Suit Supply Controversy

Jean Kilbourne’s 2010 documentary Killing Us Softly 4 discusses the idea that the businesses of advertising and commercialism have promoted specific body ideals for women in our modern day society by the methods in which they market towards their target audiences, specifically how women are portrayed in their ads. Throughout the documentary, Kilbourne is extremely critical of the advertising industry, accusing it of misconduct. She argues that objectification and superficial, unreal portrayal of women in these advertisements lower women’s self-esteem. Women have many industries that try to gear their products towards them with apparel, beauty, and toiletries being amongst the most prominent. The majority of advertisements put out by companies

My decision to peruse Hannah Berry’s “The Fashion Industry: Free to Be an Individual”, was due in part to my curiosity since my fiancé’ minored in Fashion prior to our meeting. I decided to write on the gender-based topic analysis, a view from a male’s perspective I suppose. During the thesis introduction paragraph, it was blatantly obvious, even in my male experiences thus far; women in our society are bombarded with images and opinions convincing them to beautify themselves for potential dates or suitors from back in the days. In retrospect, thinking of conversation recently of whalebone corsets … comfort appeared last of importance, beauty on the outside, was to behold! The aforementioned shoe companies Clarks and Sorel (which I’m familiar

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 “The Fashion Industry: Free to be an Individual” by Hannah Berry, Hannah emphasizes how social media especially advertisements pressure females to use certain product to in order to be considered beautiful. She also acknowledges the current effort of advertisement today to more realistically depicts of women. In addition, these advertisements use the modern women look to advertise products to increase women self-esteem and to encourage women to be comfortable with one’s image.

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.

Scantily dressed women are like an opened box of cupcakes on the cafeteria table; difficult to cease thinking about. Are women, in today's society, mere sex objects and tools in the hands of advertisers, or is this a gross misrepresentation in the pursuit of profit? In the article, “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”, by Jean Kilbourne, an award-winning author and educator, the idea about women being utilized to attract profits are brought to light. Advertising agencies' motives are, in essence, to successfully market and sell a product by whatever means necessary. However, of a greater concern, is the sexual violence in our culture towards women and children as highlighted by Kilbourne. In addition, she states that sexual violence is encouraged through advertisements, by making it appear as though it is an acceptable circumstance. That this phenomenon is tolerated in our culture is, indeed, a troubling thought. Nonetheless, Kilbourne leaves a distinct impression that this toleration may, sadly, be true. These advertisements, the ideas, and images portrayed have an undeniably negative impact on our culture as they serve to highlight stereotypes, dehumanize women as a sexual object or tool and, with a constant bombardment of these types of adverts, results in an indifference leading to victimization and possible violence that becomes almost commonplace.

Criticism of using sexuality in advertising has also noted that it promotes the objectification of women and them in a disrespectful environment (Boddewyn, 1991). Hence, at this point when Hilton is famous, marketers should take responsibility, as they further marketed her with an image of a ‘bimbotic’ girl (Bradely, 2007).

The reason I have chose this document is because it does show many key points in society during the time period of the short story “The Magic White Suit”, written by Ray Bradbury. This ad, produced by the Coca-Cola Company in 1958, was also made in the same year that “The Magic White Suit” was published. The advertisement displays young, content people at Bermuda, presumably on vacation, and drinking Coca-Cola. The young people are, however, noticeably wearing nice clothes. Because of this, it can be assumed that at the time, clothes that were better than average were considered attractive. This appealed to many characters in “The Magic White Suit”, as clothing was a main cause of the characters’ insecurities throughout the short story. The

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

Lauren Hutton is an American model and actress, who recently starred in Calvin Klein’s new underwear advertisement campaign. She is a 73-year-old woman who modeled the lingerie next to other actresses like Rashida Jones and Kirsten Dunst. This advertisement campaign has lit the flame for debate of ageism in the fashion industry. Ageism is “a prejudice whereby people are categorized and judged by their chronological age” (Berger, 2016, p. 503). Many media outlets went into a publishing frenzy by cranking out numerous news articles highlighting Hutton for her age rather than for her work in the campaign. The advertisement was directed by Sofia Coppola who wanted to show “there’s no age limit to being an underwear model” (Klein, 2017). She wanted

Sex is everywhere you turn. Victoria’s Secret is notorious for their ads that plaster billboards and the sides of buildings, featuring scantily-clad women suggesting an obvious sexual air. The bags you receive at Abercrombie feature half-dressed models, often two of which may be kissing or touching one another. These sexual images are far too present in the every day lives of young children, much younger than what used to be acceptable. Aside from this moral questionability, ads such as these often contain images of unrealistic body types, which exploit insecurity to make consumers use their product, the result of which can be dangerous to mental and physical health. Finally, when I see ads like the one to the right, and rack my brain

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.

An array of young models, each idealized and every one showing themselves off in a beautiful, yet sexual stance. The focus on flowing dark hair and thin bodies draped with trendy clothes that in some cases leave a lot of skin to be seen and admired. The idea of perfection personified through facial expressions of self-confidence and uncompromising appearances in each image. These are just a few ways in which Calvin Klein’s ad campaign tries to attract costumers. Attempting to convince the public that Calvin Klein clothing will look as impressive on anyone and will have people staring in envy like many do at the ads is the technique being used in this ad campaign along with many other aspects such as the setting, the outfits, and the

Perhaps the reason luxury clothing buyers advertise designer clothing logos on their bodies is because they’re trying to advertise themselves. In a study geniusly titled “The Rival Wears Prada” four evolutionary psychology researchers find reasoning behind why people, women specifically, frivolously spend their money on designer clothing. Hudders, DeBacker, Fisher, and Vyncke cite several studies about why the male species would also indulge their money into overpriced clothing solely to attract women. These studies show that men not only limit their spending to clothing, but also invest large sums of money on expensive cars, watches, and even pens attempting to signal to the opposite sex that they are

“Sex sells” is probably one of the most used catch phrases that every generation understands starting in their adolescents. With the right to freedom of information and availability of the internet access, there cannot be limits set on adolescent’s exposure to such media marketing. This becomes a challenge as every generation seems to be getting more active and savvy in their use of technology, earlier and earlier. However, the phenomenon of barely clothed men is new even to the younger generations today as it corresponded with the recent normalization of gay culture in the mass media as suggested by Parasecoli. Further, the author confirms that “the enthrallment with the body image, previously imposed mostly on women, is now becoming a common feature in identification processes” (p. 284). Seeing a man in an overtly sexual ad, even when the product that is being sold is unrelated to sex, has become a common