Why Do Advertisements Go Against

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

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

Upon a quick glance, the advertisement published in 2015 by Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa appears to be abundant in color, joyful and fairytale-like; at least when I first saw it a year ago. However, after reading about the different variations of objectification in advertisements I no longer see the ad as an innocent take on fairytales. Advertisements are meant to be geared to a public, or a specific public, in order to sell a product. Still, some ads showcase women as the product or at least a way to get people to purchase the product. Although any gender, culture, religion, or group can be victims of objectification in advertisements, women are mainly targeted.

Many people would argue that they personally feel exempt from the influences of advertising. But if this is the case, then why is the advertising industry grossing over $250 billion a year? The American living in the United States is typically exposed to over 3,00 advertisements in a single day, which means that he or she will spend two years of their lives watching television commercials. Advertisements are everywhere and we cannot avoid them. We see advertisements in schools, buildings, billboards, airplanes, bust stops, and so on. Not only are advertisements selling advertisements, but they’re selling values and beliefs, sexuality, images, and the normalcy of believing who we should be because an advertisement said so. Advertisements can create environments, but sometimes these environments can become toxic when consumers buy into its toxicity. One of the biggest toxicities of advertisements is the portrayal of women in advertisements. Though standards of beauty vary over time and by cultures, it seems as though the advertising industry is still buying into “the beauty myth.” This is notion that “the quality of beauty objectively and universally exists.” Though there have been strides to break this notion and attack how advertising has objectified women, it seems as though advertisements are objectifying women more and more. In most advertisements, we are not seeing women being depicted as who they really are, but being portrayed and objectified to be someone that they

Dominance over woman is also a huge role in violence in advertisements. The dominance over women is brutally shown in this advertising of the women in the diagramed picture. In a society in which violence against women is normalized, this ad is accepted and considered. This means that it has become a normalcy to see a women naked in an advertisement. In places where this ad is shown, millions of women and girls are raped, beaten, and trafficked

Advertisements are the most commonly used way to sell and market a product or message. Although we may not realize it while watching or seeing the advertisement, there are many underlying factors that cause us to buy into the advertisement. Whether it may be the color, picture, text, or sound; the advertisers find a way to draw us in without even a second thought. Many advertisers focus on guilt, they try to find a soft spot with in us by showing us those that are less fortunate than us. “Don’t you feel bad that you are so fortunate and these people are living like this? Give to them, help them, give up your luxuries, and share with them.” This is the

American society has changed drastically over the past years and some people say advertisements reflect the society that we live in now. Advertising in our society encourages unhealthy habits, focuses in on our weaknesses and leads us to believe that we are materialistic. Advertisements can also change our vision of reality and makes us believe the impossible. Advertisements use sexual and racial stereotypes to help sell their products. People in our society encourage the commercials that demonstrate these things, like focus in on our weaknesses.

Advertising is one of the most popular ways to promote a product. Through advertisement the creators of these products can make millions of dollars, depending on how successful their advertisements are. But are the advertisement selling a product that will help them or are they selling violence and sex? Many ads can influence people in different ways. One of these ways is to show women as objects of rape and sexual abuse. In, “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” Kilbourne talks about how many ads use women and portray them only as sexual beings. Some of these ads can influence violence against women. Kilbourne described violence in ads, “as in pornography, usually power over another, either by physical dominance.” (269). The Dolce & Gabbana

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

According to Bassham et al. (2002), a logical fallacy is “an argument that contains a mistake in reasoning” (p. 140). There are two types of logical fallacies, fallacies of relevance, and fallacies of insufficient evidence. Fallacies of relevance happen when the premises are not logically relevant to the conclusion. Fallacies of insufficient evidence occur when the premises do not provide sufficient evidence to support the conclusion. Though there are several logical fallacies, four logical fallacies commonly found in advertising are amphiboly, appeal to authority, appeal to emotion, and non sequitur.

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

Every day, companies present the people with advertisements everywhere they go. Advertisements have become very prevalent in today’s society nowadays focusing in on a negative connotation. Advertisement has become an effective way for producers to display their new products. In present day, they come in forms of billboards, flyers, e-mails, and even text messages. It is widely known that companies create advertisements to persuade people to buy specific products or goods; however, it is not widely known that advertisements can make a negative impact on today’s society. The companies manipulate people’s mind and emotions, swaying people by new promotions and therefore generating a strong desire to fit into the society, that causes them to make inessential expenditures. Advertisements pose a critical impact on the American culture.

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.

I have found most product advertising to be ridiculous and somewhat laughable. Those in advertisement have jobs that require them to sell us products and they walk a fine line to entice us to buy. Sales are the key to success and growth in any organization but should it be at the consumer's cost? The claims in the advertisements are what sells the product in the end, but many of them leave out important information and provide us with hyped and over exaggerated claims. Advertising typically hits a pain spot which pushes people to buy on impulse because they need it and want a solution to that pain. See, they do their research and know just what to say to make us feel better, want more, and make our lives much happier. The promises are never ending like the 30 day money back guarantee that is truly a paradox. After we see these products in advertisement we assume that we can make good use of them, but how many of these ‘as seen on TV’ products do you use regularly? Most products do not measure up to the claims of their advertisements.

Women like Michelle Obama or Oprah Winfrey are examples of females that change history. They are well-known strong, wealthy, female bosses. Unfortunately, advertisements dont always depict the real image of women. Advertisements are everywhere around us, there are in our everyday lives. We see them on newspapers, TVs, billboards, and even on the side of the bus. Advertisements began in the early 19th century and is used daily now. Business uses them to promote merchandise and to connect with society More specifically, women in advertisement are being misinterpreted and that creates gender roles. As the world continues to grow the perspective of women change. I strongly believe that women are represented in a negative way in advertisements because it does not show the true portrayal of women in society. We live in a society where everything is predetermined for us, and where changes are hard to accept. Media plays a huge factor in creating the social norms. People in society should recognize how advertisements are portraying females.