Stereotypes In Advertising Towards Women

Both of these perspectives provide a fundamental understanding of how and why gender stereotypes are so powerful in today’s society but they fail to explain how gender stereotypes started. In order to truly understand the power that stereotypes yield, we must first examine the historical context that gave rise to their existence.

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

There are certain commercials and ads that target women and men. Makeup products and Health commercials like Maybelline, Lancôme, and weight loss commercials target women to make them feel as if they are not pretty enough or even skinny enough. There is an imaginary look that a woman should look like where models that are super tall and anorexic are the norm, so therefore they tackle women psychological because woman are concerned about being overweight or not looking beautiful. What is beautiful? What the media has proclaimed to be beautiful is the definition for women who watch these consistent commercials. Also, Commercials use Pathos for women “sentimental,” commercials that make them feel guilty whether

In all, the depictions of women through advertisements are negative and oppressing. The advertisements allow us to see hidden key points that attribute to the inequity of women in their representations in the advertisements, which ultimately shows what kind of society we still live in. Women should not be afraid to take upon challenging male dominated industries in leadership positions, solemnly because that’s what society persist on sending its message to the female population. Women should not attempt to be someone who they are not simply just to look and feel accepted by others just because they repeatedly see the medias ideal standard of beauty. Every one is unique and different. Women must challenge society’s norm and advertisements, and seek refuge in change through women

For some people its the catchy jingle that catches their attention. For others it may be the famous celebrity that appears on their screen. Some people are even drawn in by the corny catch phrases and over dramatic acting. No matter the case, companies tend to spend billions of dollars in advertising, pursuing customers to buy their “must-have” products, and spending whatever money necessary to get their messages across to those watching. Throughout the years, marketing executives have realized that they must refine their commercials and target buyers based on gender. Advertisements on television have exposed images which are stereotypical representations and somehow have been constructing cultural ideas about gender along the way.

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.

Per Ismail Aysad Güdekli (2014), “[a]dvertisements have been criticized for showing woman as a stereotype for years and as a result creating difficulty in understanding the changing role of women by society” (p. 3, para. 2). Characteristics that attribute to this stereotype include, but are not limited to, being: size zero, large chest, flawless skin, weak, clumsy, dumb, helpless, sex objects, and overall just lesser than their male counterpart. Natalie Peters, Lucie Holmgreen, and Debra Oswald (2015), stated that it advertisers frequently use stereotypes due to a lack of time and space, and that stereotypes allow for the most basic information to be transmitted to the audience. They also found that “stereotyped depictions of women in advertisements are often effective marketing strategies . . . [an example being that] advertisements portraying women with communal traits (e.g., holding an infant) were evaluated more positively than were advertisements portraying agentic women (e.g., businesswomen)” (p. 161, para. 2). To summarize the Peters et al. article, advertisers use stereotypes and humor towards the portrayal of women because it results in effective campaigns; people have continually responded to it. It results in an over-saturation of the general advertising market with images of women being shown in a poor light. This is

When watching Jean Kilbourne’s documentary titled, Killing Us Softly I learned a lot of hidden secrets about advertising and what it does to women. Kilbourne touches on many topics like, women's role in society, how they are used in ads, and how it affects women. She starts of her talk by

The role and function of advertising is a debatable one. Most would argue that since it is not intended to be a governmental aid in ensuring and creating opportunities for equality, we are unable to expect such efforts to be made within this industry. Advertisers have the job of selling, to persuade and increase consumption as to satisfy the capitalist’s pockets. The play on social injustice often associated with this particular industry makes it relevant to question it though. Male dominance in this area is evident, but are we not even to view men and women as equal in terms of being potential consumers?

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 have 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 dimensions of their research. The three dimensions are; (1) the extent to which

Throughout the history of advertising, women have often been used as a tool to sell products. Depending on who the target audience is for will change the way a woman is exploited in order to sell the product, for example in adverts mainly targeted at a heterosexual male audience, a women will be typically represented as a sexual object. And despite the changing perception of women within society following an acceptance amongst Western culture of feminism, women still continue to be used in printed advertisements as an object of desire rather than an equal human being. As Gill (2008, p.9) argues “today, the body is portrayed in advertising and many other parts of the media as the primary source of women’s capital.” Before this shifting in Westernised views, women were mainly represented as housewives, who needed to buy the advertised product in order to become the perfect, ideal housewife. I will look at three printed advertisements from various points in contemporary history and analyse their varying depiction of women using sociological theory. The three advertisements I have chosen to use are as follows:

In addition, Susan asserts that gender roles are the foundation for what the advertising agencies use to promote and push sales irrespective of considering their impact on society (Bordo, 139). Masculinity and femininity are defined and restricted by boundaries that are created from images found in the media. The images are prevalent and presented in a way so that they become the ‘norm’ of how society should be. To some extent they even create and divide society.

However, as we enter this new decade, there is an important question that needs to be answered. While the debate over whether or not advertisers portray women realistically continues, the key issue is how women feel about the portrayal of females in advertising, regardless of the action or inaction of advertisers to effect change. Do females believe that advertisers depict women in realistic multi-dimensional ways or do they believe they are shown in stereotypical roles of housewives and/or sex objects? While studies show that realistic role portrayals of women strongly influence advertising effectiveness (Leigh et al., 1987), are advertisers in Canada responding? If so, do female consumers perceive the response? This study did not address whether or not advertisers are actually responding to societal change but rather examines the attitudes of female consumers toward the portrayal of women in advertising.

In gender advertisement, images are used to portray stereotypical gender roles. In this advert I would briefly describe its and then I would do the analysis. The advertisement is for Huggies diapers a company that sell baby supplies. The purpose of the advert is to establish the role of a particular gender against the other. The advert shows a father and his child. The attention of the advert is to challenge the gender stereotypes because it shows a man who is taking care of the child. The context of the advert is to show that the father is responsible for taking care of the child which is strange because mother is usually take care of children. Most of the ads associated with childcare prefers women so it is not common to see a man taking care of a child. The whole point of the is that the company us trying to say that father is also responsible for taking care for the child not only mother.