Summary: The Objectification Of Women In AXE Advertising

Jean Kilbourne is an advocate for women and is leading a movement to change the way women are viewed in advertising. She opens up the curtains to reveal the hard truth we choose to ignore or even are too obtuse to notice. Women are objectified, materialized, and over-sexualized in order to sell clothes, products, ideas and more. As a woman, I agree with the position Kilbourne presents throughout her documentary Killing Us Softly 4: The Advertising’s Image of Women (2010) and her TEDx Talk The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women (2014.) She demonstrates time and again that these advertisements are dangerous and lead to unrealistic expectations of women.

The commercial shown in figure 1 is for a perfume called ‘the one gentleman’ which Matthew Mcconaughey a well-known actor did for Dolce & Gabbana, a trade mark for designer products. The commercial tells us that this is a body spray to use when one wants to be seen as a gentleman. In reality a gentleman is not a man who just uses this body spray, but a man is seen as a gentleman by certain attributes society sees as being acceptable. Commercials like these can really have an impact because the viewer wants to look like the person with the body spray, and themselves be perceived as a gentleman. The unspoken

The commercial’s appeal to women relies not only on the attractiveness of the actor and the settings, but to the humor that is based on the idea that such a perfect man can exist at all. Conversely, not only do these commercials reach out to women, but also there are men in the target audience and there is a message for them as well. These ads present an ideal image of how a man should be and what he should smell like. By using a good looking, fit, man for this advertisement, it gives the product an image that men want. The logical fallacy, ad populum, is present in this commercial. This ad almost shouts out the ideas that if you use the product you can look, smell, and be exactly like the man you see on your television. The Old Spice man, Mustafa, does everything better than you do and will give your woman more than you can give her. You can smell like the “ultimate man”, or as the slogan used in the ads says, “Smell like a man”. The ad

The use of sexualization also reinforces a pattern of gender roles that are currently circulating throughout advertisements. More often than not, women who are used as ploys in ads are seen doing household chores like vacuuming, changing the toilet paper, or making coffee. Females are rarely ever seen in a work place, and definitely not in a powerful position. In fact, the directors of most of these ads place women below or behind the man to show who has the power in actuality. Women are seen as skinny, fragile, and immobile in high heels, while men are strong and powerful. By setting up such a strong binary between the two different groups, it is obvious that the majority of the American society will not be able to fit into these roles, and it leaves a sense of rejection for the average person. This rejection, accepted by the viewers, manifests

Advertisers use many tactics to sell their product. They can all be grouped into Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle; which include ethos, pathos, and logos. Including a sense of credibility, facts and statistics, and reaching into the buyer’s emotion are all ways advertisers produce a persuasive argument in order to get more business. One of the most popular ways to persuade is using the portrayal of sex to do so. J.J. Boddewyn, a journalist, states “ads that are indecent, sexist, sexy, exhibit violence to woman or treat them as mere objects present a constant and even growing problem in many countries (par. 1).” An advertisement that can be applied here is for Godiva chocolate. This ad contains a model showing the chocolate in her hand, along with the word ‘GODIVA’ written largely, and some smaller words around it. Digging a little deeper, it’s not just any model, but a very attractive one. She is dressed in what looks to be sleepwear, and a cardigan draping off her shoulders. Not only that, her makeup is very dark around the eyes, making them look more sultry and seductive. The Godiva campaign uses sex appeal to sell their chocolate. Pathos can be seen by the provocative woman, which would attract more male buyers. Ethos is portrayed through the text in the ad and who the model is. There is a lack of logos or facts to support the argument.

This essay is a rhetorical analysis focused on examining the consumerism involved in the advertisement created by Axe about Axe’s Natural Look Hair Gel. The focus point of this analysis is how Axe’s advertisement uses the relatable feeling of men wanting to attract women, and how their product will help them do this, mainly younger men. Rhetorical Analysis of the Advertisement for Axe’s Natural Look Hair Gel Introduction What do most guys think is the best way to get a girl to go crazy for them? They probably wouldn’t ever think the key to this is a hair gel produced and sold by Axe.

This advertisement for Mr. Cleans cleaning products is presented on a blue background on one whole page. The whole right side of the page is taken up by the dashing, clean-cut Mr. Clean himself. More towards the middle is an outline of a house with Mr. Clean’s products being used to clean up ordinary everyday messes. The most conspicuous part of this ad, however, would be the fact that every mess in the house is being cleaned up by a woman’s hand, while the product is presented by a man. Mr. Clean’s ad presents both an appeal and at the same time a stereotype towards and against women. This advertisement is suggesting that women are supposed to like muscular, hygienic men and are supposed to clean messes in their free time. The claim to a stereotype is suggested by the woman’s hand

Two women who are observing this scoff at how cockeyed the advertisement is for Old Spice Hair Gel then proceeding to sell it to the audience by saying it’s for the look boys want and then everyone is laugh screaming and the commerican ends. This advertisement doesn't appear to perpetuate to the masculine gender role that old spice is commonly known for doing. In fact this ad seems to be self aware of Old Spice’s traditional marketing strategy and seems to mock it. Then transitioning into the product and abruptly ending the commercial with the phrase, “Mom and sons agree It Practically Smells Itself” a play on the phrase “ It practically sells itself”. The woman who appear unamused at first may be Old Spice acknowledging that their advertisement aren't targeted at women and they may have a disfavor for them, but they still sell well.

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.

She is working in the office and approaching to her co-worker's office. She wants to ask her co-worker about the man who also works in her company with a lot of question such as " How hot is he? Tall? Dark? No weeding ring?." After that, she is surprised because her co-worker interrupts and tells her that the men also is in the room. Suddenly, there is a female voice who states, "sometimes you just need a stronger antiperspirant” and that it, “helps handle even heavy sweating.” I believe that the commercial portrays a women's men. The commercial represents the ideal man of the woman that is young, single and attractive. Also, this ad emphasizes the power of the women because they can control and handle stressful

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.

Hello Jill Mekalson, I also seen multiple Axe commercials like this one, but I have never seen this one. To be honest I always found this commericals amusing because for one to put on deodorant and to then be attacked by girls is preposterous. I mean I put it on once and I was never attacked by any mob of girls, which is actually probably a good thing because that just sounds violent. I also agree that the commercial that you described just kind of sounded pointless. It did not sound like it even endorsed the product, but instead just showed some weird skit. I have no problem if a company puts out and advertisement that is so weird that it becomes funny, but as long as it still contains the product. I find it pointless if they just put out

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

Jumping to conclusions based off of too few example stereotypes is called hasty generalization. Jumping to conclusions is exactly what Axe products do. The audience of Axe products are men. Everyone knows that the audience of Axe products are men because, on the back of any Axe product, there are two pictures showing that if men want to get women, then they have to wear Axe. The two pictures on the back show, one a man using Axe and then the other picture is showing a woman standing right next to the man giving the man attention. The man now gets attention because that is result of using Axe products. Axe is basically saying if men do not wear Axe, then they will not get the women. Also, on the back of the products, there are even little saying

The Tiger Beer advertisement shown in the appendix is a clear example of the objectification of women in advertising. The Tiger Beer advert was made to appeal to men from the age of 20 to 60. The advert seeks to get a cheap laugh from the target audience with the image of the woman in a sexual pose and the picture of the beer. The ad promotes the idea that beer is the most