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The Role Of Sexism In Advertising

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Advertisements from the early 1900s to today’s marketing propaganda have changed dramatically in terms of picture and context through the years. Some similarities still remain through the evolution of marketing merchandise, but many differences can be seen in more recent ads. The Palmolive soap company’s advertisements from the 1900s exemplify the issue of sexism that took place in that time period. The ads primarily focus on the youth and beauty of women and how it appeals to men. The advertisement creators target the insecurities of women and threaten the achievement of being loved by a man. Women are made to believe that their intelligence does not contribute to a man’s affection, but only beauty will grant a woman the gift of eternal love …show more content…

The text “A wife can blame herself if she loses love by getting “middle-aged” skin!” implies that men are only attracted to the beauty of a woman, and not on a woman’s intellectual personality (Ruppert, PowerPoint). This ad plays off the stereotypical idea that women’s role within society consisted of tending to the household and to the every need of her man. The ad exemplifies the issue that the only characteristic of a woman that holds importance is the level of her beauty. The sexiest assumptions hidden within this ad abolishes the intellectual assets that women had to contribute society with in that time …show more content…

Creators focus mainly on the appearance of the ads rather than presenting a contextual argument. Advertisement agencies have almost completely dropped phrases and text on their ads and solely rely on the quality of the picture to present their case. Coloration, symbolism, and other visual cues are emphasized in today’s ads to catch the audience’s attention. Whereas the older ads depended almost entirely on presenting their product through bombarding the endorsement with paragraphs of text. The advancement of technology brings new ways to access more eye catching coloration and a better quality of picture. Many people are more attracted to a brightly colored, provocative image rather than a page full of bland text which can be seen as a reason to completely rely on picture

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