The Effects Of Visual Aids On Children

Since the emergence of advertising in American culture one thing that has remained constant is the visible truth that men and women are portrayed differently. In consideration to the evolution of man kind gender roles have evolved immensely throughout time, although advertisements have not kept up with this process of evolution. Companies to this day use their tactics and skills to reach out to specific genders such as pretty fonts with a stylish message, while advertisements towards men portray the character as strong and intimidating. The typical viewer can easily spot the difference in the portrayal of genders. Men are portrayed this way because the viewers look up to these characters, they want to be

What is it that drives commercials towards their target audience? Commercials can be for a certain age, race, and sometimes even a certain gender. Pop culture has influenced the minority groups and shed light to women 's rights or so it was thought. Lisa Shaffer a fellow student feels otherwise and believes that Pop culture has only defended traditional values and does little to challenge those who already have power . Commercials bring in gender norms and in Steve Craig’s article, “Men’s Men and Women’s Women” he speaks on four particular TV ads directed towards a particular gender. What is interesting is it shows a false image of the opposite sex to the audience being portrayed toward their preferences. It is the image the audience wants to see that appeals to them. This is all in an attempt to sell their products and take advantage of our desires and anxieties. Craig shows commercials brings gender norms that produce the ideas of what a man’s man and a woman’s woman which is why he would agree with Shaffer because it promotes an old way of thinking.

Contemporary visual media contributes to the social construction of gender in that the way that men and women are portrayed in advertising is vastly different.

Gender stereotype is defined as specified roles in the society on the basis of gender. For example, generally women work as nurses, teachers, care takers, when men work as doctors, lawyers, construction workers. Cleaning home is like women’s job, when the work outside home, like farm work, is men’s duty. Watching this ad in the way of gender stereotype, it shows the role of the women become essential in taking care of the children than the men. So Johnson & Johnson picturizes the woman in the ad, so more and more women are attracted towards the product because the women are ideal in this duty. In the ad, the all photos includes woman which shows that woman has responsibility to look after their babies, because they are expressive, submissive, emotional, soft and sweet. Expressiveness denotes the maintenance of harmony and the internal

What is it that drives commercials towards their target audience? Commercials can be aimed toward certain age, race, along with certain gender groups. Pop culture has influenced minority groups and shed light on women 's rights or so it may seem. Lisa Shaffer a fellow student feels otherwise and believes that Pop culture has only defended traditional values and does little to challenge those who already have power . Commercials bring in gender norms and in Steve Craig’s article, “Men’s Men and Women’s Women” he speaks on four particular TV ads directed towards male and female audiences. Interestingly enough these tv ads deliver a false image of the opposite sex to the audience catering to their preferences. It is the image of what the audience wants to see that appeals to them. This is all in an attempt to sell products and take advantage of our desires and anxieties. Craig shows how commercials bring gender norms that produce the stigmas of a man’s man and a woman’s woman, which makes it apparent that he would agree with Shaffer because it promotes an old way of thinking.

To begin with, ads like American Apparel, Burger King, and Abercrombie send insulting and sexual messages to women. Women have always been expected to fill specific gender roles as the cleaning, cooking or childbearing sex machine. Back then, the ads were normal to both men and women and were socialized to tolerate and accept the female housewife stereotype. Women aren’t presented as women in

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.

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

At the end of the school day, she gets into the car with dad and he hands her a McDonald’s Happy Meal with a Cuties inside and finally the little girl smiles. As cute as the commercial is, the subliminal message of the two commercials are what concerns me. The boys are playing with cars and using intelligent math language and the little girl is worried about her pretty smile. However, the product in the two commercials are the same but the portrayals of the children in the commercials are vastly different. The commercials are examples of the types of gender-role stereotyping that occurs often in advertisement. Advertisements that push gender role stereotypes on young children should be banned from television. Television advertisement are among the leading ways children are exposed to stereotypes that causes misguided concepts and ideologies associated with sex or gender. Martin Eistend (2010) conducted a meta-analysis study which stated that, “gender stereotyping can lead to negative consequences that restrict life opportunities, particularly for

The splitting of products into two genders stemmed from fiscally conscious businesses; those who had two products to sell to different people made more money than those who sold only gender neutral clothing, razors, and drinks. In modern times, almost everything in the media and in advertisements is biased based on gender. Ads for fragrance are no longer equitable; they are for cologne and perfume separately. As the businesses made money, a latent consequence arose. Those who grew in the days of binary gender products and segregated items became socialized to fit what was advertised. Boys targeted by monster truck commercials became conditioned to believe that they could only play with monster trucks and should compete with their friend’s monster trucks. Girls became conditioned to believe that dollhouses and horses were the only toy for them. These influences from the media have affected gender socialization, relationships, and expectations throughout the life course of almost every American.

Commercials also affect the mentality of young children. In every commercial advertising toys demonstrates how cars are for boys and dolls are for girls. There are always commercials about girls playing with a toy house, cooking appliance, or a beautiful barbie doll. Additionally, there are commercials about boys playing with action figures, cars, and sports. In the article “Care Bears vs. Transformers: Gender Stereotypes in Advertisements” Dr. Monica Brasted mentions her experience at a fast food restaurant with her daughter. In her daughter’s happy meal she received a carebear, when her daughter wanted a transformer. The cashier assumed since she was a girl she would like a carebear rather than a transformer. This demonstrates how society believes there are specific toys made for each gender and only that gender can play with it. Brasted stated “Research indicates that the media, particularly advertising, has played a role in the perpetuation of gender stereotypes in our culture.” Basically, Brasted is proving the point that many commercials have shown gender roles and have influences in young kids. All these commercials in their own perspective show how it is okay for a woman and men to abide to these rules society has created.

Figure four is a unique advertisement in itself because it breaks away from one gender stereotype, but then turns right around and reinforces another. It raises many questions about the roles of men and women, like are men codependent of women? Could the world survive without them? It shows a man holding a baby while wearing a woman's blouse which promotes freedom of fashion choices. The ad also introduces a stereotype by asking “What would the world be without women?” as if to say that a man holding a baby is a shocking thing to see. This emphasizes the “Lazy male” trope that men are seen as sub-par caregivers that lack of initiative and skill when it comes to caring for a child. This is harmful to young boys that grow up in environments that encourage this kind of behavior because it puts young boys in a state of fearfulness because they begin to think that they will not be able to properly care for someone else and this inadvertently burdens women because they will be seen as natural caregivers despite any natural inclinations they may or may not

In the Early days T.V. sitcoms portrayed women as housewives and men as the breadwinners (workforce). For example, Leave it to Beaver was a T.V. show were June Cleaver( the mother) stayed at home all times and never disciplined the children. Were as Ward Cleaver (the father) was the dominant one who worked and disciplined the children. Now, the sitcoms are completely different as far as the gender roles that each parent plays. For example, who’s the Boss were Angela was a successful businesswoman and provided for the family and Tony was the housekeeper. Commercials are another way that gender roles are displayed in society. When you see a car commercial for a mechanic most of the time the mechanic is a man. But when you see a commercial about cleaning products for the house normally a woman is the face you see. In other words, the media can help break the barriers on how gender roles are portrayed in society. The more that women represent strength on T.V. will also encourage them to build their self-confidence. However, not intending that traditional ways are bad, but the era has changed by who the individual is and not by their gender.

In the marketer’s eyes, in order to attract people’s attention on what they want is to first segregate the commercial in to which type of person the product is going to be sold to, then break it down in an obvious way – showing major differences in the general public’s interests, sorting ‘the consumer’ down to a more focused group of people; as if one were looking past a continuous stream of red squares, then notice’s a blue square, he or she will notice the blue square standing out from the red squares; the blue square being the advertisement that fits to that person’s personality. For example if there was a commercial for a truck produced by a typical American organization, the advertisement shows masculinity and manliness in extensive ways, with mud, heavy weights, and other things. With a Victoria’s Secret advertisement, the milieu is very sensual and scandalous, showing light colors such as pink or white, all while having a soft, fluffy tone to it. There is no escape in gender roles and profiling when it comes to marketing; people who want to sell their product will use the most effective means necessary, no matter if it is morally sound or not . If companies were to have general broadened commercials, then summarize a product and ends up not narrowing down to specific consumer needs, then in most cases it would not interest the customer and could quite possibly render the purpose utterly useless.