notion that women are less of humans and more of objects, particularly in the sexual sense. It is important to understand that the advertising worlds’ constant sexual objectification of women has led to a change in sexual pathology in our society, by creating a culture that strives to be the unobtainable image of beauty we see on the cover of magazines. Even more specifically it is important to study the multiple influences that advertisements have

Amongst all of these advertisements, a natural link is developed between the visual representation and the product/idea being sold. In the first ad, a masculine link of control and success was created between the picture and job, targeted for both elder men and women. For man, their natural state of superiority would increase if he took this job. For the woman, her natural lower class state would move up to that of manís. The perfume ad, on the other hand, is attracting female customers only. The feminine feelings of happiness, peace, beauty and truth are linked through objects from nature, such as the sky and clouds; and these feelings are stereotypically viewed as feminine. The third ad selling a vacation trip is directed mainly toward college students. The presentation of freedom, adventure and relaxation grab studentsí attention, especially for those who really need to get away from school stress. The ad targets all sorts of students, those ìmasculineî ones who are seeking adventure and those

In this analysis, the author examines the staging of male and female subjects in visual discourse by deconstructing advertisements that involve gendered subjects, examine gender on an institutional level, and look at gender as a performance. Advertisements are the most conventional ways to portray commercial realism, something that could be real because they don’t look peculiar or weird- they look normal. The big question asked by Erving Goffman, author of the book, “Gender Advertisements” is why do these advertisements not look strange to us when in fact they really are (Jhally)?

Nowadays, sex appeal is essential element for advertising; sex is everywhere that has been becomes the media constant companion. Sexual in advertising has many types such as nudity, sexual behavior, physical attractiveness, sexual referents and sexual embeds that make sex is exist in advertising across many forms (Reichert & Lambiase, 2003). Therefore, Reichert (2007) state that sex in advertising has been defined as advertising tool for a wide variety of products that use sexuality in the form of nudity, sexual imagery, innuendo, and double entendre. Shahid as cited in Reichert (2007) said that sex in advertising really works in some products, at least for advertisers like Calvin kelvin, Dolce & Gabbana and Victoria’s Secret. They are successful through use erotic appeals to get commercial success. A message if want has opportunity to influence viewers, at least let their seen or heard, use sexual in advertising is effective approach, therefore, sex used in advertisings primarily to attract attention to the advertising (Reichert,2007;O’Barr,2011再找2个) . Sex in advertising

When one looks at an image from Calvin Klein, Victoria's Secret, or Versace, the first appeal comes from beautiful models. These individuals are normally jumping, laughing and representing every idealistic way of life by manifesting the idea of a blind promise. Unfortunately, these images are not only created with the intent of being manipulative, but also to resemble the present history involving societal roles. At the moment, Ads are able to capture the political ideologies or the social influences in order to represent the position of modern times. On the other hand, the Versace brand recently released a new campaign on Fall clothes bringing to light a different topic. At a quick glance, the Versace Advertisement depicts the everyday family of four. However, through John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, the picture represents the hegemonic portrayal of male dominance, the suppressive forces of society on women, and the influence publicity has on the surveyed. Through this lens, one can understand the social relations and expectations publicity creates for individuals.