More and more in advertising today is focused on sex. From advertisements for video games to clothing, companies use risqué or sexy advertisements to sell products. Clearly because these kinds of ads continue to be created they must be helping company's marketing efforts. Some people think that these ads negatively portray women. Jean Kilbourne is the author of the article, “Two Ways Women Can Get Hurt.” She is recognized for her efforts and analysis of the portrayal of women in advertising. Kilbourne is also known for her renowned research of alcohol and tobacco advertising. She has a great deal to say in the essay I read regarding women and how they are depicted in advertising. I feel Kilbourne interprets some of her selected ads in unfair …show more content…
It is hard to agree with many of her points though because as Hagenbuch pointed out, the ads she selected to highlight were international. I realize from traveling to Europe that the marketing landscape is much more risqué and accepting of more sexually charged ads. It is a valid point that he brings up regarding where the ads originated that she chose. He discusses his concerns about her writing and writes, “I cannot recall a single slide that served as a positive example of advertising.” I agree Hagenbuch that she had really not much positive to say about the industry. I too felt with Hagenbuch that she was trying to pin the public troubles and problems on …show more content…
Overall, while I think some ads are not what I would consider to be in “good taste”, freedom of press is an important American ideal. The solution is not to abolish ads containing sexual innuendo that is depicted in an inappropriate way. It is up to people and what they do with the presence of the seeds. People can either support these ads or not. I have mixed feelings about sexual advertisements. I am not entirely sure about the topic. However, I do not like how companies advertise in such a way that suggests the consumer only thinks using their sexual desires. I also do not think it is right to depict images of sexual acts that contain violence. In addition, I find any media that uses coercion for sexual acts should be banned. The reason being that I find the last two things immoral and the first thing I mentioned to be in poor taste because it’s insulting to the
In "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt," the author, Jean Kilbourne, talks about how women are sexualized and mistreated in the public eye by advertisements. She contends that men and women in the media are distorted as sex images and instruments: Women are portrayed as mediocre in contrast with men. For example, she states that the woman is “rewarded for her sexuality by the man’s wealth.” The media has aimed towards promoting either women or men particularly. In one advertisement, she clarifies how a tie organization publicizes ties by having ties laid in a botched up bed — as though showing that this brand of tie will help you get laid.
In her essay, Kilbourne illustrates how advertising normalizes, and sometimes encourages, behavior that is conducive to sexual violence against women and children.
Furthermore, the author attempts to explain and decode the possible motives to use such a disturbing ad by stating that perhaps the ad is simply designed to get our attention, by shocking us and arousing unconscious anxiety. Kilbourne continuous by asserting that the plausible intent is subtler and it is designed to play into the fantasies of domination and even rape that some women use in order to maintain an illusion of being in control (496
The advertisement was made to motivate women and make them feel powerful. The makers of the advertisement wanted women to see that they can do the same things that men can do. The ad was just the beginning of women’s imprint in the workplace. The same idea was used in the image of Nancy Pelosi. She because the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives after that position was filled by 60 other men previously.
By choosing her words carefully, it proves that she’s using great language and knows to not put the responsibility on all men, but on only certain men who are disrespectful and cruel towards women. Also, she clarifies that “Ads don’t directly cause violence, of course. But the violent images contribute to the state of terror.” (Kilbourne, 164) To emphasis, she’s drawing correlation instead of causation.
In her argument ¨Beauty... and the Beast of Advertising,¨ author Jean Kilbourne claims that advertising degrades females because it creates unrealistic expectations for females. Kilbourne first appeals to pathos by shocking the audience; she paints the picture of a female in an advertisement staring ¨provocatively¨ at the camera, then contrasts that with the fact that the female is ¨about five years old.¨ The fact that the advertisement would use a child in such a provocative manner would not only shock the audience, but also anger them, drawing them in and making them want to keep reading. Kilbourne again appeals to pathos by telling us that mass media ¨...tell us who we are and who we should be.¨ We are exposed to advertisement since they
Annotated Bibliography Introduction: Examine different kinds of advertisements and the problem at hand with how they perpetuate stereotypes, such as; gender, race, and religion. Thesis: The problem in society today is in the industry of social media. In efforts to attract the eye of the general population, advertising companies create billboards, commercials, flyers and other ads with stereotypes that are accepted in today’s society. Because of the nations’ cultural expectation for all different types of people, advertisement businesses follow and portray exactly what and how each specific gender, race, or religion should be.
Advertisements: Exposed When viewing advertisements, commercials, and marketing techniques in the sense of a rhetorical perspective, rhetorical strategies such as logos, pathos, and ethos heavily influence the way society decides what products they want to purchase. By using these strategies, the advertisement portrayal based on statistics, factual evidence, and emotional involvement give a sense of need and want for that product. Advertisements also make use of social norms to display various expectations among gender roles along with providing differentiation among tasks that are deemed with femininity or masculinity. Therefore, it is of the advertisers and marketing team of that product that initially have the ideas that influence
Notions such as “sex sells” are not necessary true, for the observers recognize the damaging images in which women are portrayed. Advertisements that depict possessive and violent men toward women are should not be selling. For example, “no”does not mean “convince me”, when taken otherwise may lead to sexual abuse. Despite that both genders can be objectified, it is women who are more at risk due to the already established idea that women are more vulnerable.
Can advertisements really cause violence in people’s lives? Jean Kilbourne’s “Two ways a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence” talks about how advertising and violence against women can cause women to be seen as objects. The author discusses how pornography has developed and is now part of social media, which glorifies its violence that permeates society encourages men to act towards women without respect. Kilbourne uses logical and emotional appeals as well as ethical arguments to effectively convince readers to ignore specific advertising techniques. Jean Kilbourne author has spent most of her professional life teaching and lecturing about the world of advertising.
Domestic violence and rape culture is something nobody wants to go through. Ads sexualizes it as if it was a good thing. Sexualizing domestic/rape culture is just the first example of how companies use sex to promote their product. They also make women look young and innocent which most people would correlate that as a child. Ads are now adding a sexual presents to the pictures and it ruins the meaning of innocence.
“Advertising contributes to people’s attitudes about gender, sex, and violence,” states Jean Kilbourne in her article, Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt With advertising agencies standing by the notion that “Sex Sells” it isn’t uncommon to find sex tied into a number of advertisements seen everywhere on a daily basis. “Sex in advertising is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women …” (Kilbourne, 271). The objectification of women in our society is more prevalent than many would like to believe. Women being portrayed as passive, easy, innocent, needy, submissive and dependent beings create an understanding that women are less human than men.
The answer is that first, sexual advertisement can adequately draw people’s attention even though those sexual images have little importance to their products. Advertisements are the means of popularizing the products, to promote the products advertisements have to persuade the consumer to buy the goods, sexual objectification occurs when ads use women as decorative or attention getting objects with little or no relevance to the product category . Advertisement plays upon emotions, creating a scenario that heightens the consumer’s emotional state. They build a fantasy in which the consumer’s life is better because of the product.
GENDER & ITS ROLE IN ADVERTISING Nowadays, in society, the role of male and female have changed dramatically, as opposed to the prominent roles in history. Today women are changing to break out of the mold that which our society has placed her in. This is cannot be when it comes to role representation in the different advertisements. Nowadays different organization from medium to large are spending millions of dollars on developing their marketing strategies. They spent countless hours to study their target audience to study them so that they can attract them a better way to their competitors.
Advertisement two: Calvin Klein is a dark-full colour advert, for Calvin Klein Jeans advertisement (Figure II). Nudity combined with the body position and body language make this a highly sexual ad and a solid reason for its inclusion in the study. The Calvin Klein advertisement features a woman with a nude torso positioned on top of man with a nude torso. The visual elements presented in the second ad by Calvin Klein create visual texture; the ocean/rocks surrounding the human figures creates a frame focusing the eye on the bodies in the centre. The woman’s fixated body pulling away from the male model attracts the viewer down her arm, to her waist pointed at the logo at the bottom of the page (right-hand-side).