Taking a Look at Magazine Advertisements

In the documentary Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women by Jean Kilbourne, she talks about how women are depicted in advertisement. The average American will spend 2 years of their life just watching advertisement, and most of these people will make the claim that the ads were not effective to them. Jean Kilbourne stresses that the advertisement companies make their ads quick and cumulative so that they almost seem forgettable. However, the advertisements will still resonate in your mind unconsciously. Kilbourne argues that the objectification of women in the advertisement industry: negatively affects the mental health of women with the societal need to be perfect, encourages the eroticism of violence, and tells women they need

This furthers the divide in objectivity that human connection is less meaningful, and by part, it’s fine to use someone else as a means to pleasure instead. It is definitely unacceptable to use someone else no matter the intended purpose. This BMW advertising campaign is very problematic in the way in which it is accepted and transferred from companies to consumers so readily in our society. In all the mainstream media it is fully aware that these issues sell very well. In can be shown through other scholars’ ideas and analysis that these images in advertising work on the subconscious in a way that we understand more and can work through, fully finding the meaning in the mind. These things can be potentially very dangerous to society, showing that these idea of objectification and violence against the opposite gender is tolerable or permissible. No person should be viewed as an object or as a means to an end, and in many cases these “jokes” at this level and the advertisements are making society even more vulgar in the way that humans think and act, with the studies of Gulas and Kilbourne to reference, there is much wrong with the increase in violence against the opposite gender and objectification that leads to

Advertisements are all over the place. Whether they are on TV, radio, or in a magazine, there is no way that you can escape them. They all have their target audience who they have specifically designed the ad for. And of course they are selling their product. This is a multi billion dollar industry and the advertiser’s study all the ways that they can attract the person’s attention. One way that is used the most and is in some ways very controversial is use of sex to sell products

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.

(TS) The advertisement for Bose Headphones displaying the man and the waterfall uses humor and dramatic irony to make readers remember the ad and the headphones they are selling. (C1) Humor is portrayed in this ad in a number of different ways. (E1) This ad uses humor because the man rowing the boat is about to fall to his death down a waterfall and doesn’t even realize it. The fact that the man is so oblivious and the exaggeration of the power of the headphones is what brings up humor in the ad. (R1) The humor in this unrealistic advertisement quickly draws readers attention to make you remember it. The picture stands out and is different from other ads because of the way it uses humor, so the audience is sure to remember

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

An important controversial issue that America faces today is the debate of sex in advertising. Edward A. McCabe and John Carroll are two authors that present opposing arguments about this issue. McCabe persuades the reader into thinking that sex in advertising is no big deal, while Carroll explains why this is a major problem in America. Sex ads are defined as any type of advertising that shows pictures of partial nudity with wording that relates to the body in a sexual way, usually portraying women. Sex in advertising has been around for a long time but has the industry become too sexually explicit?

In Jean Kilbourne’s article “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence, Kilbourne first states that she believes that advertising companies dehumanize and objectify humans, (i.e. woman) through sex, power, violence, and nudity. Throughout Kilbourne’s article she specifies/elaborates her assumptions with facts, pictures, stories, and even our everyday-to-day experiences in our communities. At the beginning of Jean Kilbourne’s article, she claims that woman tend to be more dehumanized or seen as objects based on the ads that certain advertising companies share with our communities. For example, Kilbourne briefly discusses that appealing ads tend to have woman in either poses/postures that are sex related, include pornography, or

Advertisements we see it all the time, some of them we ignore and some it gets our attention. Advertisements have many different pictures from food, people, clothing, cars and they are located everywhere in order to sell their product. But what if I told you that they have hidden messages projected throw them in many ways, and that we do not see it right of way. When it comes to advertisement in magazine and commercials, men are often portray as strong and big showing the image of power, but in the other hand women for a very long time have been portray in different ways as weak or a toy for sexual advertisement. In addition Kilbourne mention in her video “Killing us softy 4” they advertise images that show violence, sexuality and health issues.

This semester I took dual enrollment English Composition I. Not only did this class give me college credit, it strengthened my writing skills as well. I was challenged to write a variety of essays that focused on different writing styles.

In 2016, the United States spent 190 billion U.S. dollars on advertisements, almost double the amount of money on advertising than the next largest ad market (Statista). These ads advertise a multitude of different products. The ads are exposed to society in many different ways, from the breaks in between songs on the radio, to the ads shown online. Ads are targeted to a specific group of people, usually, the target demographic the brand wants to buy their product. Brands will often use women’s bodies in a sexual way to get people to stop and look at their ads. Over the last few decades, speakers and activists have seen advertisements becoming more sexual and more demeaning towards women. Activist Jean Kilbourne has been analyzing ads and has been bringing awareness to this issue for years through her four documentaries. In her documentary, “Killing Us Softly 4,” Jean Kilbourne asserts women’s bodies are often dismembered, portrayed with an unattainable, “ideal” body type, and despite advances in the women’s movement, the objectification of women in ads have gotten worse. The two images below illustrate these ideas.

She seems happy to be driving, yet she is not even looking at the road. The woman is also driving alone, which was not common for a woman to be driving, let alone by themselves. It is also pointed out that the two boys are whistling at something, but she is not sure what they are whistling towards. The lady seems vibrate and ecstatic that she is able to drive this luxurious, red car. The lady, even in a cartoon, is seem to be beautiful, and that draws the attention of men wanting to buy the car; however, this could also draw the attention of a woman, because now that a woman is driving in the ad, maybe their husbands would let them drive more. Also, in the wide variety of cars it shows women driving those as well, no men are ever shown driving the cars. This ad would not have been persuasive in today’s times because it is sexualizing the woman driving, and not focusing more on the car; however, back then this ad would have made people’s heads turn whenever they saw the ad, and they would immediately look into 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

The advertisements that she studied all had the same patterns, depicting women as sexual objects who were submissive, domestic, and attractive based on male standards (2010). Even though men were sometimes depicted as sexual objects, they were never under the same scrutiny as women. Although people stated that advertisements do not affect them, that they merely tune them out, this notion is incorrect because advertisements are cumulative and subconscious; considering, 8% of the advertisement is taken up by the conscious mind (Kilbourne 2010). Thus, media images do influence the consumer, and makes them believe the gender roles reinforced through the advertisement because that is what their mind takes in subconsciously. Moreover, advertisements act as socializing agents because each gender is expected to act according to their gender role that is society constructed. As noticed in the pampers commercial, the idea behind the mother holding the newborn child reinforces the idea that women are expected to be domestic. Additionally, the same idea is present in the Disney World commercial where the women hold a status as a mother, in which her role is to be a caretaker of her daughter, while her strong husband and son bring the luggage to the hotel. Although subtle, the same message of the man being strong was shown in the Geico advertisement, where there are more men than women riding the motorcycles. However, there was gender role reversal in the Chase bank advertisement, where the man was shown as emotional and intelligent, while the women held the role of intelligent. This reveals the idea that even though there are advertisements that feed into the gender role socialization, there are some advertisements that stray away from this socially constructed notion. Overall, a majority of the

Companies use advertisements to sell their product in order to promote their business. People are unaware of the fact that they’re apparent to five hundred ads per day (McClintock 232). Never realizing how advertisements show certain images to capture the buyer’s attention. Advertisers may use models, bold print, colors and may encourage unrealistic ideas that will have consumers believing their purchases will make a difference in their life. Advertisers will focus on a certain group, ideals and trends to decide where or what will be the most effective in seizing potential buyers. Standards can be ones benevolent influences, but society’s biggest critic. As it determines values and acceptability, it initiates one to follow what is conventional,