the image of woman and man in advertisement

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The Image of Woman and Man

in Contemporary Advertisement

by Aleksandra Czoska

WSHE 2008

‘‘Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it’’, said Stephen Leacock. He probably stated an undisputable truth as we now see our world full of advertisements everywhere we are and everywhere we go. Advertising invites us into a world of appearances, constructed by verbal and visual symbols used to associate these images with specific. To do it advertisers had to ‘‘marry the product with something everyone, or almost everyone, thought of and wanted-sex’’, where in a male-dominated industry, sex was eqaul with women. When female bodies started popping up in ads ‘‘feminists cried foul’’ because of ‘‘women’s stereotyped and objectified images’’

        Modern advertising is an annual multi-billion Dollar business in United States of America. Advertising is everywhere - on television, in magazines, in cinemas, on countless web pages, on trains and even on milk-cartons. In fact, advertisements are so common in our times that we do not even realize we are looking at them anymore. They try to reach not only our mailboxes, but also our minds and in doing so, they contribute to the image we shape of women and men in our culture. The debate, whether the portrayal of woman and man in advertising is a serious or overrated issue, has been enduring for quite some time and the final answer may never be found. Is there more violence against women as a result of these images? Does the objectification of gender in advertising have an adverse affect on society? Are women being exploited? Are we just looking at peoples bodies and not their minds?

Ad strategies often switch from traditional to modern and back. For instance, during the eighties of 20th Century, advertisers have put forward ads that showed men “fussing over what dinner they should prepare for their dates”, while Marketing News of the nineties headlined: “Forget the sensitive men!” and reported that marketers have decided that the “manly man” and ads “oozing testosterone” were back. Also with respect to female role portrayals, opinions have been divided and variable. While some marketers have ditched the old gender stereotype and won’t risk offending their female customers, others subscribe that magazine covers like Cosmopolitan should be close to porn. Further, we are still seeing advertisements that continue to primarily target women as the cleaners and the caretakers. Finally, practitioner journals reiterate the need to better understand male and female attitudes in order to develop effective advertisements that “translate” across gender lines. This suggests that practitioners are still puzzling on how to portray gender roles in ads.

This study will concentrate on stereotypes associated with women and man in advertisements. It is safe to conclude that stereotypes exist and are a part of our lives. People act according to these stereotypes because they are considered socially acceptable. For example, when people think of an advertisement for a household cleaner, what comes to mind, most likely, is a woman. It is also likely that the picture in peoples minds corresponds closely to what researchers have called the “happy housewife” stereotype. This is a stereotype that has been associated with the image of women in most print and television advertisements. What is more, woman should not be only the best housewife, woman should be also slim and sexy. Movies and  shows suggest that all  are air-heads. Magazine and other advertisements push photographs of very slender and “sexy”  into the minds of children. Men’s magazines write articles on how to “dupe” a girl into sleeping with them. Haven’t we, as a society moved past the sexist ideals of the past? Judging from the way the media portrays women, it seems as if things are only getting worse.  

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Jean Kilbourne, probably the best-known advocate of raising awareness about the exploitation of women in advertising, claims that, “we are exposed to over 2000 ads a day, constituting perhaps the most powerful educational force in society.” If that number is correct, we would view as many as 730,000 ads a year. Jean claims that the image of women in ads is negatively influencing the view men have of women in our society and how women view themselves. She claims that the constant barrage of images and texts depicted in ads, suggesting the idea that ‘the thinner a woman is, the ...

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